Ms. Plame's identification as a CIA employee was not a crime because she was not a covert agent -- a readily ascertainable fact that should have concluded Special Counsel Fitzgerald's investigation almost as soon as it got underway. The law at issue here is the 1982 Intelligence Identities Protection Act (IIPA), which makes it a federal crime, in certain circumstances, to reveal the identity of a covert agent. The law was not designed to shield the CIA or its employees from all public scrutiny or criticism, since it criminalizes only those disclosures which "clearly represent a conscious and pernicious effort...