Aug. 17, 2008
Valerie Plame Wilson: No Ordinary Spy
In Her First Interview, Former CIA Officer Speaks To Katie Couric
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No Ordinary Spy
Valerie Plame Wilson, the former covert CIA officer whose leaked identity resulted in a national scandal that reached all the way to the White House, appears in her first interview since her cover was blown. Katie Couric reports.
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Valerie Plame Wilson (CBS)
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The Leak
People and events surrounding the leak of a CIA officer's name.
When former CIA agent Valerie Plame's identity was published in a newspaper column five years ago, an investigation traced the leak all the way to the White House and it became apparent this was no ordinary spy story.
Her cover was blown after her husband - former ambassador Joe Wilson - criticized the Bush administration about the Iraq war. Was it retaliation? Administration supporters said no, dismissing her as a low level analyst. One congressman even called her "a glorified secretary."
Valerie Plame Wilson kept her silence about all this for years, until last October when she granted her first interview to 60 Minutes and Katie Couric.
"Finally, I get to set the record straight. Everyone in the world has spoken about this. And can speak about me. Can write about me, except for me. So finally I have a voice," Plame Wilson says.
60 Minutes met the most famous spy in America in Santa Fe, N.M., where she moved with her family two years ago. And she wanted to clear up some misconceptions.
"When I was outed on July 14th, 2003, I was, until that moment, covert," Plame Wilson says.
Asked what that means, Plame Wilson tells Couric, "That means no one outside of a very small circle knew where I really worked."
She believes her identity was leaked in a newspaper because her husband publicly accused the president and others of lying to justify the invasion.
"We understood that he would be criticized deeply. I never once considered that in fact this administration would betray my identity as payback for his criticism," Plame Wilson says.
She says seeing her name in print was "horrifying, absolutely horrifying."
Horrifying, because Plame Wilson was no glorified secretary. In fact, as it's spelled out in her book, "Fair Game," published by Simon & Schuster, which like CBS News and CBSNews.com is owned by CBS, she spent 20 years at the CIA, rising to top-level positions. Her assignments took her all over the world, where she gathered information, recruited spies, and worked for many years deep undercover. In 1998, she was working at headquarters, spying for the newest CIA division, counter-proliferation.
"Our mission was to make sure that the bad guys, basically, did not get nuclear weapons," Plame Wilson explains.
By the time her name was leaked in 2003, she was chief of operations for the CIA's joint task force Iraq, in charge of dozens of officers and analysts. It was before the Iraq war, and she was trying to find evidence that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.
At the time, Plame Wilson says this didn't sound so far-fetched. "It's not as though Saddam Hussein had not pursued this and had not used WMD on his own people," she says.
"You and your team were meeting with Iraqi scientists before the invasion. What kind of intelligence were you getting from those people?" Couric asks.
"Thin. Very thin, very patchy," Plame Wilson says.
"Could it be you just weren't getting enough intelligence at the time?" Couric asks.
"Exactly. That was the horror. You didn't know if maybe if you just found the right scientist. If you just got to the right person, he would be able to give you the plans or give you, you know, really critical stuff that would help put all these pieces together," Plame Wilson says.
One of those pieces was of particular interest to the vice president's office: an intelligence report saying Iraq was buying 500 tons of uranium ore - which can be used to build nuclear weapons - from the African nation of Niger. It was a report that later turned out to be based on forged documents.
Produced By Graham Messick
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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See all 1544 CommentsIf anyone has a problem with Plame''s book deal, interviews or media attention, blame the four Bush administration officials who leaked our nation''s classified information. Without them, none of this would have been possible. In fact, that should have been her book''s dedication.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18924679/
She WAS covert....She is NOT covert any more and can no longer work for the CIA because SOMEONE leaked her name...when someone dedicates themselves to protecting this country for 20 years and is then BETRAYED, why are you angry with the BETRAYED person?
