Spring Break
Former CIA agent Plame tells her story
John Coleman, Associate News Editor, jpcolema@smu.edu
Issue date: 11/19/08 Section: News
Valerie Plame Wilson, retired CIA operations officer, told her story of public service and work in the intelligence community before the Iraq war to a capacity crowd in the Hughes-Trigg theater Tuesday night.
Plame said that it is not good for CIA operatives to be well known. She is however, in the public eye for the incident in which her husband, Joseph Wilson, a former ambassador, wrote a column in the New York Times entitled "What I Didn't Find in Africa."
The column called into question the Bush administration's rationale behind believing Sadam Hussein was buying yellowcake uranium from Africa for a nuclear weapons program. Wilson had previously gone to Africa for the CIA to investigate the very claim of yellowcake sale and found to it be bogus.
After the column ran on July 6, 2003, Robert Novak wrote a response in a syndicated column for the Washington Post and named Plame as Wilson's wife and outted her as a CIA operative.
Novak's public disclosure of Plame's then-classified identity led to what was known as the "Plame affair" and a CIA leak grand jury investigation.
Plame agreed to tell her story at the Raggio lecture and began with why she decided to join the CIA in the first place.
"I grew up in a household where civil service was regarded as a noble practice," Plame said. "Implicitly there was this idea that you should serve your country."
Plame said the CIA offered her a unique chance to serve her country without having to be in the public eye. She said that it was a thankless job, but could help a lot of people.
Plame took the captivated audience through her early training at the CIA calling it "the farm" and comparing the army style training she received to "extreme camp for adults."
The story of the "Plame Affair" began on Feb. 2, 2002, when her husband was selected for a mission to Africa to investigate the yellowcake sale. Upon her husband's return, Plame said that her husband found no evidence of such a sale going on in Africa.
Plame said that it is not good for CIA operatives to be well known. She is however, in the public eye for the incident in which her husband, Joseph Wilson, a former ambassador, wrote a column in the New York Times entitled "What I Didn't Find in Africa."
The column called into question the Bush administration's rationale behind believing Sadam Hussein was buying yellowcake uranium from Africa for a nuclear weapons program. Wilson had previously gone to Africa for the CIA to investigate the very claim of yellowcake sale and found to it be bogus.
After the column ran on July 6, 2003, Robert Novak wrote a response in a syndicated column for the Washington Post and named Plame as Wilson's wife and outted her as a CIA operative.
Novak's public disclosure of Plame's then-classified identity led to what was known as the "Plame affair" and a CIA leak grand jury investigation.
Plame agreed to tell her story at the Raggio lecture and began with why she decided to join the CIA in the first place.
"I grew up in a household where civil service was regarded as a noble practice," Plame said. "Implicitly there was this idea that you should serve your country."
Plame said the CIA offered her a unique chance to serve her country without having to be in the public eye. She said that it was a thankless job, but could help a lot of people.
Plame took the captivated audience through her early training at the CIA calling it "the farm" and comparing the army style training she received to "extreme camp for adults."
The story of the "Plame Affair" began on Feb. 2, 2002, when her husband was selected for a mission to Africa to investigate the yellowcake sale. Upon her husband's return, Plame said that her husband found no evidence of such a sale going on in Africa.
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