[Bernard]

Tim is insisting that Plame was undercover and that her friends and neighbors did not know where she worked. Novak point out that she was exposed by Aldrich Ames.

Not being a Washington insider, I don't know how employment at CIA headquarters works. But, it occurs to me that either everybody who pulls into the CIA employee parking lot every day is done as a secret agent, or certain people like Valerie Plame must have some kind of Maxwell Smart secret entrance a mile away from the front door.

And that seems to be the problem with government; after the Soviet Union folded, the CIA had a surplus of secret agents who look like Russians, or at least could blend into a Russian area.

Instead of retiring the surplus, we kept them on the payroll; how much value does a blonde caucasian woman have as a secret agent in the Middle East?

[OldFriend]

Are you suggesting that Plame should have been fired because Aldrich Ames revealed her identity?

[samantha]

#376, very funny her Husband has the same doofus expressions and hang dog look as Maxwell (agent 86) Smart. She could be a spy in Germany,France, or countries that have a large Muslim Population that have converted some Caucasians to their beliefs.

[Phsstpok]

it occurs to me that either everybody who pulls into the CIA employee parking lot every day is done as a secret agent, or certain people like Valerie Plame must have some kind of Maxwell Smart secret entrance a mile away from the front door.

My wife's uncle was CIA, a senior "crippy" who had served overseas in various embassies until Philip Agee published his name, along with several hundred others, and he was permanenetly barred from duty overseas.  From then he served in Langley until he took an early retirement, then went back doing the same job as an EDS contracter (they call it "double dipping").  He finally retired when the agency decided to switch over communications to Lotus Notes.  He refused to learn yet another new system <g>

While he was an agency employee he had to have a cover job, even after his ID had been "blown" by Agee.  His cover was that he was not a crippy for the CIA.  No, he was a crippy for the Pentagon.  Brilliant! 

 

He actually had an "office" at the Pentagon (it was really a broom closet).  He once had to lead some visiting friends past the Pentagon "on his way to work" to keep his cover intact, then explain to the Pentagon guard why he was pulling into the parking lot but really didn't want to stay.  Langley was the other direction from his home, but he had to maintain his oh so convincing and useful cover.