Valerie Plame, reluctant litigator ...
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Like some reluctant rock star, former CIA covert agent Valerie Plame enthralled a banquet hall full of readers and industry types at BookExpo America, telling them that she had finally decided to sue those responsible for blowing her cover to “hold government officials to account” and to “prevent future abuses” of power.
‘I was very much against it,’ Plame said, portraying herself as a mild-mannered civil servant and mother who was pulled into the spotlight against her will. She said that she and her husband, former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, had ‘had many discussions at high volume.’ In the end, Wilson’s argument won out. ‘Just as you have to be vigilant to protect our national security, we have to be vigilant to protect our freedom of speech,’ she said.
Bestselling hip-hop artist Russell Simmons (‘Do You!: 12 Laws to Access the Power in You to Achieve Happiness and Success’); actor Alan Alda, whose book ‘Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself’ is due out in September; and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman. whose ‘The Conscience of a Liberal’ will be released in October, were also on the panel. But Plame was the big draw.
She is awaiting a federal judge’s ruling over whether her suit against Vice President Dick Cheney, his former aide I. Lewis ‘Scooter’ Libby, presidential advisor Karl Rove and former deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage can proceed.
Last week, she filed another lawsuit, this time to block the CIA from interfering with her book, ‘Fair Game,’ which will be published in the fall by Simon & Schuster. She and her publisher claim that the agency, its director, Michael V. Hayden, and National Intelligence Director J. Michael McConnell are blocking her from publishing employment dates and information about her CIA work against nuclear arms proliferation that became public with her outing. She pooh-poohed the notion that her book would put the nation’s security at risk, noting that the contested information was had been published in the Congressional Record and is available on the Internet.
‘This makes a memoir somewhat problematic,’ Plame said. ‘The way I’ve been treated is absurd.’
— Scott Timberg