Reply #18: You just described a covert agent [View All]

[TorchTheWitch]

For all we know, Plame may have been a CIA agent who secretly worked on WMD counterproliferation while pretending to work on something else.

Note the words "secretly" and "pretending" that you used. A covert agent can use their real name... depends what their cover is. Obviously, the covert work that Plame was doing didn't require her to use an alias NAME... her WORK was covert, therefore, she was a covert agent.

Look at it this way...

Let's pretend that Britney Spears works as a covert agent on some secret undertaking for the CIA, but her COVER is as an entertainer. We know her real name, we see pictures of her all over the place, we know all kinds of personal stuff about her, etc. What we DO NOT know is that she works covertly for the CIA. How she could be outed is not revealing her NAME or COVER occupation as an entertainer but her IDENTITY as a covert agent.

Here's another way to look at it...

Let's pretend that Judy Miller works as a covert agent on some secret undertaking for the CIA, but her COVER is as a journalist for the New York Times. We know her real name, we see photos of her, we know some personal stuff about her, etc. What we DO NOT know is that she works covertly for the CIA. How she could be outed is not revealing her NAME or COVER occupation as a journalist but her IDENTITY as a covert agent.

As long as Britney and Judy are only identified by their COVER identity, we'll never know whether or not they work covertly for the CIA although we know their real names and real faces... we only know what they DO by their COVER, so if either of them or both of them should happen to be covert agents working on some secret mission for the CIA, they're still safe.