Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House

By Valerie Plame Wilson

Valerie Plame Wilson is the woman at the centre of the scandal that, ultimately, led to the downfall, prosecution and conviction of the former White House chief of staff, Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, for revealing her identity as a CIA spy.

During the run-up to the Iraq War, George Bush and Tony Blair tried to bolster their case for invasion by claiming that Saddam Hussein was trying to procure weapons-grade uranium from Africa. The claim was highly dubious, and when Plame's husband Joseph Wilson, a former US ambassador, was sent to investigate, he quickly concluded it was false. Wilson's findings were not passed up the CIA, prompting him to write an article in the New York Timessaying Saddam had not tried to buy any uranium. As this made life awkward for the White House, a counter-attack began, with a rebuttal rubbishing Wilson's article and in the process revealing Valerie Plame's identity as a covert CIA operative -- a revelation that proved illegal, with Lewis Libby being held ultimately responsible.

Now, for the first time, Valerie Plame Wilson breaks her silence to tell her side of this extraordinary story, and her life as a spy. Candid and gripping, it sheds astonishing light on a world that is supposed to remain hidden.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
• Release date: Dec 11, 2012
• ISBN: 9781471108365

Valerie Plame Wilson

Valerie Plame Wilson, the former CIA covert operations officer, was born on Elmendorf Air Force base in Anchorage, Alaska in 1963. She holds a bachelor's degree from Pennsylvania State University and master's degrees from the London School of Economics and Political Science and the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium. Her career in the CIA included extensive work in counterproliferation operations, working to ensure that enemies of the United States could not threaten America with weapons of mass destruction. She and her husband, Ambassador Joe Wilson, are the parents of seven-year-old twins. Ms. Wilson and her family live in New Mexico.

Reviews for Fair Game

[angelajmaher · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

An interesting insight into the Iraq war, and the inaccurate reasons for starting it, from someone who ended up being betrayed by her own country. Although it is interesting, I also found it hard to read more than small sections at a time. It can be quite "dry" in places, and is, where permitted, very detailed. Many pieces of text were not allowed by the CIA to be published. Instead of rewriting around these redactions, the text has been left as was originally written, with [text redacted here] interspersed. In places this is highly distracting from the narrative, especially near the start, and in some cases only a small amount of rewriting could have pulled the allowed text together. It adds to authnticity I guess, but I found it very annoying. Then the afterword, written by a different author, went into far more detail about some of Valerie did, and when and where, than she seemed to have been allowed to do for herself.An important story, some people probably wish had never been told, but not exactly a page-turner.

[mrdickie · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Account of CIA covert operations officer, Valerie Plame Wilson, wife of former US Ambassador Joseph Wilson., His trip to Niger for the CIA was part of the controversy. Her identity was betrayed and she was outed by the White House of George Bush and Dick Cheney. Scooter Libby, on the staff of Dick Cheney, passed the information about her employment to columnist, Robert Novak who included it in a column. Novak was never charged. Libby was charged and found guilty. His sentence was commuted by President Bush. In 2018 President Trump gave Libby a pardon. The CIA career of Valerie Plame Wilson was ruined and she resigned with just over twenty years service. The book was heavily redacted by the CIA, making parts very difficult to read. There was an Afterword, written by Laura Rozen, which wasn't well edited

[lynnb_64 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the true story of Valerie Plame Wilson, a CIA agent whose secret cover was made public by the U.S. Government. In this memoir, Ms. Wilson tells of her early career in the CIA, events leading up to her name being made public,and the aftermath for her and her family. As a former CIA employee, Ms. Wilson was required to submit her manuscript for approval prior to publication, which she did willingly. The text in the book includes several blacked-out lines which the CIA asked her to remove for security reasons. This was a good read and shows how political interference can lead to bad policy decisions -- in this case, the Iraq war -- and be demoralizing, even devastating, for nonpolitical staff.

