Plame felt she was 'hit in the gut'

WASHINGTON, March 16 (UPI) -- Former CIA agent Valerie Plame told a U.S. House Committee Friday she felt like she had been "hit in the gut" when her identity was revealed.

Plame, testifying before the House Oversight Committee, said her identity had been a closely guarded secret and its revelation put spies she worked with overseas in danger.

Former vice presidential aide I. Lewis Libby has been convicted of obstructing justice and lying to investigators trying to determine who leaked Plame's name, but no one has been charged with the leak itself.

"I read the article ... I felt like I had been hit in the gut," Plame testified. She called the breach in security "reckless" and "cavalier."

Plame said she never suggested her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, be sent to Africa to investigate claims Iraq was attempting to purchase uranium. It was his disagreement with the White House over the allegations that allegedly led to disclosure of Plame's identity.

Asked if an administration member had ever apologized to her, Plame said "No."

The testimony marks an end to Plame's nearly four years of silence on the issue but secrecy rules prohibit her from going into too much detail about her work with the CIA overseas and in classified positions in the United States.