Awww… How cute!!!

Oh wow. Super-top-secret-my-life-is-in-danger-because-Karl-Rove-outted-me Super agent Valerie Plame is really doing wonders to shield her identity.

Nice publicity photo for the husband. Really nice.

Now tell me… Why would you allow that picture out into the world if you thought your life was in danger?

Why would you let your real name be attached to it if you thought your life was in danger?

If you truly believed the outing of your name and face would be deadly to people you formerly worked with, wouldn’t you do a better job of laying low?

Thanks to RKB to pointing me to Wikipedia so I could read about what a bastard Karl Rove is. Without him, I never would’ve found this super secret undercover top confidence classified file photo from the CIA that’s only been shown on a site that’s seen by millions of people a day.

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  • pam

    She went to great lengths to hide her identity when they did the VF photo shoot. Great question Vinny.

  • http://heartofthematter.typepad.com Treehugger

    Well, Vinny,

    I won’t pretend to know all that has transpired in this little nasty violation of your national security. Which it seems to be. Whoever did it, (cough) it sets a very nasty precedent. Wouldn’t you agree?

    But as for the posted photo, and please correct me if I am off on this, but a woman posing with her husband in a picture, if no-one knows that said woman is a CIA agent seems perdy darn harmless no? It is not like she is posing with a sign on her head saying, “I am a CIA agent” – how dare you outed me?. How the hell would anyone make the distinction?

  • pam

    Treehugger, where is the CIA claiming she was covert at the time? Also, it sets a bad precedent for a covert agent to be photgraphed in publicity shots.

  • http://www.insignificantthoughts.com Vinny

    Or to give away their covert status while groping in a bedroom.

    TH: The problem is that the genie was out of the bottle, but nobody knew what Valerie Plame looked like until she appeared in Vanity Fair, and now in a publicity photo. Her name was out there, but her face wasn’t.

    Taking a publicity photo with her husband was probably not a smart move for someone who claims the knowledge of their position or identity could mean the death of associates.

  • http://heartofthematter.typepad.com Treehugger

    OK, fair enough.

    I know there is plenty of rehtoric on both sides here Vinny. Enough talking points to make one dizzy.

    As a outsider, my impression is that this issue has been around for about one year; she was outed quite some time ago. Her identity has not been a secret for many months whether or not her picture was published. At the very least the outing of her name ruined her career and that violated your law at the time. Does that not concern you at all?

    She has no work now and is on a book tour with her hubby. I have a hard time reconciling that that is somehow worse than the person who broke the law and revealed her identity to settle a political score, as you seem to be suggesting with this post.

    The logic is really really fuzzy on this one.

  • http://www.insignificantthoughts.com Vinny

    Why do we assume someone outed her to suit a political agenda?

    That’s the part that’s driving me up a wall. No one seems to have a problem believing it was Karl Rove in the conservatory with the rope. But suggest that the proven liar, Joe Wilson, may actually be blowing this whole thing out of proportion (and, as I stated in an earlier post may have actually been behind the leak himself, thus Judith Miller’s silence on the issue even though Karl Rove okayed the release of what little he gave away) and suddenly it’s believable and probable.

    If the issue is one of credibility, I’d say the proven liar, Wilson, is not one to be believed.

    Now as for Plame, she obviously didn’t value her undercover status much because she gave it away while fooling around after four dates. She also has her face plastered in a public magazine and on a public website.

    Yes the pictures are relatively recent. HOWEVER so was her “outing” which came six years after she left Europe and was taken out of the foreign field.

    We’re never gonna know who leaked the name until someone goes to jail. The truth of the matter is that Wilson’s rhetoric is not to be believed if his history is taken into account any more than Rove, no matter how much people would like to believe he’s a bastard and that automatically makes him capable of such a thing.

  • Patrick

    Uhhhh.

    That photo was taken AFTER her identity was revealed. You’d realize this if you’d taken the time to do the prerequisite work and read the title of the book they are promoting.

  • http://www.insignificantthoughts.com Vinny

    Don’t be a dick Patrick. I know it was taken afterward.

    But if she was worried about her identity causing harm to others, why would it be taken at all?

