David Corn has an excellent analysis:
By disclosing Valerie Wilson's relationship to the CIA, Rove was passing classified information to a reporter.A senior administration official during a time of war leaked classified information that jeopardized an undercover agent working on the very issue the war is about, weapons of mass destruction. It is simply despicable that any American would tolerate this kind of treason.
"There is little doubt," says Steven Aftergood, director of the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists, that the employment status of an undercover CIA officer, "is classified information." He notes that the "most basic personnel information of the CIA--the number of personnel, the salaries--is classified. Anything more specific--like the identity of a NOC [an officer working under "nonofficial cover," as was Valerie Wilson] or the numbers and identities of officers working in a particular region of the world--is classified."
To sum up, it does not matter if Rove did not mention Valerie Wilson by name, and it is not true that the information he passed to Cooper was not classified.
