When you want to create a bigger emotional impact.
Much has been made about this quote from Larry Johnson during a PBS interview:
Let's be very clear about what happened. This is not an alleged abuse. This is a confirmed abuse. I worked with this woman. She started training with me. She has been undercover for three decades, she is not as Bob Novak suggested a CIA analyst.
Given that Plame is only 40 years old, it would seem that Johnson's statement is ridiculous. However, like they say on late night TV infomercials, an apt comparison to major media news organizations these days, "But wait! There's more!"
But given that, I was a CIA analyst for four years. I was undercover. I could not divulge to my family outside of my wife that I worked for the Central Intelligence Agency until I left the agency on Sept. 30, 1989. At that point I could admit it.
A light begins to dawn. If Johnson quit in 89, and worked there for four years, that means he started training with Plame in 85. So, at most, she's been with the CIA for 18 years.
So he's lying, or mistaken, right?
Wrong.
He's just being deceptive. By Johnson's account, Plame was a covert CIA operative in the 80's, 90's, and 00's. Not 30 years in duration, but during parts of three decades. Three decades sounds much more impressive than 18 years.