Valerie Elise Plame Wilson (born April 19, 1963), known as Valerie Plame, Valerie E. Wilson, and Valerie Plame Wilson, is a former United States CIA Operations Officer and the author of a memoir detailing her career and the events leading up to her resignation from the CIA.
Early life
Valerie Elise Plame was born on April 19, 1963, on
Elmendorf Air Force Base, in
Anchorage, Alaska, to Diane and Samuel Plame. Plame's paternal great-grandfather was a
rabbi who emigrated from
Ukraine; the original family surname was "Plamevotski".
Growing up in "a military family ... imbued her with a sense of public duty"; her father was a lieutenant colonel in the United States Air Force, who worked for the National Security Agency for three years, and, according to her "close friend Janet Angstadt," her parents "are the type who are still volunteering for the Red Cross and Meals on Wheels in the Philadelphia suburb where they live," having moved to that area while Plame was still in school.
Education
She graduated in 1981 from Lower Moreland High School, in
Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania, and attended
Pennsylvania State University, graduating with a
B.A. in advertising in 1985. and worked for the business division of the
Daily Collegian student newspaper. According to Wilson, because Plame was unable to reveal her
CIA role to him on their first date, she told him that she was an energy trader in
Brussels, and he thought at that time that she was "an up-and-coming international executive." They were married on April 3, 1998, Plame's second marriage and Wilson's third.
Professionally and socially, she has used variants of her name. Professionally, while a covert CIA officer, she used her given first name and her maiden surname, "Valerie Plame." Since leaving the CIA, as a speaker, she has used the name "Valerie Plame Wilson," and she is referred to by that name in the civil suit that the Wilsons brought against former and current government officials, Plame v. Cheney. Socially, and in public records of her political contributions, since her marriage in 1998, she has used the name "Valerie E. Wilson."
At the time that they met, Wilson relates in his memoir, he was separated from his second wife Jacqueline, a former French diplomat; they divorced after 12 years of marriage so that he could marry Plame. His divorce had been "delayed because I was never in one place long enough to complete the process," though he and she had already been living separate lives since the mid-90s. In a 2011 interview, Plame said she and Wilson had received threats while living in the D.C. metro area, and while she acknowledged an element of threat remains in their new home, the New Mexico location "tamps down the whole swirl."
Career
, at
Brown University, in
Providence, Rhode Island, on December 4, 2007.]]After graduating from college, moving to
Washington, D.C., and marrying Sesler, Plame worked at a clothing store while awaiting results of her application to the
CIA. Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald affirmed that Plame "was a CIA officer from January 1, 2002, forward" and that "her association with the CIA was classified at that time through July 2003. Due to the nature of her clandestine work for the CIA, many details about Plame's professional career are still classified, but it is documented that she worked for the CIA in a
clandestine capacity relating to
counter-proliferation.
Plame served the CIA as a non-official cover (or NOC), operating undercover in (at least) two positions in Athens and Brussels. While using her own name, "Valerie Plame", her assignments required posing in various professional roles in order to gather intelligence more effectively. Two of her covers include serving as a junior consular officer in the early 1990s in Athens and then later an energy analyst for the private company (founded in 1994) "Brewster Jennings & Associates," which the CIA later acknowledged was a front company for certain investigations.
A former senior diplomat in Athens remembered Plame in her dual role and also recalled that she served as one of the 'control officers' coordinating the visit of President George H.W. Bush to Greece and Turkey in July 1991. After the Gulf War in 1991, the CIA sent her first to the London School of Economics and then the College of Europe, in Bruges, for Master's degrees. After earning the second one, she stayed on in Brussels, where she began her next assignment under cover as an "energy consultant" for Brewster-Jennings.
She married Wilson in 1998 and gave birth to their twins in 2000, and resumed travel overseas in 2001, 2002, and 2003 as part of her cover job. She met with workers in the nuclear industry, cultivated sources, and managed spies. She was involved in ensuring that Iran did not acquire nuclear weapons.
During this time, part of her work concerned the determination of the use of aluminum tubes purchased by Iraq. CIA analysts prior to the Iraq invasion were quoted by the White House as believing that Iraq was trying to acquire nuclear weapons and that these aluminum tubes could be used in a centrifuge for nuclear enrichment. However, David Corn and Michael Isikoff argued that the undercover work being done by Plame and her CIA colleagues in the Directorate of Central Intelligence Nonproliferation Center strongly contradicted such a claim. Legal documents published in the course of the CIA leak grand jury investigation, United States v. Libby, and Congressional investigations, allegedly establish her classified employment as a covert officer for the CIA at the time that Novak's column was published in July 2003.
