CIA officer named prior to columnBy Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMESThe identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame was compromised twice before her name appeared in a news column that triggered a federal illegal-disclosure investigation, U.S. officials say.
Mrs. Plame's identity as an undercover CIA officer was first disclosed to Russia in the mid-1990s by a Moscow spy, said officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
In a second compromise, officials said a more recent inadvertent disclosure resulted in references to Mrs. Plame in confidential documents sent by the CIA to the U.S. Interests Section of the Swiss Embassy in Havana.
I have my copy of Pete Earley, Confessions of a Spy: The Real Story of Aldrich Ames, Berkeley, 1997. It's easy to see Ames compromising everyone he could. Such a schmuck.
And speaking of Agee, you note Michael Isikoff’s relationship with Philip Agee’s associate Mark Hosenball.
I read Philip Agee, CIA Diary: Inside the Company years and years ago--what a drama queen, then, what a traitor.
That Isikoff works for the grandson of the perennial Socialist candidate for president and has contacts with an Agee associate is certainly special.
The major trouble with the recent wilderness of mirrors is its total corruption to the political ends of such flimflams as the So-Important Wilson.
Surely Deutch replaced Woolsey with his famous boast "we're going to f--- them" and 17,000 compromised files later we have to credit his effort.
To be sure, no one in or out of government or journalism has put as much impartial effort into clarifying the facts as you continue to do.
Long may you wave.