You're making up stuff again. CIA Chiefs of Station work under official cover. They are openly known to be U.S. government employees. They are publicly identified as a diplomatic official working at the local embassy, usually with some harmless-sounding title like Cultural Attache. (Though in some very friendly countries they may be openly identified.) There is nothing noteworthy about American diplomatic officials visiting American facilities, including air bases.
There is so much disinformation in this thread about Plame, so much unthinking recitation of the BushCo talking points. You guys are Goebbels' wet dream, so easy to manipulate.
Yes, Armitage accidentally disclosed Plame's identity. He was one of only three known leakers, however. The other two were Libby and Rove. Focusing solely on Armitage's role is disingenuous.
Yes, Armitage learned of Plame's identity in a memo. That's where you guys conveniently fail to connect the dots. In your Armitage quote above -- you even helpfully bolded it -- Armitage states, "I have never seen [ a covert operative ] named" in a memo before, not in his 43 years of having a security clearance. In other words, disclosing Plame's identity in this memo was unprecedented. Why?
The inconvenient answer is the Bush administration was actively working to discredit Joe Wilson, and were willing to expose a covert agent to do so. That was the point of the memo, discrediting Wilson. While Armitage's disclosure was an accident, Plame's outing in that memo was not. Nor were the disclosures by Libby and Rove, to other reporters who had greater integrity than Novak. (The CIA tried to get Novak to drop any reference to Wilson's wife, but he refused.)
No, there is no question about whether Plame was legally covert. Both the special prosecutor, Fitzgerald, and the CIA confirmed that her status was classified, and that intentionally disclosing her identity was illegal. Blowing smoke about her desk job, and "everyone knew", and all the other talking points used by BushCo in no way changes this fact. Though she was not then working covertly overseas, she had done so recently enough that her status was still classified.
There is one more huge difference between the Plame outing and the current story. A CIA station chief works openly as a government employee, at an embassy, with diplomatic protection. Plame worked as a NOC, a non-official cover, not as a known government employee. She was known as an employee of the private sector company called Brewster Jennings (IIRC). Exposing Plame didn't just expose her. It also exposed all of her contacts, and every other covert agent using Brewster Jennings as cover. Outing Plame was a malicious act with major consequences.
Finally, here's a quick rebuttal for some of the other BushCo talking points being parroted. Plame did not send Wilson to Niger. She didn't have that authority, nor was she in that role. Also, the CIA was investigating this claim specifically because Cheney asked them to do so. This is what Wilson claimed, not the fabricated "Cheney sent me" talking point floated again in this thread. The whole "sipping tea" talking point came straight from BushCo (i.e., Rove) as part of their smear against Wilson. It's complete crap, something obvious to all but the most loyal RNC hacks.
Re. this story, yes, it's a big screw-up for the Obama administration, no question about it. That Fox and its ilk are spinning it as excusing the Bush administration's malfeasance is shameful.
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