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Conservative columnist [[Max Boot]] calls Joseph Wilson a "liar," and claims that Plame's status was not "covert" at the time of her outing in the Novak column because she had been working in Virginia for more than five years.[http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-boot2nov02,0,6326316.column?coll=la-news-comment-opinions] Larry Johnson clears up the confusion surrounding Plame's status in a column responding to Max Boot: "The law actually requires that a covered person 'served' overseas in the last five years. Served does not mean lived. In the case of Valerie Wilson, energy consultant for Brewster-Jennings, she traveled overseas in 2003, 2002, and 2001, as part of her cover job. She met with folks who worked in the nuclear industry, cultivated sources, and managed spies. She was a national security asset until exposed by Karl Rove and Scooter Libby."[http://noquarter.typepad.com/my_weblog/2005/11/is_max_boot_usi.html]
The USA Today stated on July 14, 2005 that Mrs. Plame hadn't been outoutside the United States as an NOC or Non-Official Cover since 1997, when she returned from her last assignment, and married Joe Wilson and had her twins. [http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20050715-121257-9887r.htm] ▼Fred Rustmann, a covert CIA agent from 1966 to 1990 disagrees with Larry C. Johnson's remarks. Mr. Rustmann was a supervisor of Valerie Plame during her early career at the CIA. He stated that "She made no bones about the fact that she was an agency employee and her husband was a diplomat," 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."[http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20050715-121257-9887r.htm]
Mr. Rustmann spent 20 of his 24 years under "nonofficial cover" aka NOC, which was the same status as Valerie Plame, also stated that she worked under extremly light cover.
▲The USA Today stated on July 14, 2005 that Mrs. Plame hadn't been out as an NOC since 1997, when she returned from her last assignment, and married Joe Wilson and had her twins. [http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20050715-121257-9887r.htm]
Reuel Marc Gerecht, a former CIA case officer, wrote about the damage caused by outing Valerie Plame.
"The revealing of Valerie Plame's true employer has in all probability hurt no one overseas. You can rest assured that if her (most recent) outing had actually hurt an agent from her past, we would've heard about it through a CIA leak."
"Langley's systemic sloppiness--the flimsiness of cover is but the tip of the iceberg of incompetence--has repeatedly destroyed agent networks and provoked "flaps" with some of our closest allies. A serious CIA would never have allowed Mr. Wilson to go on such an odd, short "fact finding" mission. It never would have allowed Ms. Plame potentially to expose herself by recommending such an overt mission for her mate, not known for his subtlety and discretion. With a CIA where cover really mattered, Mr. Libby would not now be indicted. But that's not what we have in the real world."[http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110007522]
On November 8, 2005, Wayne Simmons, a 27 year veteran of the CIA appeared on FOX News Radio and said "As most people now know, [Plame] was traipsed all over Washington many years ago by Joe Wilson and introduced at embassies and other parties as 'my CIA wife.'" [http://newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/11/9/115114.shtml]
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