From the New York Sun:

Contrary to published reports, a State Department memorandum at the center of the investigation into the leak of the name of a CIA operative, Valerie Plame, appears to offer no particular indication that Ms. Plame’s role at the agency was classified or covert.

The memo, drafted by the then head of the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research and addressed to the then secretary of state, Colin Powell, was carried aboard Air Force One as President Bush departed for Africa in July 2003. A declassified version of the document was obtained by The New York Sun on Saturday.

Another manufactured scandal disappears before Democrats’ eyes.

hat tip: AtlasShrugs

1. State Memo Did Not Indicate Plame’s Role Was Secret

   The State Department memo seen by most as the smoking gun in the Valerie Plame leak investigation contained no hint that she was a covert operative, Josh Gerstein reports.
   Contrary to published reports, a State Department memorandum at the center of th…

   Trackback by Outside The Beltway | OTB — 8:42 am
   

2. If Valery Plame was a CIA agent, and she worked in a foreign country, then she was classified and covert. It’s that simple. Somebody broke the law, that’s for sure. Never mind the administration used the yellow cake info inappropriatly of course. So did the president “reclassify” the info “on the fly”? Slimy is what they are.

   Comment by John Sinton — 9:20 am
   

3. “If Valery Plame was a CIA agent, and she worked in a foreign country, then she was classified and covert.”

   Do you always choose to ignore the facts and substitute your own?

   Washington Times: A former CIA covert agent who supervised Mrs. Plame early in her career yesterday took issue with her identification as an “undercover agent,” saying that she worked for more than five years at the agency’s headquarters in Langley and that most of her neighbors and friends knew that she was a CIA employee.

   Hint, Langley is in Virginia and covert agents don’t go in and out of CIA headquarters on a daily basis. It would kind of defeat the purpose of being covert, now wouldn’t it?

   Comment by Texas Rainmaker — 9:26 am
   

4. By all accounts that I have read and heard, Valerie Plame was no longer considered a “covert agent” at the time she was identified as being CIA. Even the attorney who drafted the bill protecting the identity of covert agents agreed that Ms. Plame was no longer covert. But none of that is relevent because it’s all Bush’s fault!

   Comment by Old Soldier — 10:58 am
   

5. Yes, indeed. It doesn’t matter anyway. What really mattered in this case is how the President went before congress and told how Saddam wanted the yellowcake for weapons, using this info as a pretext to war, when it had already been debunked as bad intel. Then they disclose Plame’s name in an apparent attempt at retribution when Clark breaks his side of the story. Maybe you have some more interesting theories, Texas Rainmaker?

   Comment by John Sinton — 2:14 pm
   

6. “Then they disclose Plame’s name in an apparent attempt at retribution when Clark breaks his side of the story”

   Actually Plame’s name came up because of a memo SHE wrote recommending her husband for the trip to Niger - a fact Joe Wilson lied about to smear the administration. That’s a finding of a bipartisan Senate committee, not a theory of mine.

   “What really mattered in this case is how the President went before congress and told how Saddam wanted the yellowcake for weapons, using this info as a pretext to war, when it had already been debunked as bad intel”

   Then why did Joe Wilson, himself - in 1994 - in his book say:

   “It was Saddam Hussein’s information minister, Mohammed Saeed Sahhaf, often referred to in the Western press as “Baghdad Bob,” who approached an official of the African nation of Niger in 1999 to discuss trade — an overture the official saw as a possible effort to buy uranium.”

   Again, those are Joe Wilson’s own claims - a year after his op-ed calling Bush a liar - not my own “theories”.

   Got any more bogus claims, Mr. Sinton?

   Comment by Texas Rainmaker — 3:02 pm
   

7. The point is NOT the fact if Plame was an operative at the time or not. The point is that her identity was revealed as a DIRECT response to her husband, Joe Wilson, reporting to the U.S government that Saddam DID NOT buy yellow cake uranium from NIGER. This was PAY BACK for Joe speaking out against George and his buddies on the hill.

   FUCK YOU ALL,
   NoodLe’s

   Comment by ron — 9:04 pm
   

8. You are correct her identity was revealed as a direct response to her husband, but not for the reason you cite (”payback”). It was to prove that he was lying when he said he was sent to Niger by the VP’s office, as opposed to the truth… that his wife, Valerie Plame, wrote a memo recommending him.

   But thanks for playing.

   Comment by Texas Rainmaker — 10:37 am
   

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