Valerie Plame: People Are Suffering Because My Identity Was Leaked

Posted by Scarecrow at 5:36 AM on October 19, 2007.

This post, written by Scarecrow, originally appeared on FireDogLake

One of the unsolved mysteries about the Bush Administration's outing of Valerie Plame's covert identity was what happened to the covert operation(s) and all the people Valerie might have worked with while under cover. Were they endangered? How much damage was done to US intelligence assets and capabilities?

Former agents like Larry Johnson described the potential damage early on, but little is publically known beyond that. Two years ago, the WaPo reported that the CIA initially delayed any damage assessment, and whatever assessment eventually occurred, its findings would naturally be classified; they were not provided in the Libby prosecution.

We may never know the answers, but we get a reminder of why this question is still important in an interview Plame gives to CBS' Katie Couric for an upcoming segment of 60 Minutes. CBS posted this teaser:

Plame Wilson's 20 years at the CIA put her in touch with many individuals with whom she linked up secretly while pursuing intelligence on her mission to keep rogue nations from obtaining nuclear weapons. Did she ever hear if any of these individuals suffered because of the leak of her identity? "Yes I have. That's all I can say," she tells Couric, who then asks if it was bad news. "I have heard -- I have had some news," she replies.

Asked to assess the damage to these individuals, Plame replies, "It would be serious."

Plame says the morning her identity was made public in the column of conservative newspaper columnist Robert Novak, the world's intelligence services went to work.

"I can tell you all the intelligence services in the world that morning were running my name through their databases to see, did anyone by this name come in the country? When? Do we know anything about it? Where did she stay? Who did she see?" she tells Couric. "(The leak is) very serious. It puts in danger, if not shuts down, the operations that I had worked on."

Every once in a while, we need to remember that the Administration that keeps intimidating the country into giving up its liberties, because the Administration thinks it needs to spy on us to protect our security, has a shameful record of undermining national security, including exposing our foreign intelligence assets and then shielding those responsible from accountability. Having trashed and misrepresented our intelligence services in multiple ways, and paid no attention to them when it really mattered, they have no standing to challenge anyone on national security grounds. None.

There will be heads exploding all over the right wing, and the smearing of Valerie Plame will start all over; because as Digby always says, "that's what they do," even to 12-year old kids.

Valerie Plame's book, Fair Game: My Life As a Spy, My Betrayal By the White House, comes out on Monday.

Video: Reuters/Valerie Plame’s testimony before Congress.

Tagged as: cia, bush administration, plame, novak

Scarecrow is a regular blogger for FireDogLake