The following notice was sent to all White House employees:
PLEASE READ: Important Message From Counsel's Office
We were informed last evening by the Department of Justice that it has opened an investigation into possible unauthorized disclosures concerning the identity of an undercover CIA employee
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The Department advised us that it will be sending a letter today instructing us to preserve all materials that might be relevant to its investigation. Its letter will provide more specific instructions on the materials in which it is interested, and we will communicate those instructions directly to you. In the meantime, you must preserve all materials that might in any way be related to the Department's investigation. Any questions concerning this request should be directed to Associate Counsels Ted Ullyot or Raul Yanes in the Counsel to the President's office. The President has directed full cooperation with this investigation.
Alberto R. Gonzales
Counsel to the President
Marshall thinks that proves the Pflame is a "covert" operative. How does that square with info about her floating around the cocktail party circuit? I think it's likely that Wilson's wife was at one time a covert operative, but is now a analyst/consultant. Technically, the law does not apply. That's why the CIA wasn't very forceful when it told Novak "it wouldn't be a good idea" to publish.
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.
Result: No law was broken, period! End of story!