ms. plame was very confident, very discreet covert officer. her name should not have been exposed like that. so there was no question but that was something we had to report to the department of justice. that said, in the range of lea leaks, and later on perhaps i can get into sort of rough numerical game about the number of leaks currently as opposed to 10 or 15 years ago, but the truth is in the scale of things, that was not, that leak was not terribly damaging to national security but it was very damaging to ms. plame's career, which was unfortunate, and deserved on her part. but the fact was, although leaks of classified information that i became aware of, that was way down on the scale. in terms of seriousness. the other thing, the other criterion or the other characteristic it had, which typically does not make for a fruitful the investigation is that many people inside the government necessarily knew that ms. plame worked for the agency. so those are the two main linchpins of how serious a leak and whether -- you can prosecute. that cas