VALERIE Plame’s retirement from the CIA on Friday drew the curtain on a two-decade career that had been in tatters since her identity was revealed by conservative columnist Robert Novak.

Novak’s leaking of Plame’s identity led to the resignation and ongoing criminal investigation of Vice President Dick Cheney‘s top aide, I. Lewis Libby.

Nobody from the CIA would confirm her departure, but two people who have known Plame for several years - her friend and former CIA officer Larry Johnson, and former CIA Counterterrorism Center supreme Vincent Cannistraro, confirmed she had departed.

Plame, married to Bush administration critic and former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson, was working at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia in 2003 when her spy status was disclosed by Novak.

Wilson says in the preface to his book, ‘The Politics of Truth’, that he and Plame fell victim to the "Republican smear machine”.

Plame's employment with the CIA was disclosed eight days after Wilson accused the Bush administration of twisting pre-war intelligence to exaggerate the Iraqi threat.

She had served for many years at overseas postings for the CIA, and worked in the agency's counter-proliferation division.

Libby, who resigned the day he was indicted, has pleaded not guilty to five counts of perjury, obstructing justice and lying to the FBI.  President Bush's top political adviser Karl Rove remains under investigation in connection with the security leak.