WASHINGTON, Oct 31: Secret agent Valerie Plame was shocked when she learned her cover as a spy had been blown, and has received threats since her unmasking, her husband, former US ambassador Joseph Wilson, said in an interview aired on Sunday.

“There have been specific threats. Beyond that I just can’t go,” Mr Wilson said, according to excerpts of the interview with the CBS program ‘60 Minutes’.

Mr Wilson said he and his wife had discussed security for her with ‘several Agencies’, but did not elaborate.

The leaking of Ms Plame’s identity in 2003 triggered a political scandal and a federal investigation that resulted in the indictment two days ago of top White House aide I. Lewis ‘Scooter’ Libby.

When Ms Plame’s identity as a spy was exposed in a newspaper column, Mr Wilson said: “She felt like she had been hit in the stomach. It took her breath away.”

But he said his wife ‘recovered quickly’ and set about trying to limit the damage done by the leak.

“And she became very matter-of-fact right afterwards and started making lists of what she had to do to ensure that her assets, her projects, her programs and her operations were protected.”

Asked if she realized her career as an undercover agent was over, Mr Wilson said: “Absolutely. Sure. There was no doubt about it in her mind. And she wondered, for what?”

The leak occurred after Mr Wilson publicly questioned President George Bush’s rationale for invading Iraq.

White House officials were at odds with the CIA at that point, suspicious that the intelligence agency was downplaying Saddam Hussein’s efforts to develop dangerous weapons.

Leaders of the Democratic opposition say the Bush administration sought to smear Mr Wilson for his criticism by outing his wife and portraying him as assisting a CIA effort to undermine the White House.

According to the indictment presented on Friday by special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, Mr Libby devoted extensive efforts to finding out about Ms Plame’s CIA post and then allegedly spread the word about her CIA status to journalists.

Mr Libby then lied ‘repeatedly’ to the FBI and a grand jury about those conversations with reporters, the indictment alleges. Mr Libby denies the charges.

Mr Wilson also said in the interview that only he and three other people knew about his wife’s work for the CIA prior to the leak.

“Well, very few people outside the intelligence community (knew she was working for the CIA). Her parents and her brother, essentially,” he said.

Ms Plame had told friends she worked as a business consultant for a fictional firm set up by the CIA as a cover.

ADDINGTON REPLACES LIBBY: Vice President Dick Cheney on Monday appointed his counsel, David Addington, as chief of staff to replace Lewis Libby, the vice president’s office said.