Valerie Plame: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

For detail on the political scandal, see Plame affair

Valerie Elise Plame Wilson^{[#endnote_name]} (born April 19 1963 in Anchorage, Alaska) was a United States Central Intelligence Agency officer, who was identified as a CIA operative in a newspaper column by Robert Novak on July 14, 2003. The ensuing political controversy, commonly referred to as the Plame affair, or the CIA leak scandal, led, in late 2003, to a Justice Department investigation into possible violation of criminal statutes, including the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982.

Resulting from the October 2005 investigation, one of President George W. Bush's closest assistants on national security, and Chief of Staff for the Vice President Dick Cheney, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, is now indicted on perjury and obstruction of justice.

Background

On April 3, 1998, Plame became the third wife of former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV. Plame met Wilson, her second husband, at a Washington D.C party in early 1997. She was able to reveal her CIA role to him while they were dating because he held a security clearance. At the time, Wilson was separated from his second wife Jacqueline, a former French diplomat. Wilson and Plame are the parents of five-year-old twins.

Education

Plame is a 1985 graduate of the Pennsylvania State University, the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK, and the College of Europe, an international-relations school in Bruges, in 1995. Soon after graduation, she started working for the U.S. government in Washington D.C. During her time at Penn State, she had worked on the business side of PSU's student newspaper, The Daily Collegian. According to an October 9, 2003 Collegian article, she previously attended Lower Moreland High School in Huntingdon Valley, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. ^{[#endnote_VanityFairDoubleExposure]}

Career

Little is known of Plame's professional career. While undercover, she had described herself as an "energy analyst" for the private company "Brewster Jennings & Associates," which the CIA later acknowledged was a front company for certain investigations. "Brewster Jennings" was first entered into Dun and Bradstreet records on May 22 1994, but D&B would not discuss the source of the filing. D&B records list the company as a "legal services office," located at 101 Arch Street, Boston, Massachusetts.

Former CIA official Larry C. Johnson, who left the CIA in 1989, indicated Plame had been a "non-official cover operative" (NOC). He explained: "...that meant she agreed to operate overseas without the protection of a diplomatic passport. If caught in that status she would have been executed." ^{[#endnote_LarryJohnson]} David Armstrong, an Andover researcher for the Public Education Center, believed that the Brewster Jennings & Associates cover had not been done convincingly and that other covers would have been established for her by the CIA. ^{[#endnote_DodgyCover]}

Plame is known to have served in a classified position as a CIA officer. At his October 28, 2005, press conference, Special Counsel Fitzgerald noted:

Valerie Wilson was a CIA officer. In July 2003, the fact that Valerie Wilson was a CIA officer was classified. Not only was it classified, but it was not widely known outside the intelligence community. Valerie Wilson's friends, neighbors, college classmates had no idea she had another life. The fact that she was a CIA officer was not well-known, for her protection or for the benefit of all us. It's important that a CIA officer's identity be protected, that it be protected not just for the officer, but for the nation's security. Valerie Wilson's cover was blown in July 2003. The first sign of that cover being blown was when Mr. Novak published a column on July 14th, 2003.

Some claim to be uncertain as to whether Plame was a covert agent. According to USA Today, Plame worked in the Langley, Virginia, CIA headquarters since 1997, when she returned from her last assignment, and married Joe Wilson and had her twins. [1] Conservative columnist Max Boot argues that it is very unlikely that a CIA employee commuting to the headquarters building each day would be a covert agent. Columnist Robert Novak wrote that an Agency source said Plame "has been an analyst, not in covert operations." [2] It has been speculated that Plame may have worked in the CIA administration in the office of former CIA Deputy Director of Operations (DDO) James Pavitt. Former CIA officer Larry C. Johnson attempted to clear up the confusion surrounding Plame's status in a column responding to Max Boot: "The law actually requires that a covered person 'served' overseas in the last five years. Served does not mean lived. In the case of Valerie Wilson, energy consultant for Brewster-Jennings, she traveled overseas in 2003, 2002, and 2001, as part of her cover job. She met with folks who worked in the nuclear industry, cultivated sources, and managed spies. She was a national security asset until exposed by Karl Rove and Scooter Libby."[3] It was confirmed that she was a covert operative early in the investigation by acting intelligence officials, setting the matter to rest.[4]

During the press conference, Fitzgerald was asked if he knew whether Libby revealed Plame's covert status knowingly; he responded:

