[mattdono]

Marshall thinks that proves the Pflame is a "covert" operative

It does? How? All this says is, "don't stonewall and cooperate".

I agree with your comments about the application of this law...it only applies if she was a covert operative. There is no way that the CIA would have even acknowledge her existence if she was a covert or undercover agent. I don't even think that they would acknowledge it if she was, at one time, an undercover agent.

The tacit admission that she worked for the CIA is quite telling as to the status of her employment. The known social circles are just an additional reason to (rightly) believe that she was nothing more than an analyst.

Ockham's Razor: "Pluralitas non est ponenda sine neccesitate". Translation, "entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily". In other words, the idea that the simplest or most obvious explanation of several competing ones is the one that should be preferred until it is proven wrong.

• She is a CIA ANALYST, not an undercover agent.
• She parades around the Washington D.C. cocktail circuit and is known to be an ANALYST with the CIA.
• Mr. Wilson, when pressed, calls his wife an ANALYST with the CIA.

Determination: She is an ANALYST with the CIA.

Result: No law was broken, period! End of story!

[altayann]

You're forgetting something. The CIA knows *exactly* what Plame's work status is. Which means that they know exactly whether or not any laws have in fact been broken.

Since that's the case, one has to wonder why they've asked for an investigation if Plame is nothing more than an analyst. If no laws have been broken, why waste the DOJ's time?

And if there's nothing to the case, why has the DOJ turned it over to the FBI for investigation? Why is the DOJ wasting the FBI's time, if there's nothing to the case?