Valerie Plame

Valeria Plame is a former CIA employee whose identity was revealed by Richard Armitage and exposed in a column by political writer Robert Novak. Plame is the wife of Joseph Wilson and the center of the Valerie Plame Affair.

Although Plame was not covered by the Intelligence Identities Protection Act,, the exposure of her CIA employment led to the appointment by President Bush of Patrick Fitzgerald to investigate the matter.

Robert Novak wrote:

• Zealous foes of George W. Bush ... cannot fit Armitage into the left-wing fantasy of a well-crafted White House conspiracy to destroy Joe and Valerie Wilson. The news that he, and not Karl Rove, was the leaker was devastating for the left. [2]

The investigation led eventually to the conviction of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Jr., former Chief of Staff to Vice President of the United States, Richard Cheney, for perjury to a grand jury, making false statements to federal investigators, and obstruction of justice.

In May 2007, Senator Kit Bond, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee asked Plame to explain differences in the various accounts Plame gave to investigators in the Plame Affair.

• Plame told the CIA's inspector general in 2003 or 2004 that she had suggested Wilson.

• Plame told Senate Intelligence Committee staffers in 2004 that she couldn't remember whether she had suggested Wilson.

• She 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.

See also

• Intelligence Identities Protection Act