Valerie Plame and her husband, Joseph Wilson, arrive for a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington. Image © 2006 Lawrence Jackson/Associated Press

Thanks to movies and novels, the life of a spy always sounds glamorous and filled with intrigue, exotic locations, and secret missions. But the Hollywood glitz and glamour falls short of reality when your identity is revealed to the world, the national security of your and your own personal safety are threatened.  

This was certainly the case for Valerie Plame Wilson, a former operations officer who was at the centre of the 2003 CIA leak scandal, when her identity as a covert agent was leaked to the press and later to the public by members of George W. Bush’s administration. Today we are putting the spotlight on Plame ahead of her appearance at Beyond Borders International Festival this August at Traquair House.  

Born in Alaska and graduating with a B.A in Advertising from Pennsylvania State University, Valerie Plame was accepted into the CIA in 1985, for what would be a twenty-year career with the agency. Exact details of Plame’s professional career still remain classified, but it is known that she worked in counter-proliferation, assisting in ceasing the acquisition and spreading of weapons of mass destruction and long-range missiles. This all changed for Plame when her identity was leaked to journalists of major newspapers. 

When describing her experience, Plame said: “I was in a world where discretion was good… All of a sudden that changed overnight. That was not easy.” 

The disclosure of her identity can be seen as an act of retribution against her husband. Wilson, had published an op-ed piece in The New York Times, where he criticised George W. Bush’s statement that former Iraqi President Sadam Hussein, had bought nuclear weapon-grade plutonium in Niger. This claim from Bush was one of the reasons for believing that Iraq were keeping Weapons of Mass Destruction and a main factor for the invasion of the nation in 2003. As a result of his criticism towards the Bush administration, the covert identity of Plame as a CIA operative was leaked to journalists of major newspapers. 

In an interview with the American Bar Association Plame spoke about how partisan politics in the White House took priority over her service, her own security and the national security of the United States:  

“We did not serve as Democrats abroad or Republicans abroad. You serve as an American.”  

“It should be just the facts,” she said with reference to the politicisation of intelligence services. “You become a Banana Republic if you allow momentary partisan politics to have sway on national security.” 

She delved deeper into this when talking to the Star Tribune: 

“But what is at the bottom of this is the unprecedented fact that senior administration officials severely damaged our national security for their own political agenda,” she said. “Most fair-minded people would agree that that is what happened, and I do hope it happens only once.” 

In 2006, there was a general public discussion that Naval officer and Deputy Secretary of State, Richard Armitage, was the person responsible for disclosing Plame\\\\’s identity to journalist Robert Novak. Despite this, the investigation was never re-opened and Armitage was never charged. 

Instead, Dick Cheney’s Chief of Staff, Lewis “Scooter” Libby, was found guilty of one count of obstruction of justice, two counts of perjury, and one count of making false statements. He was ultimately sentenced to 30 months in prison and fined $250,000. Four months later Bush commuted Libby’s sentence, and in April 2018, he was granted a pardon by Donald Trump.  

In an interview with NPR, when asked how she felt about the pardon, she believed it to be an egocentric act from the president:  

“Well, it is certainly not about me. It is definitely not about Scooter Libby, and I think it is all about Trump, Donald Trump, and his future. He is trying to set up a firewall and demonstrate that you can spill the beans, you can cooperate with the special prosecutor, perhaps be convicted – if you\\\’re convicted of lying, perjury, obstruction of justice, or otherwise – and you will still get a pardon in the end. So, it does not really matter what I feel about it. That is what I think is happening.” 

Plame has previously been vocal against the current President of the United States: in August 2017 she set up a GoFundMe fundraising page in an attempt to buy a majority interest in Twitter kick Donald Trump off the network. If the campaign failed she said 100% of the proceeds would be donated to Global Zero, a non-profit organisation leading the resistance against Nuclear War.  

Plame has subsequently written a memoir detailing her career and the scandal titled Fair Game, as well as two fictional spy novels.  

Valerie Plame will be speaking at this year’s Beyond Borders International Festival, talking about the scandal surrounding her exposure on Saturday the 25th, and discussing global world order, including US-Russian and Franco-British relations, post Brexit in the session Populism and the New World Disorder on Sunday the 26th. 

The â€¯Festival will also be hosting UN Special Envoy to Somalia, Michael Keating, as well as Head of OSE Syria Political Office Stephanie Koury as well as The New York Times Jodi Rudoren as part of the award-winning Hard Truths exhibition which sheds light on the shocking humanitarian crises and political upheavals sweeping the world from Venezuela to Iran, amongst many other panels covering themes such as modern slavery and peace-making.