Let me say two things. Number one, I am not speaking to whether or not Valerie Wilson was covert. And anything I say is not intended to say anything beyond this: that she was a CIA officer from January 1st, 2002, forward. I will confirm that her association with the CIA was classified at that time through July 2003. And all I'll say is that, look, we have not made any allegation that Mr. Libby knowingly, intentionally outed a covert agent. We have not charged that. And so I'm not making that assertion.[5]

Nevertheless, court papers released in early 2006 showed that Fitzgerald did in fact conclude that Plame was a "covert" agent under the IIPA, though he did not seek charges on that count because he lacked proof that Libby was aware of her status. [6]

Valerie Plame Wilson was identified in the New York Times as a N.O.C. by Elisabeth Bumiller, who wrote (5 October 2003):

But within the C.I.A., the exposure of Ms. Plame is now considered an even greater instance of treachery. Ms. Plame, a specialist in non-conventional weapons who worked overseas, had "nonofficial cover," and was what in C.I.A. parlance is called a NOC, the most difficult kind of false identity for the agency to create. While most undercover agency officers disguise their real profession by pretending to be American embassy diplomats or other United States government employees, Ms. Plame passed herself off as a private energy expert. Intelligence experts said that NOCs have especially dangerous jobs.

Joe Wilson, Plame's husband, stated in a July 14, 2005 interview with Wolf Blitzer of CNN that "My wife was not a clandestine officer the day that Bob Novak blew her identity."[7] When asked by Wolf Blitzer "But she hadn't been a clandestine officer for some time before that?", Wilson responded by saying "That's not anything that I can talk about. And, indeed, I'll go back to what I said earlier, the CIA believed that a possible crime had been committed, and that's why they referred it to the Justice Department." This comment has been misinterpreted, but Wilson later explained his meaning to Associated Press: "In an interview Friday, Wilson said his comment was meant to reflect that his wife lost her ability to be a covert agent because of the leak, not that she had stopped working for the CIA beforehand. His wife's 'ability to do the job she's been doing for close to 20 years ceased from the minute Novak's article appeared; she ceased being a clandestine officer,' he said."[8]

A Washington Times article by Bill Gertz has asserted that "Mrs. Plame's identity as an undercover CIA officer was first disclosed to Russia in the mid-1990s by a Moscow spy, said officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity." [9] The article goes on to say that the Cuban government learned of Plame's CIA status "in confidential documents sent by the CIA to the U.S. Interests Section of the Swiss Embassy in Havana. The documents were supposed to be sealed from the Cuban government, but intelligence officials said the Cubans read the classified material and learned the secrets contained in them, the officials said." This information was used in a court briefing filed on behalf of several news agencies seeking to prevent Judith Miller and Matt Cooper from going to jail for not disclosing their sources to Patrick Fitzgerald and the federal grand jury investigating her exposure by Robert Novak. [10]. Washington Post reporter Dana Priest notes that these possible compromises of her identity did not change her undercover status: "Plame's case is different in that she was burned -- not once, but twice. The first time was by Aldrich H. Ames, the CIA turncoat who is believed to have given the Russians the name of every covert operative in the Soviet/East European Division over 10 years beginning around 1985. Not knowing exactly whom he had outed, the CIA recalled hundreds of operatives, including Plame, for their safety. Still, her undercover status remained intact until July, when syndicated columnist Robert D. Novak identified her by name as a CIA 'operative' in a column about her husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, whom the CIA had sent to Niger to check on allegations that Iraq was seeking to purchase uranium oxide there."[11] The Boston Globe also editorialized: "Once before, Plame was caught up in a case illustrating how costly it can be for a CIA officer to be in danger of having her cover exposed. The agency called Plame home in 1997 in fear that Aldrich Ames, the notorious Soviet mole inside the CIA, had revealed her true identity to his KGB handlers.... Such betrayals might have been expected in the Cold War. They should not occur because political operatives in the White House want to tarnish the reputation of a critic or settle scores with a CIA they may regard as too reluctant to tailor its analyses to the talking points of a vice president or a president."[12]

Main article: Plame affair

In one of his first statements on the plan to invade Iraq, Joseph C. Wilson — Plame's husband and a George H. W. Bush administration official — was quoted in the March 3, 2003, edition of magazine The Nation that "America has entered one of it periods of historical madness" in regards to the Iraq War.

