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Trajan Octavian Titus said:A former CIA covert agent who supervised Mrs. Plame early in her career yesterday took issue with her identification as an "undercover agent," saying that she worked for more than five years at the agency's headquarters in Langley and that most of her neighbors and friends knew that she was a CIA employee.
"She made no bones about the fact that she was an agency employee and her husband was a diplomat," Fred Rustmann, a covert agent from 1966 to 1990, told The Washington Times.
"Her neighbors knew this, her friends knew this, his friends knew this. A lot of blame could be put on to central cover staff and the agency because they weren't minding the store here. ... The agency never changed her cover status."
Mr. Rustmann, who spent 20 of his 24 years in the agency under "nonofficial cover" -- also known as a NOC, the same status as the wife of Mr. Wilson -- also said that she worked under extremely light cover.
In addition, Mrs. Plame hadn't been out as an NOC since 1997, when she returned from her last assignment, married Mr. Wilson and had twins, USA Today reported yesterday.
The distinction matters because a law that forbids disclosing the name of undercover CIA operatives applies to agents that had been on overseas assignment "within the last five years."
"She was home for such a long time, she went to work every day at Langley, she was in an analytical type job, she was married to a high-profile diplomat with two kids," Mr. Rustmann said. "Most people who knew Valerie and her husband, I think, would have thought that she was an overt CIA employee."
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20050715-121257-9887r.htm
I give as much credibility to the Washington Times as I do to Star magazine. LOL Trajan, you clearly do not have your facts straight. I agree that she was most likely not a "covert" agent; however, as stated by Fitzgerald, her status at the CIA was "classified." Did you hear his press conference? He pointed out that her working at the CIA was classified and that her employment status there was not known by her friends and neighbors.
Mr. Rustmann said. "Most people who knew Valerie and her husband, I think, would have thought that she was an overt CIA employee."
Notice how Rustmann is projecting how others would think. And he can't even be definite. "I think" and "people...would have thought." Oh puleeze. What does that tell you? One of the things that Wilson pointed out, and it is very true, as I experience this almost every day, is that it's easy to keep your job secret because most people don't ask you questions--all they want to do is talk about themselves.