"What we're not sure of is whether or not a)Rove actually leaked Plame's name, or something else and b)whether or not Plame was actually undercover at the time, or had been undercover within the five years before the leak, either of which would make releasing her name illegal."
Please give us the rest of the requirements in the 1972 law that make an improper revealing of a covert agent's name illegal. No one at this point really believes any law was broken wrt to Plame, not even the Washington Compost or the NY Slimes.
But look at the chronology of this....
Wilson writes a story slaming Bush and lying about his trip.
Then in a way to get info a reporter asks Rove about his thoughts and Rove basically de-bunks Wilson.
Wilson is then proven a liar by the Senate and the press is now zeroing in on who leaked Wilson's wife's name? This just does not add up
There are a few other elements to 50 USC 421.
Section (a) or (b) (either one alone) recites the necessary elements. The amicus brief filed by the media in this case argues that disclosing Plame's name does not clearly satisfy these elements, mostly because the US did not "take affirmative measures to conceal such covert relationship," but also for other reasons.
§ 421. Protection of identities of certain United States undercover intelligence officers, agents, informants, and sources
Release date: 2005-03-17(a) Disclosure of information by persons having or having had access to classified information that identifies covert agent Whoever, having or having had authorized access to classified information that identifies a covert agent, intentionally discloses any information identifying such covert agent to any individual not authorized to receive classified information, knowing that the information disclosed so identifies such covert agent and that the United States is taking affirmative measures to conceal such covert agent's intelligence relationship to the United States, shall be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.
(b) Disclosure of information by persons who learn identity of covert agents as result of having access to classified information Whoever, as a result of having authorized access to classified information, learns the identify of a covert agent and intentionally discloses any information identifying such covert agent to any individual not authorized to receive classified information, knowing that the information disclosed so identifies such covert agent and that the United States is taking affirmative measures to conceal such covert agent's intelligence relationship to the United States, shall be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.
(c) Disclosure of information by persons in course of pattern of activities intended to identify and expose covert agents Whoever, in the course of a pattern of activities intended to identify and expose covert agents and with reason to believe that such activities would impair or impede the foreign intelligence activities of the United States, discloses any information that identifies an individual as a covert agent to any individual not authorized to receive classified information, knowing that the information disclosed so identifies such individual and that the United States is taking affirmative measures to conceal such individual's classified intelligence relationship to the United States, shall be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.
Where did you get that information? If the reference is to the two sources cited by Novak, one was "in the Bush administration", the other was "in the CIA".
Novak made no reference to the White House and has subsequently denied that Rove was one of his sources ("it's not who they think it is").