Remember all those right-wingers that insisted that Valerie Plame was not undercover and that she was just some glorified desk jockey and that ‘everyone’ knew she was in the CIA? Well…then…how do explain the fact that the CIA won’t let her publish her book?
A CIA panel has told former officer Valerie Plame she can’t write about her undercover work for the agency, a position that may threaten a lucrative book project with her publisher.
CIA employees and veterans always have to submit writings for pre-approval. That’s a precaution that prevents the inadvertent disclosure of classified information. But Plame is a special case precisely because she was a NOC (non-official cover spy).
The panel [CIA Publications Review Board] refused Plame permission to even mention that she worked for the CIA because she served as a “nonofficial cover” officer (or NOC) posing as a private businesswoman, according to an adviser to Plame, who asked not to be identified discussing a sensitive issue. “She believes this will effectively gut the book,” said the adviser. Larry Johnson, a former colleague, said the agency’s action seems punitive, given that other ex-CIA undercover officers have published books. But even Plame’s friends acknowledge that few NOCs have done so.
Forget the fact, for a moment, that the administration is once again using the cloak of national security to muzzle one of its critics. The important thing is that the CIA thinks her work was so sensitive that they won’t let her admit she worked for the CIA. And this is after they filed a complaint on her behalf with the Justice Department after her identity was outed.
So, remember, Clifford May and Bob Novak and all of Cheney, Rove, Armitage, and Libby’s defenders are full of crap. Plame was no desk jockey.