Wilson later wrote an Op-Ed piece on July 6th, 2003, in the New York Times entitled, "What I Didn't Find in Africa," in which he claimed that he had found no evidence of Iraqi pursuit of nuclear material during his trip to Africa. He also criticized the administration for using allegedly unreliable documents (Yellowcake forgery) to make its case against Iraq. These documents, known as the Yellowcake documents, stated that Iraq attempted to buy yellowcake uranium, necessary for the creation of nuclear weapons, from the country of Niger. On 11 July 2003, five days following the publication of Wilson's Op-Ed piece, the CIA issued a statement discrediting what it called "highly dubious" accounts of Iraqi attempts to purchase uranium from Niger.[13] In the press release, CIA Director George Tenet said it should "never" have permitted the "16 words" relating to alleged Iraqi uranium purchases to be used in President Bush's 2003 State of the Union address, and called it a "mistake" that the CIA allowed such a reference to be used in the speech. The Senate Intelligence Committee Report of July 2004, however, indicates that Wilson's piece prematurely decided on what seems to be an open question about whether an Iraqi envoy attempted to buy yellowcake uranium from Niger.

Syndicated columnist Robert Novak described Plame as "an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction" in a July 2003 column. Other journalists have also mentioned her identity.

The revelation of Plame's identity by Bush administration officials, is the basis for the "Plame affair" (aka. "CIA leak scandal"). US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald is investigating the events surrounding the naming of Valerie Plame to determine what crimes, if any, were committed in the process. In October 2005, the Vice President's Chief of Staff Lewis Libby was indicted on 5 counts of perjury and obstruction of justice.

1. ^  While officially named "Valerie Wilson," she has been better known in the media by her maiden name, Plame. The convention has been to refer to Valerie Wilson as "Plame," while "Wilson" refers to Joe Wilson. The New York Times reported on 5 July, 2005, that her "husband said she has used her married name both at work and in her personal life since their 1998 marriage." Real estate records corroborate this. Joe Wilson told NBC's Today on July 14 2005, "My wife's name is Wilson, it's Mrs. Joseph Wilson. It is Valerie Wilson." Robert Novak printed her maiden name, Plame, which he claims he easily could have retrieved from Joseph Wilson's Who's Who in America entry, since Novak referenced that publication as a source of information on Joseph Wilson and his wife.
2. ^  Vanity Fair's profile on Joseph Wilson and Valerie Plame, Vanity Fair magazine.
3. ^  United States Federal Electoral Commission (Advanced Search)
4. ^  Larry Johnson, "The Big Lie about Valerie Plame"
5. ^  Ross Kerber and Bryan Bender, "Apparent CIA front didn't offer much cover", Boston Globe
6. ^  Robert Novak, "Mission to Niger" (Syndicated column)
7. ^  Robert Novak, "The CIA leak" (Syndicated column)
8. ^  David Corn, "A White House Smear", The Nation (blog).
9. ^  Joseph C. Wilson IV, "What I Didn't Find in Africa" (6 July, 2003), New York Times
10. ^  Robert Garcia Tagorda, "Joseph Wilson's Political Contributions" (blog), September 30, 2003; references Open Secrets Donor name: wilson, Donor State: DC, Cycles selected: 2006, 2004, 2002 and Donor name: wilson, Donor State: DC, Cycles selected: 2000, 1998.
11. ^  Larry Johnson, "The Big Lie about Valerie Plame"
12. ^  Robert Novak, "The CIA leak" (Syndicated column)
13. ^  Robert Novak, "Bush's enemy within" (Syndicated column)
14. ^  Murray S. Waas, "Plame Gate", American Prospect.
15. ^  David Ensor (contributor), et al. "Novak: 'No great crime' with leak", CNN.
16. ^  David Johnston; & Richard W. Stevenson, "Rove Reportedly Held Phone Talk on C.I.A. Officer", New York Times.
17. ^  A.S. "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.
18. ^  Christopher Wolf (neighbour and lawyer for Valerie Plame), "Plame Investigation Is Not a 'Game'", Washington Post (Letter to the Editor), January 18, 2005, Page A16.
19. ^  Carol D. Leonnig, "Papers Say Leak Probe Is Over", Washington Post, Page A12.
20. ^  Michael Isikoff, "Matt Cooper's Source", Newsweek.
21. ^  Cliff Kincaid, "Why Judith Miller Should Stay In Jail", Accuracy In Media

• Gilliam, Jim (January 17, 2004). "Vanity Fair's profile on Joseph Wilson and Valerie Plame" (January 17, 2004). Jimgilliam.com.
• Seifter, Andrew (July 15, 2005). "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.