Re: "Valerie Plame Wilson, the former covert CIA officer whose leaked identity resulted in a national scandal that reached all the way to the White House"
The Bush *** admitted that someone from his office exposed this agent. This treasonous act alone should be enough for some regime officials to be facing the possibility of a firing squad.
to the editor, or make posts and comments, in
the california crackpot tradition, i must say that
valerie was really special to me years ago when
i worked for the l.a.p.d. briefly in 1980. we met at nighttime at the red onion in woodland hills, ca
near where i lived at that time. had a beautiful
night together and then undercover of a miraculous
fog, i took her home to the northridge area, and
then i had to go to work to martial with my fellow
employees at parker center to work overtime on
saturday. i got about one hours sleep. and was
pretty hungover. i got special permission to
go home and enjoy my love hangover. she said her
name was sandy. sure. said she worked at litton
industries. that i believe, its right near valerio
street. valerie also was a famous song by the monkees. old plames do show up in the news.
it is most apropos to consider the dangerous
facts of the situation. women leaking items
in the powderroom, to make for a kegger situation.
never watch her mouth, or listen to her, for
its always the same plame. but make sure that
the book gets sold. what is written is more
important than what is said, because obviously
you heard it all wrong. your ears must be tested.
can you prove you heard that? since handwriting
can be faked, graphology is useless. and bunco/forgery can be applied to religion also.
can you read hebrew as it was spoken 4000 years
ago. how do you know your bible is the right one?
it was compiled after st. jerome wrote it, in
about 300 a.d. by men at nicea. it was always
so funny at church to hear them say it was the
''inspired'' word of God. bologna. if that be
the case, everything said or done is inspired by God.
malarky mumbo jumbo fumbo dumbo and his flying
elephants, pink ones at that. plan 401z was denied
permission to be implemented. nanosecond decisions
needed.
Go Katie GO
In "The Leak" interactive feature, isn''t it curious that the name Richard Armitage does not appear?
Isn''t it also strange that there is no mention of the fact that Fitzgerald knew very shortly after he was appointed that it was Armitage who actually leaked Plame''s name?
And wouldn''t it be helpful for readers to know that leaker Armitage was Deputy Secretary of State and not a "White House Staffer."
hahaha like the demonic-rats do,,, LOL
hahaha
Ex-CIA officer called on to explain varied accounts
Senator: Plame''s versions add to ''misinformation''
Former CIA officer Valerie Plame should explain "differences" in her various accounts of how her husband was sent to the African nation of Niger in 2002 to investigate reports Iraq was trying to buy uranium there, the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee said.
Plame''s differing versions have furthered "misinformation" about the origins of the case that roiled Washington beginning in July 2003, said Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo. Plame gave those accounts to the CIA''s inspector general, Senate investigators and a House committee in March.
A February 2002 CIA memo released last week as part of a study of pre-Iraq-war intelligence shows that Plame suggested her husband, former State Department official Joseph Wilson, for the Niger trip, Bond said. That "doesn''t square" with Plame''s March testimony in which she said an unnamed CIA colleague raised her husband''s name, Bond told USA TODAY.
Here are Plame''s three versions of how Wilson was sent to Niger, according to Bond:
http://usatoday.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=USATODAY.com&expire=&urlID=22512034&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.usatoday.com%2Fprintedition%2Fnews%2F20070530%2Fa_plame30.art.htm&partnerID=1660
%u2022She told the CIA''s inspector general in 2003 or 2004 that she had suggested Wilson.
%u2022Plame told Senate Intelligence Committee staffers in 2004 that she couldn''t remember whether she had suggested Wilson.
%u2022She told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in March that an unidentified person in Vice President Cheney''s office asked a CIA colleague about the African uranium report in February 2002. A third officer, overhearing Plame and the colleague discussing this, suggested, "Well, why don''t we send Joe?" Plame told the committee.
http://usatoday.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=USATODAY.com&expire=&urlID=22512034&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.usatoday.com%2Fprintedition%2Fnews%2F20070530%2Fa_plame30.art.htm&partnerID=1660
Valerie Plame''s Lawsuit Dismissed
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8QFR71G1&show_article=1
hmmmmmmmmm if i had a cia wife would i pay to put her in who''s who as valerie plame wife of joe wilson???
www.talkingpointsmemo.com/docs/wilson.whoswho.pdf
if i was a cia agent would i send my non cia husband on a cia mission???
if i was a cia agent would i give the gore campaign a donation listing the cia front company???
