What the hell is a "non-official covert agent?"
Is it somebody who is PLAYING covert?
Or maybe it's someone who hasn't as yet received their "Secret Decoder Ring."
Light cover. Many of the CIA's analysts and scientists fall under this category. Their families and friends might know who they really work for, but publicly, they claim to be employed by some other innocuous government agency or group. One former intelligence officer described this as "the cover you use if your airplane gets hijacked": It's safe enough to use on a quick visit overseas, say to meet with intelligence counterparts in a friendly country, but insufficient cover for spies stationed abroad.
Official cover. Most CIA employees engaged in operations overseas are given official cover: a sham job in the U.S. embassy (or working for another government agency) that affords them diplomatic immunity. These spies work under varying degrees of secrecy—the CIA station chief in a major ally nation may be well-known on the diplomatic cocktail circuit, but his subordinates, who actually recruit new informants, may not be. Such spies probably confide in their immediate families, but otherwise are unlikely to reveal their true occupation. (Although some operatives working in allied nations are "declared" officers, which means the CIA informs the host government that they are spies.) The advantage of official cover is that if officers are caught, they enjoy the benefits of diplomatic protection; at worst, they'd be publicly outed and sent home in disgrace.
Nonofficial cover. NOCs (the word rhymes with "rocks") are the most covert CIA operatives. They typically work abroad without diplomatic protection (often they pretend to work for some commercial enterprise). If these spies are caught, there's no guarantee that the United States would admit their true identities. When using official cover could put a spy's life and work at risk, NOC is the only alternative.
I think that was what john kerry was in Cambodia...
Tom Cruise played one in Mission Impossible.
That piece of crap, Wilson, was on my local radio yesterday with Mitch (liberal apologist) Albom. He spewed such venom and lies and didn't miss an opportunity to use every dem talking point about Bush lied, blah, blah. Also, the new line as we see is that Valerie Plame was really known as Valerie Wilson so as to give lie to the fact that Roe didn't name her specifically. He sounded as if he were reading from a script (of course, he was). Mitch Albom, the local liberal twinkie was of course the perfect venue for him to say all he wished without any real follow up. Sickening, I tell you.