As former CIA director James Woolsey points out, the 1982 law that makes it a federal crime to disclose the identify of an undercover CIA agent was carefully written to target witting perpetrators. Congress had in mind actors such as ex-CIA agent turned left-wing critic Philip Agee who, for political reasons, wrote a book “outing” many of his former colleagues, leading to considerable and justifiable concern about their safety. The law “was quite narrowly drafted,” notes Woolsey, and much will depend on “whether there was criminal intent” by the leaker. If the leaker did not know that Wilson’s wife was undercover at the time of the conversation with Novak, that alone may get him or her off the hook. (It is worth noting in this regard that Wilson’s wife was not identified as an “undercover” agent for the CIA until a July 22 Newsday story that called attention to the harm that might have been done by Novak’s column identifying Plame. The story quoted “intelligence officials” as confirming Plame’s undercover status.)