[blogblogginaway]

References to her being 'classified' in transcript......

- Valerie Wilson was a CIA officer. In July 2003, the fact that Valerie Wilson was a CIA officer was classified. Not only was it classified, but it was not widely known outside the intelligence community.

- I will confirm that her association with the CIA was classified at that time through July 2003. And all I'll say is that, look, we have not made any allegation that Mr. Libby knowingly, intentionally outed a covert agent.


- QUESTION: The indictment describes Lewis Libby giving classified information concerning the identify of a CIA agent to some individuals who were not eligible to receive that information. Can you explain why that does not, in and of itself, constitute a crime?

FITZGERALD: That's a good question. And I think, knowing that he gave the information to someone who was outside the government, not entitled to receive it, and knowing that the information was classified, is not enough.

FITZGERALD: You need to know at the time that he transmitted the information, he appreciated that it was classified information, that he knew it or acted, in certain statutes, with recklessness.



- And all I'll say is that if national defense information which is involved because her affiliation with the CIA, whether or not she was covert, was classified

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_102805/content/patrick_fitzgerald_press_conference_transcript.guest.html

[LS]

This bothered me too when I read it, because I have held a "classified" status (i.e., secret). But this is being used in a different way here, I think: her "covert" status was "classified" meaning the very fact of her "covert" position was a secret, or supposedly was a secret. The term "covert" refers to whether she acts "undercover" while the term "classified" CAN refer to her actions WHILE undercover or to the mere fact that she IS a "covert agent."

So I don't think this is the discrepancy that many claim.