Plame met with folks who worked in the nuclear industry, cultivated sources, and managed spies.  She was a national security asset until exposed.  CBS confirmed that part of Plame’s work involved ensuring that Iran did not acquire nuclear weapons.  Robert Novak's disclosures in his column, which resulted in Mrs. Wilson's public outing on 14 July 2003, ended her career with the CIA, from which she later resigned in December 2005.  Official legal documents published in the course of the CIA leak grand jury investigation, United States v. Libby, and Congressional investigations fully establish Mrs. Wilson's classified employment as a covert officer for the CIA at the time that Novak's column was published in July 2003.  Read"Libby- Dry Snitch", even your government doesn't want you to know the truth and is willing to snitch on its own spies.

CIA leak grand jury investigation In his press conference of October 28, 2005, Special Counsel Fitzgerald explained in considerable detail the necessity of "secrecy" about his Grand Jury investigation that began in the fall of 2003 "when it was clear that Valerie Wilson's cover had been blown" and the background and consequences of the indictment of Lewis Libby as it pertains to Valerie E. Wilson.

  Fitzgerald's subsequent replies to reporters' questions shed further light on the parameters of the "leak investigation" and what, as its lead prosecutor, bound by "the rules of grand jury secrecy," he could and could not reveal legally at the time.  Official court documents released later, on April 5, 2006,

reveal that Libby testified that "he was specifically authorized in advance" of his meeting with New York Times reporter Judith Miller to disclose the "key judgments" of the October 2002 classified National Intelligence Estimate (NIE).  According to Libby's testimony, "the Vice President later advised him that the President had authorized defendant to disclose the relevant portions of the NIE [to Judith Miller]."  According to his testimony, the information that Libby was authorized to disclose to Miller "was intended to rebut the allegations of an administration critic, former ambassador Joseph Wilson."  A couple of days after Libby's meeting with Miller, Condoleezza Rice told reporters, "We don't want to try to get into kind of selective declassification" of the NIE, adding "We're looking at what can be made available." 

A "sanitized version" of the NIE in question was officially declassified on July 18, 2003, ten days after Libby's contact with Miller, and was presented at a White House background briefing on weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq.  The NIE contains no references to Valerie Plame or her CIA status, but the Special Counsel has suggested that White House actions were part of "a plan to discredit, punish or seek revenge against Mr. Wilson."  President Bush had previously indicated that he would fire whoever outed Plame. 

A court filing by Libby's defense team argued that Valerie Plame was not foremost on the minds of administration officials as they sought to rebut charges made by her husband, Joseph Wilson, that the White House manipulated intelligence to make a case for invasion. The filing indicated that Libby's lawyers did not intend to say he was told to reveal Plame's identity.  The court filing also stated that "Mr. Libby plans to demonstrate that the indictment is wrong when it suggests that he and other government officials viewed Ms. Wilson's role in sending her husband to Africa as important," indicating that Libby's lawyers planned to call Karl Rove to the stand.  According to Rove's lawyer, Fitzgerald has decided against pressing charges against Rove.  The five-count indictment of Libby included perjury (two counts), obstruction of justice (one count), and making false statements to federal investigators (two counts). 

Libby trial: United States v. Libby On March 6, 2007, Libby was convicted of obstruction of justice, making false statements, and two counts of perjury.  He was acquitted on one count of making false statements.  His sentence included a $250,000 fine, 30 months in prison and two years of probation.  On July 2, 2007, President George W. Bush commuted Libby's sentence, removing the jail term but leaving in place the fine and probation, calling the sentence "excessive."  In a subsequent press conference, on July 12, 2007, President Bush noted, "...the Scooter Libby decision was, I thought, a fair and balanced decision."  The Wilsons responded to the commutation in statements posted by their legal counsel, Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), and on their own legal support website.

Book Description
On July 6, 2003, four months after the United States invaded Iraq, former ambassador Joseph Wilson's now historic op-ed, "What I Didn't Find in Africa," appeared in The New York Times.  A week later, conservative pundit Robert Novak revealed in his newspaper column that Ambassador Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame Wilson, was a CIA operative. The public disclosure of that secret information spurred a federal investigation and led to the trial and conviction of Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, Scooter Libby, and the Wilsons' civil suit against top officials of the Bush administration.  Much has been written about the "Valerie Plame" story, but Valerie herself has been silent, until now.  Some of what has been reported about her has been frighteningly accurate, serving as a pungent reminder to the Wilsons that their lives are no longer private.  And some has been completely false - distorted characterizations of Valerie and her husband and their shared integrity.

Valerie Wilson retired from the CIA in January 2006, and now, not only as a citizen but as a wife and mother, the daughter of an Air Force colonel, and the sister of a U.S. marine, she sets the record straight, providing an extraordinary account of her training and experiences, and answers many questions that have been asked about her covert status, her responsibilities, and her life.  As readers will see, the CIA still deems much of the detail of Valerie's story to be classified. As a service to readers, an afterword by national security reporter Laura Rozen provides a context for Valerie's own story.  Fair Game is the historic and unvarnished account of the personal and international consequences of speaking truth to power.

• Fair Game - published by Simon & Schuster
• Fair Game - read an excerpt
• Scooter - Dry Snitch, Ain't that a Bi...