Valerie Plame Wilson: No Ordinary Spy

In Her First Interview, Former CIA Officer Speaks To Katie Couric

(CBS)  In early 2002, Plame Wilson says an officer from her task force got a call from one of Dick Cheney's staffers, asking the CIA to look into the allegation.

"And just as we were talking and pondering this, another colleague of mine came by, overheard us. And he suggested, he said, 'Well what about Joe? Why don't we send Joe?'" she recalls.

Send "Joe," as in her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson.

When it was brought up, Plame Wilson thought it was a reasonable idea. "Because Joe has the independent credentials to do this. He knew Iraq and Saddam Hussein. He had served many years in Africa. He had in fact, knew the governments, the different governments of Niger," she says.

"He had, in fact, gone to Niger for the CIA before," Couric remarks.

"Yes. He had done some missions. Yes," Plame Wilson says.

So her CIA superiors dispatched him back to Niger, where he concluded the uranium sale was "highly unlikely." That was March 2002. Almost a year later, during the State of the Union address, President Bush uttered these 16 words: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."

"I just thought it sounded odd. Of course, I already thought back to Joe's trip, but I'm thinking, 'Well, there are other countries in Africa that produce uranium, yellow cake uranium. Niger is not the only one.' So…," says Plame Wilson.

At first she was willing to give the president the benefit of the doubt. But eight days later, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell gave a presentation to the United Nations, making the case for war. It was then she realized - based on firsthand knowledge - that things were not adding up.

"Because I knew what we had from months and months of working and trying to find this intelligence. And here was a highly respected secretary of state, and he's talking about things that, in my world, I knew not to be entirely accurate," Plame Wilson recalls. "I think it was for me the first time that I stepped back a little bit from the operational weeds and said, 'What is going on here?' Because it was clear we were going to war, and I thought it was a very thin case. They were taking bits and pieces, cherry-picking, intelligence to make their case for war."

Her husband shared that view. And four months after the invasion of Iraq he went public in an opinion piece in the New York Times, called "What I Didn't Find In Africa," alleging the pre-war "intelligence was twisted to exaggerate the Iraqi threat." At the time, his wife was still undercover at the CIA's joint task force Iraq.

"Did you ever talk to him, weigh the pros and cons of going public with this?" Couric asks.

"No, he had thought long and hard about doing this before writing this piece, this op-ed piece," Plame Wilson says. "It had nothing whatsoever to do with me."

"You never for a moment thought this could potentially jeopardize my career?" Couric asks.

"It's called living your cover. This had nothing to do with what I was doing," Plame Wilson says.

"But admit it. It comes awfully close to what you were doing, even covertly. I mean, you were trying to ascertain if Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. He's writing an article saying it's really not valid, this one assertion. I mean, can't you see how those two things might collide in a very dangerous way?" Couric asks.

"Listen, he had information that was firsthand information that was in stark contrast to the lie, the 16 words that appeared in the president's State of the Union address. He wasn't supposed to say anything?" Plame Wilson replies.

Two days after the opinion piece ran, the White House admitted the 16 words "did not rise to the level of inclusion in a presidential speech."

[petersemkiw]

Beautiful Valerie Plame Wilson is certainly not your ordinary looking run of the mill spy. She looked great in that picture in the Jaguar...and for months I thought her name was Valerie Flame!

[georgew1956]

i don''t know who done the most wrong. Katie Or George were so use to george *** up that Katie jumped right in there and became president of the fools union.

[ioweign]

Hey walt, she was a desk jockey!!!!

Posted by Xlib at 09:35 AM : Aug 18, 2008

And George was a cheerleader!!!!!

[ioweign]

The CIA had already given up Plame''''s name to Cuba, Russia, et al, 5-10 years back. But of course she can gloss over that. British Intelligence continued to speak of other documents than the Italian forgeries connecting Iraq and Niger, well after Joe Wilson''''s article. Why does she gloss over that? Joe Wilson said, "I was sent by the Vice President", which raised the question of the White House, of "who is this guy"? The White House didn''''t know and literally had to find out, who this guy was, that was using the White House as a front.
Now they want to cry foul because the White House answered the very question Wilson and Plame raised in the Press. That is called being disengenuous. That means, intentionally decietful.

Posted by kesac4650 at 12:16 AM : Aug 18, 2008

Do you have a "source" for your info ??

[ioweign]

hofkurz-Ah, the big vast right wing conspiracy lives in your addled brain. This is a non story, always was, always will be. This chick was a desk jockey who sent her non ambassador hubby to Niger to spread lies. He is and was a nothing as was and is she. You leemings will swallow anything your soros controlled media feeds you. Now, refresh your koolaid cup.

Posted by Xlib at 07:33 AM : Aug 18, 2008

She did not have the pay grade to detail her husband and exactly what kind of job/occupation is a spy suppose to have that would satisfy "you".

[luvny-2009]

Watched it...listened to it.... believed it. Those that elected those criminals in Washington should be ashamed. We have a dictator not a president. This women lost her job over her husbands honestly. They went after his family. That maked me sick, the US has gotten so far out of wack in the last almost 8 years I''m ashamed of it.