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A40012-2003Oct3?language=printer
talk about "get smart"
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058805/
'' ...
imagine shoving trillions of dollars
of drugs
down kids throats,
imagine waving trillions of dollars
of guns
in kids faces,
imagine all the people
sharing all the world,
i hope some day you''ll join us
and the world will live as one,
... ''
And he was.
He was pardoned.
Whatta (sick) sense of humor...
ARE PRESIDENTS ABOVE THE LAW???
wow, the president says he has the right to perjury????
President to Senate: Perjury is my right...
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3827/is_199901/ai_n8836610
PARDONS FOR SALE PARDONS FOR SALE
PARDONS GRANTED BY PRESIDENT CLINTON TO EVEN TERRORISTS
http://www.usdoj.gov/pardon/clintonpardon_grants.htm
My Reasons for the Pardons
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/18/opinion/18CLIN.html?pagewanted=all&ei=5070&en=66ba82eaf117b24b&ex=1183521600
Do the Clintons Now Support Jail Time for Perjurers?
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,288392,00.html
In a bone-chilling chapter of her new book "The Final Days," late heroine-author Barbara Olson warned that ex-president Bill Clinton''s pardons of terrorists who had repeatedly bombed buildings in New York City "send a signal" that the U.S. isn''t serious about fighting terrorism.
http://www.papillonsartpalace.com/olson.htm
Bill Clinton pardons controversy
FALN Pardons of 1999
On August 11 1999, Clinton commuted the sentences of 16 members of FALN, a violent Puerto Rican nationalist group that set off 120 bombs in the United States usually in New York City and Chicago, convicted for conspiracies to commit robbery, bomb-making, and sedition, as well as for firearms and explosives violations.
http://www.answers.com/topic/bill-clinton-pardons-controversy
- Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler''s Propaganda Minister
the media has been outed as partisan hacks for a long time now
AP outed as political propoganda rag
Say no to AP%u2019s shoddy work
When a company defrauds its customers, or delivers shoddy goods, the customers sooner or later are going to take their business elsewhere. But if that company has a virtual monopoly, and offers something its customers must have, they may have no choice but to keep taking it.
http://news.bostonherald.com/columnists/view.bg?articleid=170263
The AP''s Jamil Hussein Scandal
If an Iraqi police captain by the name of Jamil Hussein exists, there is no convincing evidence of it - and that means the Associated Press has a journalistic scandal on its hands that will fester until the AP deals with it properly.
http://www.iraqslogger.com/index.php/post/486/The_APs_Jamil_Hussein_Scandal
OUTED
THE LIBERAL MAIN MEDIA AND DEMONIC-RAT PROPOGANDA MACHINE
Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez what the media will not tell you,,,
The death knell of your ethics has been enabled by your parent organizations who have chosen to align themselves with political agendas. What is clear to me is that you are perpetuating the corrosive partisan politics that is destroying our country and killing our service members who are at war.
My assessment is that your profession, to some extent, has strayed from these ethical standards and allowed external agendas to manipulate what the American public sees on TV, what they read in our newspapers and what they see on the web. For some of you, just like some of our politicians, the truth is of little to no value if it does not fit your own preconceived notions, biases and agendas.
http://www.militaryreporters.org/sanchez_101207.html
Sanchez Blasts Media, But Media Only Highlight His Criticism of Bush
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/brent-baker/2007/10/15/sanchez-blasts-media-media-only-highlight-his-criticism-bush
Sanchez Assaults Drive-By Media
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_101507/content/01125112.guest.html
Retired general issues sharply worded rebuke of ''unscrupulous reporting''
http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2007/10/retired-general.html
Sanchez: Media''s Reporting of Iraq War Endangered Soldiers'' Lives
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,301676,00.html
the media has been outed as partisan hacks for a long time now
LEFT WING NUT PARTISAN PROPAGANDA RAG DIES IN THE MARKET hahaha
Morgan Stanley Sells Entire New York Times Stake
Oct. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Morgan Stanley, the second-biggest shareholder in New York Times Co., sold its entire 7.3 percent stake today, according to a person briefed on the transaction, sending the stock to its lowest in more than 10 years.
http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aY9iww4X.01g
Posted by Smirk5
I love watching Non-Covert Covert Agents blaming the Bush Administration for omissions when she was outed by hubby and the CIA and her campaign check to the Bore Campaign. Poor little Valerie.