    She took publicity photos with her husband and did a magazine spread after her name was outed. Until she started popping up all over the place mugging for cameras, I didn’t know what she looked like.

    Did you?

    That’s my point.

    If her outing was truly a danger to others, the responsible thing to do would have been to lay low and stay out of the public eye. Instead she came screaming out of the closet focusing all attention on herself.

  • pam

    She went to great lengths to hide her identity when they did the VF photo shoot. Great question Vinny.

  • http://heartofthematter.typepad.com/ Treehugger

    Well, Vinny,

    I won’t pretend to know all that has transpired in this little nasty violation of your national security. Which it seems to be. Whoever did it, (cough) it sets a very nasty precedent. Wouldn’t you agree?

    But as for the posted photo, and please correct me if I am off on this, but a woman posing with her husband in a picture, if no-one knows that said woman is a CIA agent seems perdy darn harmless no? It is not like she is posing with a sign on her head saying, “I am a CIA agent” – how dare you outed me?. How the hell would anyone make the distinction?

  • pam

    Treehugger, where is the CIA claiming she was covert at the time? Also, it sets a bad precedent for a covert agent to be photgraphed in publicity shots.

  • http://www.insignificantthoughts.com/ Vinny

    Or to give away their covert status while groping in a bedroom.

    TH: The problem is that the genie was out of the bottle, but nobody knew what Valerie Plame looked like until she appeared in Vanity Fair, and now in a publicity photo. Her name was out there, but her face wasn’t.

    Taking a publicity photo with her husband was probably not a smart move for someone who claims the knowledge of their position or identity could mean the death of associates.

  • http://heartofthematter.typepad.com/ Treehugger

    OK, fair enough.

    I know there is plenty of rehtoric on both sides here Vinny. Enough talking points to make one dizzy.

    As a outsider, my impression is that this issue has been around for about one year; she was outed quite some time ago. Her identity has not been a secret for many months whether or not her picture was published. At the very least the outing of her name ruined her career and that violated your law at the time. Does that not concern you at all?

    She has no work now and is on a book tour with her hubby. I have a hard time reconciling that that is somehow worse than the person who broke the law and revealed her identity to settle a political score, as you seem to be suggesting with this post.

    The logic is really really fuzzy on this one.

  • http://www.insignificantthoughts.com/ Vinny

    Why do we assume someone outed her to suit a political agenda?

    That’s the part that’s driving me up a wall. No one seems to have a problem believing it was Karl Rove in the conservatory with the rope. But suggest that the proven liar, Joe Wilson, may actually be blowing this whole thing out of proportion (and, as I stated in an earlier post may have actually been behind the leak himself, thus Judith Miller’s silence on the issue even though Karl Rove okayed the release of what little he gave away) and suddenly it’s believable and probable.

    If the issue is one of credibility, I’d say the proven liar, Wilson, is not one to be believed.

    Now as for Plame, she obviously didn’t value her undercover status much because she gave it away while fooling around after four dates. She also has her face plastered in a public magazine and on a public website.

    Yes the pictures are relatively recent. HOWEVER so was her “outing” which came six years after she left Europe and was taken out of the foreign field.

    We’re never gonna know who leaked the name until someone goes to jail. The truth of the matter is that Wilson’s rhetoric is not to be believed if his history is taken into account any more than Rove, no matter how much people would like to believe he’s a bastard and that automatically makes him capable of such a thing.

  • Patrick

    Uhhhh.

    That photo was taken AFTER her identity was revealed. You’d realize this if you’d taken the time to do the prerequisite work and read the title of the book they are promoting.

  • http://www.insignificantthoughts.com/ Vinny

    Don’t be a dick Patrick. I know it was taken afterward.

    But if she was worried about her identity causing harm to others, why would it be taken at all?

    She took publicity photos with her husband and did a magazine spread after her name was outed. Until she started popping up all over the place mugging for cameras, I didn’t know what she looked like.

    Did you?

    That’s my point.

    If her outing was truly a danger to others, the responsible thing to do would have been to lay low and stay out of the public eye. Instead she came screaming out of the closet focusing all attention on herself.