Fair game: how a top spy was betrayed by her own government - valerie plame wilson

At last, outed CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson tells her story in her own words, delivering a historic and unvarnished account of the personal and international consequences of speaking truth to power.

On July 6, 2003, four months after the United States invaded Iraq, former ambassador Joseph Wilsons now historic op-ed, What I Didnt Find in Africa, appeared in The New York Times .

A week later, conservative pundit Robert Novak revealed in his newspaper column that Ambassador Wilsons wife, Valerie Plame Wilson, was a CIA operative.

The public disclosure of that secret information spurred a federal investigation and led to the trial and conviction of Vice President Dick Cheneys chief of staff, Scooter Libby, and the Wilsons civil suit against top officials of the Bush administration.

Much has been written about the Valerie Plame story, but Valerie herself has been silent, until now.

Some of what has been reported about her has been frighteningly accurate, serving as a pungent reminder to the Wilsons that their lives are no longer private.

And some has been completely false -- distorted characterizations of Valerie and her husband and their shared integrity.

Valerie Wilson retired from the CIA in January 2006, and now, not only as a citizen but as a wife and mother, the daughter of an Air Force colonel, and the sister of a U.

marine, she sets the record straight, providing an extraordinary account of her training and experiences, and answers many questions that have been asked about her covert status, her responsibilities, and her life.

As readers will see, the CIA still deems much of the detail of Valeries story to be classified.

As a service to readers, an afterword by national security reporter Laura Rozen provides a context for Valeries own story.

Fair Game is the historic and unvarnished account of the personal and international consequences of speaking truth to power.