Hi, Howlin. I think it's been pretty well established that Ms. Plame-Wilson had ceased being a covert operative in 1997. There was no crime committed in "outing" her. Either this prosecutor is completely misusing the relevant statute, or something else is going on in that Grand Jury. Unfortunately, I have zero faith in special prosecutors, so I would not be shocked if this one does something totally weird simply to justify the work he's been doing the last couple of years.
Technically, her cover was "compromised" by Aldrich Ames. She was brought back and they dealt with her cover being compromised at that time in regards to any overseas operations.
She remained an undercover or covert employee. That status isn't determined by your job or where you are or what you're doing. You just are or aren't, according to what the agency designates you.
That she was compromised by Ames or she ceased doing covert work overseas does not necessarily mean she was no longer an undercover employee. But it's significant because it nullifies the histrionics of those who know better when they go on and on about the danger this put on employees, operations and foreign sources. Having already been compromised by Ames, she would not have been part of any operations that would need to be protected by the statute.
She was still undercover, but that was simply her status as an employee. She could have spent the next 20 years as an undercover employee never doing so much as writing a letter under a pseudonym.
I've been trying to read through all of the other threads linked to this one--I don't know if I've missed it somewhere, but do we know if Wilson has any connections to the McGovern group before Plame started working with Alan Foley?
If not, I think that explains a lot of his changing opinions. He spent his career on African issues, suddenly he lists a specific interest in Palestinian issues? And starts working for the Saudis?
This all started to get Cheney, not Rove. They'll take Rove as the consolation prize. Cheney and his neocons are the specific target of the McGovern group because they are very pro-Palestinian.
One of the basic questions is why Wilson was sent on the Niger trip to begin with. I honestly suspect that it began legitimately as a fact-finding mission. I don't think the plot was hatched at that time. That's why he came back and in his debriefing talked about the attempts and his report supported what was said in the SOTU.
From there, it could be either that the plot was hatched with the McGovern group, or that Wilson's own ego led him to become very vocal to his McGovern friends about his trip and how that's not what he found, blah, blah, blah. And the McGovern group prodded him to start speaking out and making waves, which is what they had begun to do as well on their own. Originally I thought more the former theory, but as Wilson's ego has been revealed I'm leaning more toward the latter. I think he became friendly with that circle through his wife and caught up in the PR campaign against Cheney that they had began via anonymous sourcing to reporters. I think they were using him and I think he also burned them--they definitely seem to have distanced themselves from him since then.
That's the theory that makes the most sense to me right now, but the other ideas at the end of this thread are pretty interesting, too, so I definitely want to look into those some more.