What is the difference between a covert, a spy, or undercover?

There is so much talk from attorney Victoria Toensing and reporter Robert Novak about whether Valerie Plame Wilson is a covert. Ms. Wilson told her side of her employment in the CIA at Waxman's hearings last month. Ms. Wilson revealed that she is covert. Others are debating that issue. Here is what Valerie Wilson's employment at the CIA:

Valerie Plame Wilson, a former CIA officer who held non-official cover (NOC) status prior to the public disclosure of her CIA identity. What is a non-official cover? Non-official cover (NOC) is a term used in espionage (particularly by the CIA) for agents or operatives who assume covert roles in organizations without ties to the government for which they work. Other times as agents, entire front companies can be established in order to provide false identities for agents. Brewster Jennings & Associates, used by the CIA in WMD investigations and made public as a result of the Plame Affair. That was one of the companies in which Ms. Wilson used as her cover.

And what is espionage or spying? Espionage is the systematic use of spies to get military or political secrets and undercover work, spying is the act of keeping a secret watch for intelligence purposes.

At lot of the media spin about Ms. Wilson and her employment at the CIA is a bit confusing for the public. The bottom line is that according to Ms. Wilson, Ms. Wilson was covert prior to her name being leaked. This means that her identity was confidential, not known to the public, and classified information.

Another former CIA officer that comes to mind is ex-CIA officer, Robert Baer. Baer was a case officer for the Directorate of Operations for the Central Intelligence Agency from 1976 to 1997. He worked out of the Middle East. He spent 21 years in the CIA as what’s called a case officer. That means that he went overseas and served overseas almost all the years he spent with the CIA, meeting with what he called 'agents'. Those were foreigners who spied for the CIA. And his job was to write up their reports and send them back to Washington. So, he was a field officer, in short.

What is a case officer? Case officer is an operative who also serves as an official staffer of an intelligence service.

In a NPR interview on March 7, 2007, Baer shares his thoughts of the Libby trial and conviction:

Former CIA officer, Bob Baer, takes away a very different message from the Libby trial. Baer spent 21 years as a covert operative in the Middle East. He worries that the lack of indictments for administration officials beyond Libby leaves the door open for more leaks in future.

"You know, we used to talk in the CIA — 'Can we protect our sources, can we protect our identities?' And the answer is no," Baer says. "Because exposing Valerie Plame was so widespread across the administration, and no one's been charged for exposing her identity."

Baer says he thinks that the takeaway message of what's come to be known as "Plamegate" is this: "If you're sitting in Baghdad or Kabul or anywhere else, you can be exposed by someone else in the government. And there's no consequences."