Brewster Jennings & Associates was a front company set up in 1994 by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) as a cover for its officers. The most famous is Valerie Plame, a "covert employee of the CIA" whose then-classified status was published in a syndicated newspaper column by Robert Novak on July 14, 2003. Novak later said that his initial primary source was then-United States Deputy Secretary of State (2001–2005) Richard Armitage, though Armitage disagreed with Novak as to the extent of his role. Plame affair According to Walter Pincus and Mike Allen, in the Washington Post of October 4, 2003, Brewster Jennings & Associates was "the obscure and possibly defunct firm" at one time listing Valerie Plame as a staff member:Plame's name was first published July 14, 2003, in a newspaper column by Robert D. Novak that quoted two senior administration officials. They were critical of Plame's husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, IV, for his handling of a CIA mission that undercut President Bush's claim that Iraq had sought uranium from the African nation of Niger for possible use in developing nuclear weapons.... The name of the CIA front company was broadcast yesterday [October 3, 2003, on CNN] by Novak, the syndicated journalist who originally identified Plame. Novak, highlighting Wilson's ties to Democrats, said on CNN that Wilson's "wife, the CIA employee, gave $1,000 to Gore, and she listed herself as an employee of Brewster-Jennings & Associates." Whereas, in his appearance on CNN on October 3, 2003, Novak insisted, as quoted by Pincus and Allen the next day: "'There is no such firm, I'm convinced. CIA people are not supposed to list themselves with fictitious firms if they're under a deep cover – they're supposed to be real firms, or so I'm told. Sort of adds to the little mystery,'" the Washington Post reporters disputed Novak's conviction: In fact, it appears the firm did exist, at least on paper. The Dun & Bradstreet database of company names lists a firm that is called both Brewster Jennings & Associates and Jennings Brewster & Associates. The phone number in the listing is not in service, and the property manager at the address listed said there is no such company at the property, although records from 2000 were not available. Pincus and Allen explain also that: The company's identity, Brewster Jennings & Associates, became public because it appeared in Federal Election Commission