dxAce wrote in message ...

Heck, I heard some time ago that everyone knew she worked for the CIA, so it
certainly wasn't a secret.

As I recall.


Incorrectly.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp...nguage=printer


The Spy Next Door
Valerie Wilson, Ideal Mom, Was Also the Ideal Cover
By Richard Leiby and Dana Priest
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, October 8, 2003; Page A01


One evening this summer, former diplomat Joseph Wilson sat amid the
African-themed decor of his spacious Washington home, sipping a glass
of beer and talking about a trip he took to Niger for the CIA. His
wife, Valerie, was in the kitchen, preparing chicken for a cookout and
arranging red, white and blue napkins.
.....

When Valerie E. Wilson -- maiden name Plame -- introduced herself to a
reporter in her home on July 3, there was no hint she was anything
other than a busy mother with an unflagging smile and classy wardrobe.
She talked a bit about the joys and challenges of twins, then faded
into the background.

One might have thought her to be a financial manager, maybe a real
estate agent -- but never a spy. Few knew her secret: At 22, Plame had
joined the Central Intelligence Agency and traveled the world on
undercover missions.
.....

For the past several years, she has served as an operations officer
working as a weapons proliferation analyst. She told neighbors,
friends and even some of her CIA colleagues that she was an "energy
consultant." She lived behind a facade even after she returned from
abroad. It included a Boston front company named Brewster-Jennings &
Associates, which she listed as her employer on a 1999 form in Federal
Election Commission records for her $1,000 contribution to Al Gore's
presidential primary campaign.

Administration officials confirmed that Brewster-Jennings was a front.
The disclosure of its existence, which came about because it was
listed in the FEC records, magnifies the potential damage related to
the leak of Valerie Wilson's identity: It may give anyone who dealt
with the firm clues to her CIA work. In addition, anyone who ever had
contact with the company, and any foreign person who ever met with
Valerie Plame, innocently or not, might now be suspected of working
with the agency.
.....


A really stupendous - and deadly - blunder on the part of the
administration.