In his press conference of October 28, 2005, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald explained in considerable detail the necessity of "secrecy" about his grand jury investigation that began in the fall of 2003 — "when it was clear that Valerie Wilson's cover had been blown" — and the background and consequences of the indictment of Lewis Libby as it pertains to Valerie E. Wilson. According to his testimony, the information that Libby was authorized to disclose to Miller "was intended to rebut the allegations of an administration critic, former ambassador Joseph Wilson." A couple of days after Libby's meeting with Miller, then-National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice told reporters, "We don't want to try to get into kind of selective declassification" of the NIE, adding "We're looking at what can be made available." A "sanitized version" of the NIE in question was officially declassified on July 18, 2003, ten days after Libby's contact with Miller, and was presented at a White House background briefing on weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq. The NIE contains no references to Valerie Plame or her CIA status, but the Special Counsel has suggested that White House actions were part of "a plan to discredit, punish or seek revenge against Mr. Wilson." President Bush had previously indicated that he would fire whoever had outed Plame. The court filing also stated that "Mr. Libby plans to demonstrate that the indictment is wrong when it suggests that he and other government officials viewed Ms. Wilson's role in sending her husband to Africa as important," indicating that Libby's lawyers planned to call Karl Rove to the stand. According to Rove's lawyer, Fitzgerald has decided against pressing charges against Rove.
The five-count indictment of Libby included perjury (two counts), obstruction of justice (one count), and making false statements to federal investigators (two counts).
Libby trial
On March 6, 2007, Libby was convicted of obstruction of justice, making false statements, and two counts of perjury. He was
acquitted on one count of making false statements. He was not charged for revealing Plame's CIA status. His sentence included a $250,000 fine, 30 months in prison and two years of probation. On July 2, 2007, President
George W. Bush commuted Libby's sentence, removing the jail term but leaving in place the fine and
probation, calling the sentence "excessive." In a subsequent press conference, on July 12, 2007, Bush noted, "...the Scooter Libby decision was, I thought, a fair and balanced decision." The Wilsons responded to the commutation in statements posted by their legal counsel,
Melanie Sloan, executive director of
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), and on their own legal support website. Why Armitage's role in disclosing Plame's identity to Novak was not pursued has never been explained.
Wilson v. Cheney
On July 13, 2006, Joseph and Valerie Wilson filed a civil lawsuit against Rove, Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney, and other unnamed senior White House officials (among whom they later added Richard Armitage) for their alleged role in the public disclosure of Valerie Wilson's classified CIA status. Judge John D. Bates dismissed the Wilsons' lawsuit on jurisdictional grounds on July 19, 2007; the Wilsons appealed. On August 12, 2008, in a 2-1 decision, the three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld the dismissal. Melanie Sloan, of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which represents the Wilsons, "said the group will request the full D.C. Circuit to review the case and appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court." Agreeing with the Bush administration, the Obama Justice Department argues the Wilsons have no legitimate grounds to sue. On the current justice department position, Sloan stated: "We are deeply disappointed that the Obama administration has failed to recognize the grievous harm top Bush White House officials inflicted on Joe and Valerie Wilson. The government’s position cannot be reconciled with President Obama’s oft-stated commitment to once again make government officials accountable for their actions."
House Oversight Committee hearing
On March 8, 2007, two days after the verdict in the
Libby trial, Congressman
Henry Waxman, chair of the
U.S. House Committee on Government Reform, announced that his committee would ask Plame to testify on March 16, in an effort by his committee to look into "whether White House officials followed appropriate procedures for safeguarding Plame's identity."
On March 16, 2007, at these hearings about the disclosure, Waxman read a statement about Plame's CIA career that had been cleared by CIA director Gen. Michael V. Hayden and the CIA, stating that she was undercover and that her employment status with the CIA was classified information prohibited from disclosure under Executive Order 12958.
Subsequent reports in various news accounts focused on the following parts of her testimony:
"My name and identity were carelessly and recklessly abused by senior government officials in the White House and state department"; this abuse occurred for "purely political reasons."
After her identity was exposed by officials in the Bush administration, she had to leave the CIA: "I could no longer perform the work for which I had been highly trained."
