The plot thickens in the US.

According to this Australian ABC News report Dick Cheney authorised his aide to leak the identify of a CIA agent, Valerie Plame, which is a crime under the US’s Intelligence Identities and Protection Act stating:

Whoever, having or having had authorized access to classified information that identifies a covert agent, intentionally discloses any information identifying such covert agent to any individual not authorized to receive classified information, knowing that the information disclosed so identifies such covert agent and that the United States is taking affirmative measures to conceal such covert agent’s intelligence relationship to the United States, shall be fined not more than $50,000 or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.