PlameGate: NYSun Unaware of the Meaning of “Secret”

The Department of State’s July 9, 2003 continues to be discussed in the PlameGate matter. The latest is from the New York Sun article entitled “No Hint Seen in Memo that Plame’s Role Was Secret”:

Contrary to published reports, a State Department memorandum at the center of the investigation into the leak of the name of a CIA operative, Valerie Plame, appears to offer no particular indication that Ms. Plame’s role at the agency was classified or covert. The memo, drafted by the then head of the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research and addressed to the then secretary of state, Colin Powell, was carried aboard Air Force One as President Bush departed for Africa in July 2003.

The fact that this memo was on board Air Force One shortly before Robert Novak revealed to the world that Valerie Plame was a CIA operative is the intriguing sentence here. As far as the title and the first sentence of the NY Sun’s piece – notice that the top and the bottom of each page of the July 9, 2003 memo was stamped “Secret”.