The Spy Who Came in From the Cold…Unwillingly

WASHINGTON, March 16, 2007 — -- Valerie Plame has finally told her story.

Until now, Americans could only look at Plame on TV or, perhaps most famously, in a "Vanity Fair" spread about the blond spy, now 43, and her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, 57.

Unlike his wife, Wilson has been a regular on the TV talk show circuit. But today, America not only got to see Plame but, for the first time, to hear her, too.

And she had plenty to say when she appeared before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Hampered by CIA secrecy rules, Plame (also known by her married name, Valerie Wilson) had remained silent since her identity was first revealed in a column by Robert Novak in July 2003. The Committee obtained CIA approval to question her but with strict limits on what she could answer.

Her CIA training was evident from the moment she began testifying. Although she is deeply angry, she remained disciplined and as cool as a Hitchcock blonde, even when she accused administration officials of "carelessly and recklessly" abusing her name and identity:

"All of them understood that I worked for the CIA. And, having signed oaths to protect national security secrets, they should have been diligent in protecting me and every CIA officer."

Plame's problems began after Wilson disputed President Bush's claim that Iraq tried to buy nuclear material from the African nation of Niger in Time's op-ed piece.

Soon after that, she saw columnist Robert Novak's piece connecting her to the CIA Said Plame, "I felt like I had been hit in the gut… I immediately thought of my family's safety, the agents, the networks I had worked with…"

When the Plame story broke in July 2003, some accounts presented her as more of a clerk than a covert operative. Some wondered whether it mattered that her identify had been revealed if her job was really not very secret.

Today, she said it very definitely mattered: "We in the CIA always know that we might be exposed and threatened by foreign enemies. It was a terrible irony that administration officials were the ones who destroyed my cover."

She also referred to the recent trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby: "Testimony in the criminal trial of Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff, who has now been convicted of serious crimes, indicates that my exposure arose from purely political motives…The harm that is done when a CIA cover is blown is grave. But I can't provide details beyond that in this public hearing."

Because her identity was made public, she said, "I could not longer perform the work for which I had been highly trained."

Plame denied suggestions that many people in Washington and elsewhere had long known of her work with the CIA.

"It was not common knowledge on the Georgetown cocktail circuit that everyone knew where I worked," she said. "But all of my efforts on behalf of the national security of the United States, all of my training, all the value of my years of service, were abruptly ended when my name and identity were exposed irresponsibly."

She also said that in recent years she had worked overseas as a covert operative.

Plame's story will not end with her testimony on Capitol Hill. Her husband has already written a book. Now, she has penned her own memoir, but the CIA has not yet given approval for it to be published.

Plame and Wilson have also sold the rights to their story to Warner Brothers. They have also filed lawsuits against several officials, including Vice President Cheney.

When asked by a congressman whether anyone from the Bush administration has apologized to her, she said there have been no apologies.

Should the White House change its mind, it will have to send any apology to the couple's new home in Santa Fe, N.M. Plame and her husband want their 7-year-old twin daughters to grow up in a different and less political environment. They have had quite enough of Washington, D.C.