The Plame Affair

Valerie Plame and Joseph Wilson

Friday, May 2nd, 2008 at 8:30 pm (Repeats Sunday at 11:30 am)

This week on Utah NOW - Valerie Plame Wilson and her husband, the former ambassador Joseph Wilson will join us to talk about how they responded to having her cover as a CIA operative blown in the political dispute over the war. They say this is about speaking truth to power. 

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For 18 years there were very few people in Valerie Plame Wilson's life who really knew what she did for a living. When asked, she would be coy if she could. If not, she had a story she used for cover. These days almost everyone knows that Wilson had been a high-level covert operative for the CIA.

It was in 2003, in the run-up to the war in Iraq, that her cover was blown in a newspaper article by the conservative columnist Robert Novak. She had become caught in the political battle over the war after her husband, the former ambassador Joseph Wilson, criticized the White House in an op-ed piece for the New York Times. The disclosure triggered a federal investigation that led to the conviction of the Vice President's chief-of-staff and it continues to raise serious questions about the abuse of power at the country's highest levels.

For more information about Valerie and Joseph Wilson's case, visit them online at the following sites.

fairgameplame.com

wilsonsupport.org

Valerie and Joseph Wilson are in Utah appearing at an author series produced by Raymond Grant at Promontory, the second home community in Park City. Promontory is a 7,000+ acre, 10-square-mile recreational second home and private mountain community in the heart of the Utah Rocky Mountains just outside of Park City and Deer Valley, Utah. Promontory's unique mountain ranch setting offers diverse year-round recreational amenities and programming for the multi-generational family. 

Valerie and Joseph Wilson are in Utah appearing at an author series produced by Raymond Grant at Promontory, the second home community in Park City. Promontory is a 7,000+ acre, 10-square-mile recreational second home and private mountain community in the heart of the Utah Rocky Mountains just outside of Park City and Deer Valley, Utah. Promontory's unique mountain ranch setting offers diverse year-round recreational amenities and programming for the multi-generational family.

For more information, visit www.promontoryclub.com or call 435-333-CLUB.

Filed under the following topic(s): Politics and Economy.

Posted by Utah NOW, Tuesday April 29th, 2008 @ 6:31 pm

Valerie Plame

Valerie Plame Wilson is a former CIA operative who in 2003 found herself the subject of a political storm when her covert identity was revealed in a syndicated newspaper column. The longtime operations officer, who was involved in issues of counter-proliferation, became a central, if inadvertent, figure in a U.S. Justice Department investigation involving criminal exposure of covert government agents.

Born on Elmendorf Air Force base in Anchorage, Alaska, Plame's career in the CIA included extensive work in counter-proliferation operations, working to ensure that enemies of the United States could not threaten America with weapons of mass destruction.

Plame and her husband, Ambassador Joe Wilson, are the parents of 7-year-old twins. She holds a Bachelor's degree from Pennsylvania State University and two Master's degrees, from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium, respectively. 

Joseph Wilson

Joe Wilson was a member of the U.S. Diplomatic Service from 1976-98. Serving the administrations of both parties during this time, he held posts throughout Africa, including Ambassador to Gabon and to Sao Tome and Principe. From 1988-91, he was the Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq. During the first Gulf War, he was the acting U. S. Ambassador to Iraq and the last American diplomat to confront Saddam Hussein.

Among Ambassador Wilson's many awards are the Physicians for Social Responsibility Peacemaker Award (2007), and the ACLU's National Civil Liberties Award (2007). In October 2003, Wilson received the Ridenhour Truth-Telling Prize (which is awarded to an individual or organization that has brought an important issue to light) from the Fertel Foundation and the Nation Institute. Wilson's additional honors include: the Department of Defense Distinguished Service Award, the Department of State Superior and Meritorious Honor Awards, the University of California/Santa Barbara Distinguished Alumnus Award and the American Foreign Service Association William R. Rivkin Award.

A California native and graduate of UC-Santa Barbara, Wilson manages JC Wilson International Ventures, a consulting firm specializing in strategic management and international-business development. He resides in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with his wife and their two children.