Cover of Fair Game

Fair Game

My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House

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Fair Game

By: Valerie Plame Wilson
Narrated by: Valerie Plame Wilson
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Summary
 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.©2007 Valerie Wilson; Afterword ©2007 Laura Rozen; (P)2007 Simon and Schuster Inc. Americas Freedom & Security Politicians Politics & Activism Politics & Government United States Women
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Reviews

"Among the risks faced by men and women who volunteer to serve in our intelligence services are those which derive from American politics. This story shows us how strong the desire to serve can be and how treacherous the risks are in the minefields of Washington. Valerie Wilson volunteered at the height of the cold war. She expected to be betrayed by our enemies, not us." -- Bob Kerrey, Former U.S. Senator and Vice Chairman, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
"Plame spent a courageous and honorable career on the front lines of terrorism only to come home and meet the ultimate betrayal, her own country -- unethical politicians and unscrupulous journalists. Plame's story is a modern odyssey, a cautionary tale that should make Americans think twice before sacrificing their patriots." -- Lobert Baer, Former CIA Case Officer and the author of See No Evil and Sleeping With The Devil
"Plame had a front-row seat on both the politicization of pre-war intelligence and White House efforts to stem post-invasion criticism....[She] can be viewed as a canary in the proverbial coal mine, and her book reads like a grim testament to the noxious atmosphere of our current politics." -- The Boston Globe
"Fair Game -- which takes its title from Karl Rove's phrase about the legitimacy of blowing Ms. Wilson's professional camouflage -- describes how intense stress wrought havoc on the Wilsons' marriage, not to mention Ms. Wilson's state of mind....[And] she powerfully evokes the disbelief, fury and uncharacteristic terror that came with being outed. " -- The New York Times
"...Plame's own account of her life reveals her as a patriotic true believer in the CIA and its mission. " -- Los Angeles Times
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Most relevant
Most people remember the determination of the Bush/Cheney team to invade Irak because of the threat of WMD accumulated by Saddam Hussein.
Valerie Plane Wilson is a senior operative at the CIA. She has worked as a “non covered operative” in Europe and developed assets under the cover of an energy VP.
Called back to Washington she directs a team of analysts tracking the provenance of materials used for creation of weapons of mass destruction. She cannot find them. Neither can Wilson who investigates Niger.
The only intelligence considered by the presidency is favorable to going to war. After former ambassador Wilson denounces the administration’s reliance of tainted evidence to send troops to war, the ordeal of the family begins. First, Valerie is outed and vilified, Wilson’s reputation is trashed, and his business is destroyed. Finally they are threatened. The first part of the story is a heavily redacted version of Valerie’s diary. The second part is a commentary on the events, and additional information about the events.
I found the narrative very interesting and useful.
I had seen the movie “Fair Game” with Naomi Watts and Sean Penn. This book reminded me of the story and I learned a lot more about this scandal. I enjoyed it very much.

À great listen: the story of the persecution of the Wilson Plane family for an op-ed publication about yellow cake uranium

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