[dead]

This whole thing is so stupid.

She was an ambassador's wife. Anybody with something to hide would hide it from an ambassador's wife every bit as thoroughly as they would hide it from a known spy.

The fact that she was never a spy in the first place just adds to the silliness of this brouhaha.

[lugsoul]

Check your facts. She was a spook. The CIA admits this much.

I'm not taking up for Wilson. It's just that I've seen about 50 FReepers claim that she was a mere analyst, based apparently on Novak's unsourced assertion, and Novak's claim is contradicted by the CIA.

As for your other claim, I would think it is very likely that an "ambassador's wife" could learn a great deal of things from foreign "ambassador's wives." It's not a bad cover - gives her reason to be there, access to contacts, diplomatic privileges, etc.

[pepsionice]

This is really the fascinating part of the story...almost every ambassador has his wife deputized as a undercover agent...and she gets a check to help boost the poor ambassadors salary. Not of these guys get paid that much and the reports that the wives usually turn in...are juicy gossip provided from these stupid coffee and tee parties that they hold. Its awful stupid to classify anything that they pick up as actual classified information, and someone ought to ask more questions about that than about this whole who told who thing.