Unmasked Ex-Operative Plame Signs Book Deal

Valerie Plame, the former CIA operative whose unmasking led to a federal investigation and the indictment of a top vice presidential aide, has agreed to a book deal with the Crown Publishing Group.

Financial terms were not disclosed, but two sources close to the negotiations said the deal was in the low seven figures.

Several publishers had competed for the memoir, scheduled to come out in fall 2007 and tentatively titled “Fair Game.” In 2003, White House advisor Karl Rove allegedly said Plame was “fair game” after her husband, former U.S. Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, accused the Bush administration of distorting intelligence about Iraq to justify going to war.

“She will tell her whole story, absolutely,” Steve Ross, Crown publisher and senior vice president, said Friday. “This book will be the first time the public will get to hear about her work and the surprising role she had in intelligence gathering in the lead-up to the war in Iraq.”

How much Plame, now retired from the agency, will reveal could be complicated by two factors: the CIA, which reviews the manuscripts of former agents and has reportedly become stricter about what it will permit, and next year’s scheduled trial of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney.

Libby is charged with perjury and obstruction of justice. He is accused of lying to the FBI and a federal grand jury about how he learned about Plame’s identity and about what he subsequently told reporters about her. Rove remains under investigation.

Ross acknowledged that Plame could be subject to CIA censorship but said restrictions “would be a potential public relations land mine if the CIA was seen as trying to block” too much of her book. Regarding Libby’s trial and any possible future indictments, Ross said: “Obviously, we would not want to publish anything that would jeopardize any important legal cases.”