The latest in la affaire de Plame

This piece puts one more nail in the coffin of the theories of those who claim Rove and Co. are guilty of “outting” a “covert” CIA agent:

WASHINGTON – The question of whether Valerie Plame’s employment by the Central Intelligence Agency was a secret is the key issue in the two-year investigation to determine if someone broke the law by leaking her CIA affiliation to the news media.

Federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald contends that Plame’s friends “had no idea she had another life.” But Plame’s secret life could be easily penetrated with the right computer sleuthing and an understanding of how the CIA’s covert employees work.

When the Chicago Tribune searched for Plame on an Internet service that sells public information about private individuals to its subscribers, it got a report of more than 7,600 words. Included was the fact that in the early 1990s her address was “AMERICAN EMBASSY ATHENS ST, APO NEW YORK NY 09255.”
A former senior American diplomat in Athens, who remembers Plame as “pleasant, very well-read, bright,” said he had been aware that Plame, who was posing as a junior consular officer, really worked for the CIA.
According to CIA veterans, U.S. intelligence officers working in American embassies under “diplomatic cover” are almost invariably known to friendly and opposition intelligence services alike.

[…]

Two years later, when Plame made a $1,000 contribution to Vice President Al Gore, she listed her employer as Brewster-Jennings & Associates, a Boston company apparently set up by the CIA to provide “commercial cover” for some of its operatives.

Brewster-Jennings was not a terribly convincing cover. According to Dun & Bradstreet, the company, created in 1994, is a “legal services office” grossing $60,000 a year and headed by a chief executive named Victor Brewster. Commercial databases accessible by the Tribune contain no indication that such a person exists.

Another sign of Brewster-Jennings’ link to the CIA came from the online resume of a Washington attorney, who until last week claimed to have been employed by Brewster-Jennings as an “engineering consultant” from 1985 to 1989 and to have served from 1989 to 1995 as a CIA “case officer,” the agency’s term for field operatives who collect information from paid informants.

On Wednesday the Tribune left a voice mail and two e-mail messages asking about the juxtaposition of the attorney’s career with Brewster-Jennings and the CIA. On Thursday, the Brewster-Jennings and CIA entries had disappeared from the online resume. The attorney never returned any of the messages left by the Tribune.

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.

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.”

[…]

Fitzgerald has told the court he does not intend to introduce evidence showing that Plame’s career, the CIA’s operations or the national security were harmed by the disclosure of her CIA affiliation.

I urge you to read the whole thing.

It doesn’t look like the pLamegate pushers are going to get their wish to see Rove and the other alleged ‘leakers’ of Plame’s name to the press are going to get to see them do the perp walk for ‘knowingly outing a covert agent.’ Because the more that comes out about her status (not to mention the lack of proof showing any malicious intent on the part of Libby, Rove, etc) the more we find out that what she did really wasn’t a secret at all. Something that bloggers like myself, AJ Strata, and most noteably Tom Maguire, have been saying (and documenting) all along.

Speaking of AJ, he’s also commenting on this story and has an excellent analysis.

SUNDAY PM UPDATE: Tom Maguire posts his thoughts on the latest speculation about Plame’s status.

4 Responses to "The latest in la affaire de Plame"

steve says:

March 12, 2006 at 7:21 am

The real nugget here is the fact that Plame was a key player in gathering intelligence on the Iranian nuclear program. She was a part of the group working on non-proliferation and the separation of military and civilian nuclear use. That did not fit into Cheney and the neo-con warmongers plans so they blew everything up by outing her. Peace
sanity says:

March 12, 2006 at 8:26 am

The real nugget is plame was never ‘outted’.

If she was then libby would have been charged, which he wasn’t.

Can’t even give you a ‘nice try’ for something that bad.
sanity says:

March 12, 2006 at 8:39 am

A former senior American diplomat in Athens, who remembers Plame as “pleasant, very well-read, bright,” said he had been aware that Plame, who was posing as a junior consular officer, really worked for the CIA.

According to CIA veterans, U.S. intelligence officers working in American embassies under “diplomatic cover” are almost invariably known to friendly and opposition intelligence services alike.

“If you were in an embassy,” said a former CIA officer who posed as a U.S. diplomat in several countries, “you could count 100 percent on the Soviets knowing.”

Plame’s true function likely would have been known to friendly intelligence agencies as well. The former senior diplomat recalled, for example, that she served as one of the “control officers” coordinating the visit of President George H.W. Bush to Greece and Turkey in July 1991.

Two years later, when Plame made a $1,000 contribution to Vice President Al Gore, she listed her employer as Brewster-Jennings & Associates, a Boston company apparently set up by the CIA to provide “commercial cover” for some of its operatives.

Brewster-Jennings was not a terribly convincing cover. According to Dun & Bradstreet, the company, created in 1994, is a “legal services office” grossing $60,000 a year and headed by a chief executive named Victor Brewster. Commercial databases accessible by the Tribune contain no indication that such a person exists.

Another sign of Brewster-Jennings’ link to the CIA came from the online resume of a Washington attorney, who until last week claimed to have been employed by Brewster-Jennings as an “engineering consultant” from 1985 to 1989 and to have served from 1989 to 1995 as a CIA “case officer,” the agency’s term for field operatives who collect information from paid informants.

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.

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.”

After Plame was transferred back to CIA headquarters in the mid-1990s, she continued to pass herself off as a private energy consultant. But the first CIA veteran noted: “You never let a true NOC go into an official facility. You don’t drive into headquarters with your car, ever.”

Link

Real covert eh?
Big Bang Hunter says:

March 12, 2006 at 3:26 pm

“Fitzgerald has told the court he does not intend to introduce evidence showing that Plame’s career, the CIA’s operations or the national security were harmed by the disclosure of her CIA affiliation.”

– Because he desn’t have any. In fact at some point he realized this was just another BDS “get Bush” Liberal scheme to go along with the other 22 they’ve tried to run on the American public, using the Liberal press to front these phoney aligations and scams. I’m still wondering if Fitzy didn’t intentionally float the almost impossible to prove charges against Libby, just to have a chance to get Wilson in court under oath. I imagine he was just a little p-o’d when he figured it out.

– It appears her government job performance was lack-luster also, so both of them look like they had a bone to pick, and ginned up this act from whole clouth.

– Its going to be v-e-r-y interesting to watch how this all plays out. Wilsons lawyers are no doubt frantically trying to find some loop hole so they can keep their client off the witness stand. I love it when the Dummycrats get hoisted on their own petards…..

– Bang

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