FROM THE HORSE'S MOUTH

Who's lying? Republican lying spinmasters or a CIA operative who knows Valerie Plame very well? You know the answer.

By Larry Johnson - TPM Cafe

"Valerie Plame was a classmate of mine from the day she started with the CIA. I entered on duty at the CIA in September 1985. All of my classmates were undercover--in other words, we told our family and friends that we were working for other overt U.S. Government agencies. We had official cover. That means we had a black passport--i.e., a diplomatic passport. If we were caught overseas engaged in espionage activity the black passport was a get out of jail free card.

A few of my classmates, and Valerie was one of these, became a non-official cover officer. That meant she agreed to operate overseas without the protection of a diplomatic passport. If caught in that status she would have been executed.


The lies by people like Victoria Toensing, Representative Peter King, and P. J. O'Rourke insist that Valerie was nothing, just a desk jockey. Yet, until Robert Novak betrayed her she was still undercover and the company that was her front was still a secret to the world. When Novak outed Valerie he also compromised her company and every individual overseas who had been in contact with that company and with her".

Karl Rove committed an act of treason when he not only outed Valerie Plame but he blew the cover for her overseas contacts as well. Contacts that were helping the U.S. in finding WMD's. If some of you want to defend that type of behavior just so you can defend the Republicans-go ahead. It doesn't surprise me one bit and it's exactly the type of person I've known you to be all along anyway.