'CIA leak' hearing: "Miss Wilson's CIA employment status was covert."

USA TODAY

The question of whether Plame was a "covert" agent when her identity was revealed in 2003 has been greatly debated. The issue is important because leaking the name of a "covert" agent violates a specific law designed to protect such operatives.

Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., just said he has been told by the CIA, in a statement authorized by CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden, that "Miss Wilson's CIA employment status was covert." (Plame is married to former U.S. diplomat and Bush administration critic Joseph Wilson. She does go by the name Valerie Wilson, but is most often referred to in the media as Valerie Plame, her maiden name, because that is how she first came to be known when her name was leaked.)