[xlib]

Hey walt, she was a desk jockey!!!!

[archiej2]

All kidding (or seriousness) aside, it would be a sure bet that Valerie has to be the most beautiful spy that any country has working on it''s behalf. You gotta believe that just about any male could be persuaded to give away all the goods after spending an evening with this stunning spy.

[xlib]

walt1944-such a hateful, vile post but hey, that''s today''s dem party. If you have any anti psychotic meds, please take them and have your levels checked. You are a sick, vile human being.
And thanks you the supportive words for our wounded military. You, sir, are the reason I left the party.
Sick, just sick.
Hey, are you mcvet with another name???

[walt1944-2009]

All of you neocon Fascist Nazi reight-wing WACKO Republicans out there, take Anthony Scalia''s "advice", ACCEPT IT, GET A LIFE! SHOW US YOUR "PATRIOTISM"!! JOIN THE ARMY! GO TO IRAQ OR AFGHANISTAN AND GET SHOT AT FOR REAL!!!

THEN COME BACK HERE (OR MAYBE A PART OF YOU ANYWAY!) AND WE CAN CALL ALL OF YOU "DESK JOCKEYS" TOO!!!!!!!

STAND UP STRAIGHT AND PROUD WITH RIGHT ARM OUT AND SHOUT!!!!

SIG HEIL, BUSH!!!!!!!
sig heil, OLDER CLONE OF GEORGE BUSH, "DRRRRIIILLLLL!" MCCAIN!!!!!

[xlib]

hofkurz-Ah, the big vast right wing conspiracy lives in your addled brain. This is a non story, always was, always will be. This chick was a desk jockey who sent her non ambassador hubby to Niger to spread lies. He is and was a nothing as was and is she. You leemings will swallow anything your soros controlled media feeds you. Now, refresh your koolaid cup.

[xlib]

OK, we have the CIA story, next there will be a Katrina victim story followed by race baiting and class envy.
Still waiting for the real OUTER of this desk jockey. By the way, now she was a spy and not an operative???
Say, the sister of a friend of ours has joined the FBI as an analyst (same as plame for the CIA). If I give her name will I be charged for outing spy??
This is such a non story and cbs should be ashamed.

[juwboy]

wmbrashier:

You lost even more credibility by misspelling "lose".

[wmbrashier]

They loose their "credibility" as I did for misspelling the word.

[wmbrashier]

Why is it when people disagree with thing that they read, they become judgemental and insulting? They loose all their creditability. They show their inability to express themselves.

[sdnavyproud]

I didn''t catch this diddy of journalism when it was first perpetrated upon the public last October, but now that I have truly lost all hope that Ms. Couric will make a significant contribution to resoring integrity to her field. It was totally disgraceful in the obvious desire to assault the Wilson character.

The administration had the responsibility and obligation to filter out partisanship, so that war would turn into a reckless endeavor... and they blew it.

Now a whole ''nother generation will be paying the price and only half the country REALLY cares.

[hofkurz]

All these journalists need lessons in Questions 101. I haven''t seen a good interview on CBS in years.

Guess the puppet master had to cover his tracks to save Shrub.

[dafesq]

Could Katie Couric''s interview of Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson possibly been more insipid? She seemed bewildered that they would still be "seething" after their very lives were put into jeopardy by members of the Bush administration. She says she knows that neither Karl Rove nor Scooter Libby''s spouses are CIA agents and implies Plame was fair game. Finally Katie doesn''t respond to Bush''s failure to keep his promise to fire anyone found to be responsible for the leak. Katie may be cute, but a responsible journalist? The first thing a real journalist would do would be to drop "Katie" for something a little more grownup.

[kesac4650]

The CIA had already given up Plame''s name to Cuba, Russia, et al, 5-10 years back. But of course she can gloss over that. British Intelligence continued to speak of other documents than the Italian forgeries connecting Iraq and Niger, well after Joe Wilson''s article. Why does she gloss over that? Joe Wilson said, "I was sent by the Vice President", which raised the question of the White House, of "who is this guy"? The White House didn''t know and literally had to find out, who this guy was, that was using the White House as a front.
Now they want to cry foul because the White House answered the very question Wilson and Plame raised in the Press. That is called being disengenuous. That means, intentionally decietful.

Ditto on Couric! She is an idiot to beleive a c arefully laid out lie from PLAME. Plame knows that she will not be contrdicted by her employer, at least in her lifetime.
She and her husband were out to get Bush by trying to curry favor by suposedly outing a "Bush" lie regarding the attempt by Saadam to accumulate yellow cake. CBS tries to make Mr. Plame important and convincing by referring to him as an ambassador, nothing could be further from the truth! Mr. Plame was given the duties as a temporary replacement for an abscent ambassador, but NEVER given the official title. My understanding is that he talked too much and was concidered to not be "to bright". This is the guy that CBS would have yob elieve is the hero od "yellow" gate. Wake up people, CBS had to throw Rather under the bus because Rather dug his grave too deep! CBS can''t stand another embarassment named Plame. As long as it can''t be proved that Ms Plame was part of the team to embarass Bush, CBS will keep bringing the story up. After all, they stand to make money on the specious book by Ms Plame!