Spring Break
Former CIA agent Plame tells her story
John Coleman, Associate News Editor, jpcolema@smu.edu
Issue date: 11/19/08 Section: News
Plame moved through 2002 when she was appointed to the head of what she called the "Iraq task force" to "the infamous 16 words in January of 2003."
She said in the President's State of the Union Address President Bush said, "the British government has learned that Sadam Hussein has sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa"
Plame remembered questioning the speech finding it "weird," especially after her husband found nothing during his trip to Africa.
Plame then recalled former Secretary of State Colin Powell's infamous speech to the United Nations to "try and sell the world on the Iraq war."
"I was at CIA headquarters watching with rapt attention," Plame said. "As I watched it unfold, my heart turned. It was very clear that what he was basing his arguments on was very weak and patchy, I knew from all the intelligence we had.
"To this point I had not looked at the broader picture, and for the first time I found myself saying that what I knew didn't match up with what the administration was saying."
The U.S. went to war shortly after Powell's UN address in March of 2003.
Plame said that her husband used all of his contacts to find out why the administration's information did not match up with what he had found.
After National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice dismissively said that some "lower-level CIA bowels might have known about the falseness of the info" and warnings from journalists that the story was about to break, Wilson decided to write the op/ed piece Plame said.
Plame discussed her discovery that she had been named in the Washington Post column and the beginning of the end of her career at the CIA.
"On July 14, Joe came in our bed room early in the morning and just said, 'well the SOB did it,'" Plame recalled. "I am immediately thinking that the career that I love is now over, and even more the safety of my twins sleeping next door, what happens to them?"
In January 2006, Plame decided to resign from the CIA and "turn the page in her life."
She then turned to write her memoirs of all the events and her career at the CIA when the agency had deemed that she could not acknowledge her employment before 2002 in her book, making it hard to write a memoir, she joked.
"I felt like I had fallen down the rabbit hole; black was white and white was black," she said. "Apparently I didn't exist and just fell from the sky in January 2002.
Plame has since filed class-action law suits against the CIA to get her memoirs published.
Plame closed with the message urging young people toward a career in public service despite what had happened to her.
"I would urge any and all young people toward a career in public service. We need all hands on deck right now," Plame said. "There are too many things that need to be fixed, I know it sounds corny but it is true: you are working for something bigger than yourself."
She said in the President's State of the Union Address President Bush said, "the British government has learned that Sadam Hussein has sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa"
Plame remembered questioning the speech finding it "weird," especially after her husband found nothing during his trip to Africa.
Plame then recalled former Secretary of State Colin Powell's infamous speech to the United Nations to "try and sell the world on the Iraq war."
"I was at CIA headquarters watching with rapt attention," Plame said. "As I watched it unfold, my heart turned. It was very clear that what he was basing his arguments on was very weak and patchy, I knew from all the intelligence we had.
"To this point I had not looked at the broader picture, and for the first time I found myself saying that what I knew didn't match up with what the administration was saying."
The U.S. went to war shortly after Powell's UN address in March of 2003.
Plame said that her husband used all of his contacts to find out why the administration's information did not match up with what he had found.
After National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice dismissively said that some "lower-level CIA bowels might have known about the falseness of the info" and warnings from journalists that the story was about to break, Wilson decided to write the op/ed piece Plame said.
Plame discussed her discovery that she had been named in the Washington Post column and the beginning of the end of her career at the CIA.
"On July 14, Joe came in our bed room early in the morning and just said, 'well the SOB did it,'" Plame recalled. "I am immediately thinking that the career that I love is now over, and even more the safety of my twins sleeping next door, what happens to them?"
In January 2006, Plame decided to resign from the CIA and "turn the page in her life."
She then turned to write her memoirs of all the events and her career at the CIA when the agency had deemed that she could not acknowledge her employment before 2002 in her book, making it hard to write a memoir, she joked.
"I felt like I had fallen down the rabbit hole; black was white and white was black," she said. "Apparently I didn't exist and just fell from the sky in January 2002.
Plame has since filed class-action law suits against the CIA to get her memoirs published.
Plame closed with the message urging young people toward a career in public service despite what had happened to her.
"I would urge any and all young people toward a career in public service. We need all hands on deck right now," Plame said. "There are too many things that need to be fixed, I know it sounds corny but it is true: you are working for something bigger than yourself."
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