Well duh! When does he keep his word?
Treason was committed, our intelligence agencies had an active agent and active operations publicly outed, and Republicans don''t care. The president lied to the country, and Republicans don''t care. And this was done to try to cover up the President using a known lie in an address to the nation - and still Republicans don''t care. Wilson was right, Saddam wasn''t getting nuclear materials from Nigeria - Bush wanted to use that lie, so he had to discredit Wilson. But now we know it''s a lie, and treason was committed to try to cover up that lie, and where are the supposedly superpatriot Republicans? They''re right behind Bush!
"Why did I sell out West Point? Well, General Washington didn''t keep his word to me!"
What''s a matter, chicky??? No book deal? No reality series offer? Not even an invite to Dancing With the Stars?
Don''t worry....60 minutes will let you sob on air (as long as you''re badmouthing the president.)
and randy/sandy burglar stole and shreaded top secret 911 related government documents for bubba klintoon that affects the security of all the american people,,,
Posted by jntlw at 02:42 PM : Oct 18, 2007
AMEN!
He never met a liar he didn''t like!
What a great example of upstanding Americans these people are--they go out of their way to justify lies and deceit, then blame it on the Dems!!
We can only pray for justice!
Posted by SgtRDS
Part I
So, what does it say that Hillary Clinton chose Mr. Berger as one of her advisers, and that she will rely on the advice of a convicted criminal who is barred from access to the sort of national security information a party''s candidate for President is routinely briefed on during a campaign?
Many politicians are loyal to their friends. Many Presidents, Republican and Democrat alike, have kept in place people who turn out to be engaged in activity that no one should endorse. And many politicians maintain friendships with associates who have fallen from grace, not condoning their misdeeds, but not abandoning personal ties.
Hillary has done something entirely different. She selected a key adviser she knows has scandalously flouted the law, lied to deflect blame onto others, and subverted the democratic processes that provide accountability for officials'' conduct.
And she still insists that her name was leaked as revenge, when there is clearly no evidence that anybody intentionally leaked her name in the first place.
She selected someone who has destroyed documents that could be crucial to America''s security to be a trusted councilor on national security matters - documents that could have contained hand-written notes by her husband or information that would have called his judgment into question.
Hillary has had to renounce associates before. She''s had numerous fund-raising scandals involving criminal wrong-doing by people she should have known to be criminals, Norman Hsu being the most recent and notorious. But in all of those instances, she has had the plausible excuse that she didn''t know what they had done wrong.
If this happened under a Democratic President, I''d call it treason too.
In Sandy Berger''s case, there is no excuse. Hillary''s inclusion of Sandy Berger in her circle of advisers demonstrates that, notwithstanding her law license, she really doesn''t care about the law. She doesn''t care whether someone violates the law if they''re on her team, if the violation in some way helps the Clintons. Hillary''s indifference to criminal wrong-doing suggests that she sees herself as above the law, breezily ignoring law when it''s an impediment to something she wants.
During Bill Clinton''s administration, there was no shortage of indications that perhaps the Clintons, husband and wife, were a bit casual about legal niceties. Although the accusations fixated many and resulted in convictions for more than a few Clinton associates, in the end, though he was disbarred for five years, Bill Clinton got something of a break because he was personally charming and his accusers seemed less so. Public reaction was that you might not want him around your daughter, but you''d be happy to go have a drink with Bill.
Picking Sandy Berger tells us something important about Hillary''s character. We should listen now - while it can do some good.
So much for your lying POS b.s.
Lord knows the liberals have anything else.
Poor, poor little pseudo-spy Valerie Plame and her Clinton stooge, Joe Wilson.
They feel persecuted for concocting a smear against the President published in the New York Times.
And they feel they should be able to smear anyone they want, and make up any story they want, and expect the public to side with them when their plan to take down the President failed.
Of course - they are liberals. Liberals think that way.
Boo frigin'' hoo.
And now the dipstick Katie Couric wants to drag the story out in front of the public for a curtain call.
Liberal bias used to be more subtle, but now the liberal press is getting mighty desparate.
When you have this many clowns on the left, you can expect a circus to break out...
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