She did not select her husband for a CIA fact-finding trip to Niger, but an officer senior to her selected him and told her to ask her husband if he would consider it: "I did not recommend him. I did not suggest him. There was no nepotism involved. I did not have the authority...." The feature film, a co-production between Weed Road's Akiva Goldsman and Jerry and Janet Zucker of Zucker Productions with a screenplay by Jez and John-Henry Butterworth to be based in part on Valerie Wilson's memoir Fair Game (contingent on CIA clearances) originally scheduled for release in August 2007, but ultimately published on October 22, 2007.
In May 2006, the New York Times reported that Valerie Wilson agreed to a $2.5-million book deal with Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House. Steve Ross, senior vice president and publisher of Crown, told the Times that the book would be her "first airing of her actual role in the American intelligence community, as well as the prominence of her role in the lead-up to the war." Subsequently, the New York Times reported that the book deal fell through and that Plame was in exclusive negotiations with Simon & Schuster. Ultimately, Simon and Schuster publicly confirmed the book deal, though not the financial terms and, at first, no set publication date.
On May 31, 2007, various news media reported that Simon and Schuster and Valerie Wilson were suing J. Michael McConnell, Director of National Intelligence, and Michael V. Hayden, Director of the CIA, arguing that the CIA "is unconstitutionally interfering with the publication of her memoir, , ... set to be published in October [2007], by not allowing Plame to mention the dates that she served in the CIA." Judge Barbara S. Jones, of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, in Manhattan, interpreted the issue in favor of the CIA. Judge Jones ruled that Valerie Plame's constitutional freedoms were overridden by the Classified Information Act. Therefore, the ruling stated that Plame would not be able to describe in her memoir the precise dates she had worked for the CIA. In 2009, the federal court of appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed Judge Jones's ruling.
On October 31, 2007, in her interview with Charlie Rose broadcast on The Charlie Rose Show , Valerie Wilson discussed many aspects relating to her memoir: the CIA leak grand jury investigation; United States v. Libby, the civil suit which she and her husband are still pursuing against Libby, Cheney, Rove, and Armitage; and other matters presented in her memoir relating to her covert work with the CIA.
The film, Fair Game, was released November 5, 2010, starring Naomi Watts and Sean Penn. It is based on two books, one written by Plame, and the other by her husband.
In May 2011, it was announced that Plame would author a series of spy novels with mystery writer Sarah Lovett, the first of which was to be released in 2012 by Blue Rider Press, an imprint of the Penguin Group.
See also
National Clandestine Service
Wilson's name and assumed identity are the focus of the song "Valerie Plame", by The Decemberists on .
Notes
References
Amended Complaint. FindLaw.com, September 13, 2006.
"AP falsely reported Wilson 'acknowledged his wife was no longer in an undercover job' when her identity was first publicly leaked". Media Matters for America. July 15, 2005. Accessed September 24, 2006.
"Armitage's Leak Poses More Questions". Townhall.com, September 8, 2006. Accessed June 17, 2007.
"End of an Affair: It Turns Out That the Person Who Exposed CIA Agent Valerie Plame Was Not Out to Punish Her Husband". The Washington Post, September 1, 2006.
Corn, David. "Explosive New Rove Revelation Coming Soon? Update: It's Here". The Huffington Post (blog), July 9, 2005. Accessed September 24, 2006.
–––. "Toensing and WSJ: Corn Outed Plame (Here We Go Again)". DavidCorn.com (journalist's blog), September 15, 2006. Accessed November 20, 2006. (Reply to Toensing.)
–––. "A White House Smear". The Nation (Capital Games blog), July 16, 2006. Accessed September 24, 2006.
Crewdson, John. "Internet Blows CIA Cover". The Chicago Tribune, March 13, 2006. Accessed November 16, 2006.
Ensor, David, et al. "Novak: 'No great crime' with Leak". Inside Politics on CNN. CNN.com, October 1, 2003. Accessed September 24, 2006.
Finn, Ed. "How Deep Is CIA Cover?" Slate, September 30, 2003. Accessed November 16, 2006.
Isikoff, Michael. "Leak Investigation: The Russert Deal—What It Reveals". Newsweek, August 1, 2006. Accessed November 13, 2006.
–––. "Matt Cooper's Source: What Karl Rove Told Time Magazine's Reporter". Newsweek June 18, 2005. Accessed November 13, 2006.
–––, and David Corn. Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War. New York: Crown, 2006 (September 8). ISBN 0-307-34681-1.
Johnson, Larry C. "Fighting Rove's Gang of Bullies: A Former CIA Analyst Speaks Up in the Hopes of Freeing His Former Colleague, Valerie Plame, from the RNC's 'malicious smear campaign'". AlterNet, July 25, 2005. Accessed June 19, 2007.
