Target AND Source

The red button was made for guests of Novak's 2003 party celebrating the 40th anniversary of his syndicated column. It says "I'm a source, not a target." Somebody had them made as gimmes to play off a favorite saying of Novak's: "There are only two kinds of people: Targets or sources." I'm sure they thought it funny as hell at the time. Now they're wondering: "Who invited the damn photographer?"

And, now, Thursday's WaPo has what anybody with opposable thumbs knew already: Washington Post

Plame's Identity Marked As Secret
July 21, 2005; A01

A classified State Department memorandum central to a federal leak investigation contained information about CIA officer Valerie Plame in a paragraph marked "(S)" for secret, a clear indication that any Bush administration official who read it should have been aware the information was classified, according to current and former government officials.

Plame -- who is referred to by her married name, Valerie Wilson, in the memo -- is mentioned in the second paragraph of the three-page document, which was written on June 10, 2003, by an analyst in the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), according to a source who described the memo to The Washington Post.

The paragraph identifying her as the wife of former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV was clearly marked to show that it contained classified material at the "secret" level, two sources said. The CIA classifies as "secret" the names of officers whose identities are covert, according to former senior agency officials.

Anyone reading that paragraph should have been aware that it contained secret information, though that designation was not specifically attached to Plame's name and did not describe her status as covert, the sources said. It is a federal crime, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, for a federal official to knowingly disclose the identity of a covert CIA official if the person knows the government is trying to keep it secret.

Prosecutors attempting to determine whether senior government officials knowingly leaked Plame's identity as a covert CIA operative to the media are investigating whether White House officials gained access to information about her from the memo, according to two sources familiar with the investigation.

The memo may be important to answering three central questions in the Plame case: Who in the Bush administration knew about Plame's CIA role? Did they know the agency was trying to protect her identity? And, who leaked it to the media?

Almost all of the memo is devoted to describing why State Department intelligence experts did not believe claims that Saddam Hussein had in the recent past sought to purchase uranium from Niger. Only two sentences in the seven-sentence paragraph mention Wilson's wife.

The memo was delivered to Secretary of State Colin L. Powell on July 7, 2003, as he headed to Africa for a trip with President Bush aboard Air Force One. Plame was unmasked in a syndicated column by Robert D. Novak seven days later....

Wikipedia

Levels of Classification used by the U.S. Government

The United States Government classifies information according to the degree which the unauthorized disclosure would damage national security:

* Top secret – this is the highest security level, and is defined as information which would cause "exceptionally grave damage" to national security if disclosed to the public. Despite public mystique, relatively little information is classified at "Top Secret" (when compared to the other levels of classification). Only that which is exceptionally sensitive (weapon design, presidential security information, nuclear-related projects, various intelligence information) is classified at the Top Secret level.

Valerie Plame Wilson was a NOC (Non-official Cover) operative working on WMD and non-proliferation issues under the guise of being an Energy and Gas Specialist in the Middle East and Africa--this is now common knowledge thanks to this fiasco.

[What exactly is a NOC? Read some Tom Clancy or Len Deighton for US and UK spins on them with some decent fact plowed in. You can go here for some intel veterans talking inside baseball. Or, rent Mission Impossible#1, Spy Game or The Recruit for Hollywoodish treatments of NOCs, NOC lists and NOC reindeer games.]

Back to wikipedia....

* Secret – the second highest classification. Information is classified secret when its release would cause "serious damage" to national security. By far, most information that is "classified" is held at the secret sensitivity.

* Confidential – is the lowest classification level. It is defined as information which would "damage" national security if disclosed.

* Unclassified – not technically a "classification", this is the default, and refers to information which can be released to individuals without a clearance. Information that is unclassified is sometimes "restricted" in its dissemination, although such restrictions are generally meaningless.

Yeah, I'd rush a "nice guy" unknown into a Supreme Court nomination to keep media poodles confused and distracted from the wreckage, too.