He asked me not to use her name, saying she probably never again will be given a foreign assignment but that exposure of her name might cause "difficulties" if she travels abroad.
He never suggested to me that Wilson's wife or anybody else would be endangered. If he had, I would not have used her name.
I used it in the sixth paragraph of my column because it looked like the missing explanation of an otherwise incredible choice by the CIA for its mission"
His knowledge of the law. Except in extremely specific circumstances (so extreme that nobody has ever been prosecuted for the offense), it's not illegal for a reporter to name even a classified CIA operative, much less a paper pusher. Any blame goes squarely on the government leaker. And nobody's ever even been prosecuted for that, either.