The Plame Affair Is A CIA Leak Story

“Plamegate” or the “Plame Affair“, refers as to what happened to Valerie Plame Wilson, a former U.S. CIA Operations officer, and wife of Joe Wilson. Joseph Charles Wilson IV is a former Ambassador for the U.S.

Apparently Valerie Elise Plame Wilson was a target of former Bush administration officials. Her career as a spy was abruptly ended because her professional identity was leaked to the press. This was probably a payback for her husband’s criticism of the Iraq war.

The Valerie Plame story runs like a complicated spy novel. According to an MSNBC story, White House advisor Karl Rove had talked with Robert Novak about Joe Wilson’s wife being a CIA agent. Rove also told Time reporter Matt Cooper that Valerie was the wife of Joe Wilson.

The disclosure was made on July 14, 2003, in a newspaper column entitled Mission To Niger (Washington Post).

“Wilson never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an agency operative on weapons of mass destruction.”

The report also stated that Joe Wilson had been sent by the CIA to Africa, to determine if Iraq had bought uranium yellowcake from Niger. Bush had previously accused Saddam Hussein of purchasing yellowcake from Niger, and this was the basis for the invasion in Iraq.

The famous 16 words. On Jan. 28, 2003, during the State of the Union Address, George W. Bush said: “The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently bought significant quantities of uranium from Niger.”

Joe Wilson also published an article in the New York Times (July 6, 2003), entitled What I Didn’t Find In Africa.

Wilson concludes: “Based on my experience with the administration in the months leading up to the war, I have little choice but to conclude that some of the intelligence related to Iraq’s nuclear weapons program was twisted to exaggerate the Iraqi threat.”

Joseph Wilson has a memoir called: The Politics of Truth: Inside the Lies that Led to War and Betrayed My Wife’s CIA Identity: A Diplomat’s Memoir.

It appears that Rove testified that Lewis “Scooter” Libby had told him about Valerie Plame being a CIA agent. And it seems quite possible that Vice President Dick Cheney had told Libby about Valerie Plame.

Whatever occurred, Scooter Libby was the fall guy for the crime. Libby was tried and indicted, and is now considered a convicted felon. Vice President Cheney was outraged that President Bush did not pardon Libby before leaving his presidency. The article entitled Ex-VP Dick Cheney outraged President Bush didn’t grant ‘Scooter’ Libby full pardon was published in the NY Daily News on Feb. 16, 2009.

Valerie Plame Wilson has a memoir called: Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House.

A film called Fair Game is is scheduled for a 2010 release starring Naomi Watts and Sean Penn.