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4usnews:Valerie Plame Wilson was undercover CIA agent, working to limit the spread of nuclear weapons. In 2003 her career had been killed. CIA covert operation Plame was illegally provided by the Bush administration in an attempt to discredit her husband, Joe Wilson, accused the White House in the falsification of intelligence to mislead the public and build a case for invading Iraq.
Wilson, a diplomat stationed in Africa and Iraq during the first Bush administration, conducted in 2002 the CIA fact-finding mission to Niger, investigate rumors that Saddam Hussein tried to buy 500 tons of yellow uranium. His report concluded the story was bogus.
When President Bush reiterated the Niger allegations – now famous 16 words – in his 2003 letter about the situation in the Soviet Union, Wilson went public their findings in The New York Times. “Undercover status of his wife was blown up in response to a week.
Repression White House under the threat of Plame’s overseas contacts, torpedoed career couples, the impugned their integrity and pushed their marriage on the brink.
Life Plame as a spy and her betrayal of the White House is now the subject of Hollywood drama. “Fair Game,” based on the recollections of a couple, stars Naomi Watts and Sean Penn, and was released on the Minneapolis film financier Bill Pohlad. I spoke with the Plame Wilson by phone from their Santa Fe, NM, home last month.
Q: What was it like going from a life of secrecy to unintentional celebrity?
VPW: Very difficult. I went from a career where, obviously discretion is paramount and literally overnight, everything changed. I found it very hard to be a public person. One positive thing that came out of it, I was able to speak publicly, that I did while at the CIA, which was Counterproliferation. (Plame appeared as on-screen expert in anti-Nuke documentary “Countdown to zero,” released earlier this year.)
Q: Some of your critics, you seem to be enjoying a celebrity too much profit from the book and movie deals and hobnobbing in Hollywood.
JW: I wrote an article arguing the administration probably skewed intelligence to justify war, which is now more than 4000 Americans and 100.000 Iraqis have been killed. Two days after my article appeared, the press spokesman forthe White House acknowledged that the 16 words should never have to use “State of the Union. All the rest occurred as a consequence protect me and my wife and my family from their attacks. If they ever did not attack me, we would not be here. If they will stop attacking me, they do not have to worry about the future.
VPW: None of this happened so that we can write books, I assure you.
Question: The film is a portrait of a marriage under stress. How did it feel to see your marital issues dramatized?
VPW: It is very painful for us to watch these scenes in the movie, because they are powerful. When we met this really was love at first sight. This line, “They do not take my marriage,” I really said that. My children are the most important things in my life.
Q: Joe, you’re in the movie is portrayed as a man considerable ego. How does it feel?
JW: What is ego? I’m just telling you this way. When in the course of your adult life, he came to you to face down Saddam Hussein, then George W. Bush, it becomes difficult to accept people named Scooter seriously. (Vice President Chief of Staff Scooter Libby, one of the sources of leakage, was found guilty on five counts of lying and obstructing justice.) I think that my arrogance leavened with more humor than the show, Sean.
Question: How accurate is “Fair Game”?
VPW: It’s not a documentary. This condensed, and there are some tracks of characters. But I think it’s a really good job to portray what we have experienced, and the truth is.
Q: There’s a scene where someone accosts Joe in the restaurant, he has a business meeting and accuses Valerie to be a traitor. Did that really happen?
JW: I was in a restaurant in Washington, DC, and I got up and left. This man walked up to people I had lunch with, and said: “If you’re working with Wilson, you’ll never work in this town again.” But this is an actual confrontation did not happen.
Q: The father of director Doug Liman, Arthur Lyman, was chief counsel for the Senate Iran-Contra hearings in mid-1980′s. Did his deep ties to Washington to help him understand the mentality of the city so other filmmakers can not?
VPW: We know who his father is, and we knew his work before. He made it clear that he wanted to be fun. He wanted people to see this movie, and not just some art-house flick. But he was also very dedicated to truth and accuracy, much more so than the way the CIA is portrayed in “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” or “The Bourne Identity.”
Q: The actors meet with you to learn your voice and manner?
JW: I’ve spent a lot of time with Sean, both here in Santa Fe and New York.
VPW: Naomi did not come here, but we spent a lot of time together and we became pretty good friends.
Q: The film is not very subtle sexism in the espionage world. Were you treated differently by the agency or the media than male agent would be?
VPW: CIA clearly male-dominated organization. This was probably convenient that I’m a woman. Because you can easily say, well, it was just a glorified secretary. That’s something I do to give my husband this so-called boondoggle to Niger. It was convenient for the story thatthe White House and its allies have sought to bring about what happened. “Oh, it’s just out of molehills,” do it all on the Wilsons, anything to divert attention from what really happened.
Q: What would you tell someone comes to you for advice about a career in public service?
JW: 21-th century, it may be more dangerous than the 20 th century was. We’re going to need the best and brightest in our military services, our intelligence and our diplomatic services, and they are all great, great career.
VPW: I loved doing what I was doing and was proud to serve my country. Despite what happened to us, there are so many ways to deal with. It should not be at the federal level, but trying to bring about positive social change, there are many ways to do this.
Q: You have left swampland DC for the wilderness of Santa Fe. What is life like now?
VPW: We are very happy here. This is a beautiful part of the world. We will restore our privacy, our professional lives, our children are happy here. Washington has never been to our house, anyway.
