Let me tell ya a lil story 'bout a girl name-a Val
Super-duper top secret undercover gal
'Til somebody gave her secret all away
So now they're packin' up the Jag to head to Santa Fe
(New Mexico, that is)
Well the next thing ya know ol' Val's a millionaire
Her and hubby Joe on the front of Van'ty Fair
Tom Cruise's ex gonna play her on the screen
So now she's a part of the Hollywood scene
(Bright lights, movie stars, Al Gore)
Grab a hankey, folks. The super-dee-duper-top-secret operative (and double-top-secret agent) Valerie Plame is leaving DC with hubby Joe "Well, at least we'll make a couple bucks off the movie" Wilson and heading to New Mexico. **Sniff, sniff** I think I'm getting a bit misty-eyed. These poor, poor people. Having to leave the bright lights of DC for the bright lights of Hollywood. (Yeah, they're moving to Santa Fe. That don't mean they're gonna be holed up there for very long.)
So, was Ms. Plame/Wilson a "super-secret" agent? That depends on who you ask. She claims that she had what's called "non-official cover" (NOC). But, according to an article in the Chicago Tribune, many in the CIA who knew Ms. Plame/Wilson, this claim is rather suspicious:
After Plame left her diplomatic post and joined Brewster-Jennings, she became what is known in CIA parlance as an "NOC," shorthand for an intelligence officer working under "non-official cover." But several CIA veterans questioned how someone with an embassy background could have successfully passed herself off as a private-sector consultant with no government connections.Also, in an article in the Washington Times, Bob Novak was not the first to discuss Ms. Plame/Wilson's occupation:
Genuine NOCs, a CIA veteran said, "never use an official address. If she had [a diplomatic] address, her whole cover's completely phony. I used to run NOCs. I was in an embassy. I'd go out and meet them, clandestine meetings. I'd pay them cash to run assets or take trips. I'd give them a big bundle of cash. But they could never use an embassy address, ever."
Another CIA veteran with 20 years of service agreed that "the key is the [embassy] address. That is completely unacceptable for an NOC. She wasn't an NOC, period."
Mrs. Plame's identity as an undercover CIA officer was first disclosed to Russia in the mid-1990s by a Moscow spy, said officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.Question: If Ms. Plame/Wilson was truly doing some undercover work that was so damaging to the governments she was spying on, shouldn't she be fearing for her life, and disappearing, and going underground, instead of parading herself around the town?
In a second compromise, officials said a more recent inadvertent disclosure resulted in references to Mrs. Plame in confidential documents sent by the CIA to the U.S. Interests Section of the Swiss Embassy in Havana.