Johnston, David, and Richard W. Stevenson, with David E. Sanger. "Rove Reportedly Held Phone Talk on C.I.A. Officer". The New York Times, July 15, 2005. Accessed November 16, 2006.
Kincaid, Cliff. "AIM Column: Why Judith Miller Should Stay In Jail". Accuracy In Media, July 11, 2005. Accessed June 19, 2007.
Leonnig, Carol D. "Papers Say Leak Probe Is Over". Washington Post, April 6, 2005: A12.
Novak, Robert. "Armitage's Leak". The Washington Post, September 13, 2006. Accessed September 24, 2006.
–––. "My Role in Plamegate". Online posting. RealClearPolitics.com (blog), July 12, 2006. Accessed September 25, 2006.
Pincus, Walter, and Mike Allen. "Leak of Agent's Name Causes Exposure of CIA Front Firm". The Washington Post, October 4, 2003: A03.
Smyth, Frank. CPJ Statement: Commentary: U.S. Sends the Wrong Message to the World". IFEX (International Freedom of Expression Exchange), June 30, 2005, updated July 1, 2005. Accessed September 24, 2006.
Toensing, Victoria. "The Plame Kerfuffle: What a Load of Armitage! What Did Patrick Fitzgerald Know, and When Did He Know It?" The Wall Street Journal, September 15, 2006, Editorial. Accessed November 20, 2006. (Reply by Corn, "Toensing and WSJ.")
Waas, Murray S.. "Cheney Authorized Libby to Leak Classified Information" National Journal, February 9, 2006. Accessed September 10, 2007.
–––. "Exclusive: Plame Game Over?" American Prospect, April 6, 2005. Accessed September 10, 2007.
–––, with research assistance by Thomas Lang. "Plame Gate: Did Robert Novak Willfully Disregard Warnings That His Column Would Endanger Valerie Plame? Our Sources Say 'Yes'". American Prospect, February 12, 2004. Accessed September 25, 2006. (Web-exclusive feature article.)
Wheeler, Marcy. Anatomy of Deceit: How the Bush Administration Used the Media to Sell the Iraq War and Out a Spy. Berkeley: Vaster Books (Dist. by Publishers Group West), 2007. ISBN 0-979-17610-7 (10). ISBN 978-0979-17610-4 (13).
"White House Counsel Questioned in CIA Leak". Las Vegas Sun, June 18, 2004.
Wolf, Christopher. "Plame Investigation Is Not a 'Game'." Letter to the Editor. Washington Post, January 18, 2005: A16. [A neighbor of Valerie E. Wilson, Wolf is also a lawyer representing her.]
External links
CNN Special Reports: CIA Leak Investigation compiled by CNN; incl. interactive timeline of Main Events and "Key Players" (click on photo captioned "Plame").
Interactive Graphic: Timeline of a Leak compiled by The New York Times (double-click on photo captioned "Ms. Wilson").
"Investigations: Disclosure of CIA Agent Identity" and
"Disclosure of CIA Agent Identity: Hearing Examines Exposure of Covert CIA Agent Valerie Plame Wilson's Identity".
U.S. House Committee on Government Reform (Oversight Committee). March 16, 2007. Accessed October 22, 2007. Hyperlinked menu with streaming video of hearing and "Documents and Links" (box), featuring documents chart, .
The Joseph and Valerie Wilson Legal Support Trust. Accessed June 10, 2008.
"Patrick J. Fitzgerald", U.S. Department of Justice Office of Special Counsel.
United States Senate Democratic Policy Committee Hearing, United States House of Representatives Government Reform Committee Minority, "A Special Joint Oversight Hearing on the National Security Consequences of Disclosing the Identity of a Covert Intelligence Officer", with link to "Hearing Transcript". July 22, 2005. Accessed November 5, 2010.
Valerie Plame Wilson Blog at The Huffington Post.
Fair Game">NYTimes 26 September, 2010 feature article about Plame and Fair Game
Valerie Plame, in spotlight again, Associated Press, 11/4/10.
Category:1963 births
Category:Alumni of the London School of Economics
Category:American memoirists
Category:American spies
Category:Living people
Category:Iraq and weapons of mass destruction
Category:People of the Central Intelligence Agency
*
Category:Post-Cold War spies
Category:College of Europe alumni
Category:Penn State University alumni
Category:People from Anchorage, Alaska
Category:American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent
