But the practice of exposing covert intelligence agents, which became something of a cottage industry in the 1970's, certainly led to enactment of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act in 1982.
People in that second group can be punished only if they engage in a "pattern of activities intended to identify and expose covert agents" knowing "that such activities would impair or impede the foreign intelligence activities of the United States".
Colonel Sabow's death, which was officially ruled a suicide, is the subject of numerous dark theories about military cover-ups, claiming that he was murdered because he was about to expose covert military operations in Central America involving drug smuggling.
He had also been drafting a report expected to expose covert Russian military involvement in the conflict.
His blatant manipulations exposed the covert inducements of commercially sponsored television.
When it was pointed out that Novak had possibly broken the law by naming Plame in his column — that he had exposed a covert American agent — the Administration, perhaps hoping to quiet the self-righteous storm that immediately broke out, called for an official investigation.
However, the downing of a U-2 over the Soviet Union in 1960 and the capture of its pilot exposed the covert flights, and represented one of the bigger setbacks of the Eisenhower administration, helping to derail the president's initiative for détente with Moscow.
"Equally sacred, however, are the lives of the poor, those already born, the destitute, the abandoned and the underprivileged, the vulnerable infirm and elderly exposed to covert euthanasia, the victims of human trafficking, new forms of slavery, and every form of rejection".
"Democracy Now!" correspondent Jeremy Scahill has been exposing US covert warmaking for years, most recently in his book and film "Dirty Wars".
But he had to battle almost the entire CIA, which was suspicious of his motives (was he trying to expose the covert program that created him?) and did everything it could to thwart him.
