The Law Behind the Turd Blossom Hubbub

This from The Carpetbagger Report, notably the exact law in effect here regarding Rove's actions against Plame:

The fact that right-wing critics are leaping to Karl Rove's defense is not surprising. The lengths to which they're going to make things up is.

The two myths I've seen the most often are the idea that Valerie Plame was not really an undercover CIA agent and that identifying Plame is legally permissible so long as the White House hacks didn't literally mention her name. Both of these claims are ridiculous.

First, the literal use of Plame's name during the White House leak is irrelevant. This is the law:

Whoever, as a result of having authorized access to classified information, learns the identity of a covert agent and intentionally discloses any information identifying such covert agent to any individual not authorized to receive classified information, knowing that the information disclosed so identifies such covert agent and that the United States is taking affirmative measures to conceal such covert agent's intelligence relationship to the United States, shall be fined not more than $25,000 or imprisoned not more than five years, or both. [50 USC 421(b)] (emphasis added)

Second, as Larry Johnson, a former CIA analyst and counter-terrorism official at the State Department (who's been emphasizing the seriousness of this scandal for quite a while), explained at TPM Café, Plame really was an undercover CIA agent.