[lettypearl · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A really interesting account of the story behind the lie that was used to justify the war in Iraq, the outing of an undercover CIA operative by senior government officials, the agent's betrayal by her agency, and her attempts to tell her story once her career was ruined by these events. At first the redacted (by the CIA) portions are distracting, but then those "blank" spaces begin to tell their own story which is every bit as revealing as the facts they hoped to hide. Well-written, and well-worth the read.

[nmele_4 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This would be a better book, perhaps, if the CIA-mandated cuts were restored, but the heart of the story is largely intact, that is, the Wilsons' account of what the outing of Mrs. Wilson did to her career and their lives and the documentation of the political smear campaign conducted against the couple after Amb. Joe Wilson dared to point out that the Bush Administration already knew Saddam Hussein had not tried to acquire yellowcake uranium from Niger when the President asserted that Saddam Hussein had done so in an attempt to justify attacking Iraq.

Why should you care? I care because one of the few unbreakable rules I learned as a diplomat was never, NEVER, connect anyone with the CIA under any circumstances. We never referred to the CIA by name, even, because of the risk to CIA officers and agents if exposed. And then our elected officials and their staff took it on themselves to out a covert CIA officer in an attempt to discredit her whistle-blowing husband. You should care if you care about good governance, our security, and the rule of law.

[bunwat_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

As others have said, Plame is better at writing reports than at constructing a novel. The dry factual tone doesn't really help readers connect to the story and the CIA redactions don't do anyone any favors either. That said, it is still an interesting and important story, even if not all that well presented.

[06nwingert · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Valerie Plame makes the poignant case for this book-- in the acknowledgements:'At age seven, Samantha and Trevor have only the vaguest notion of what this book is about. Which is as it should be. When they are older, they will have plenty of time to learn what was at stake during their youngest years. Perhaps they will forgive their mother for the many hours on the telephone or at the computer, shushing them, when all they wanted was for her to play with them or answer an important question. I pray they will understand why their parents were away so much and less patient with their concerns. They are truly the light of my life; they are two of the reasons Joe and I fought for the truth and what we thought was right.' (p. 410)Valerie Plame-Wilson and her husband, Joe, work for the U.S. government (the CIA and a diplomat, respectively); However, the U.S. government turned their back on the Wilsons, exposing their undercover operations in order to go to war with Iraq. Both Valerie and Joe discovered that Iraq did not have WMD, yet the Bush administration wanted so desperately to go to war that they discredited the Wilsons and used the Iraq has WMD meme in spite of overwhelming evidence Iraq did not.Much of the book is redacted because of CIA protocol. While I understand and respect the CIA's decisions, some of the redacted material was unnecessary. For example, is Valerie's choice of Starbucks coffee going to hurt national security? Probably not. Yet the CIA felt compelled to redact such trite matter. To Mr. and Mrs. Joe and Valerie Wilson: Thank you. You are great Americans. You laid aside your careers, family, friends, personal lives for the benefit of our country. Words cannot express my anger at the government's deception, as well as my gratitude for your service and sacrifice.Like Valerie said, her children, along with all of the under-20 crowd, will understand why this book is so important: our government betrayed us, sending thousands of troops to die in an unnecessary war, racking up a trillion dollar deficit along the way.

[juglicerr · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I suspect that the reactions to this book will be in large part based upon political affiliations. Plame's writing is very readable, but the story is a little disjointed, in large part due to the redactions imposed by the CIA. Incredibly, Plame's length and time of service, as well as her meeting with her husband, appear to be secrets. I found the book very moving. I got caught up in Great Issues, and never really considered that strain of day to day living in the maelstrom, including simply trying to pay the bills. The book is extremely discouraging: the incompetence, at best of high government officials, vicious pettiness and partisanship, dreadful, unreliable journalism. A vivid account of a horrible piece of current events.One thing that would have greatly improved the book, is a glossary of the "alphabet soup" that pervades the Federal government. There is no bibliography or index.

[markindetroit_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I listened to the audiobook and the redacted text in the book was replaces by a beep. It was tough to listen to at first due to the amount of information edited out by the CIA. There is an afterward provided by the author that fills in those blanks with public domain information. It is explained at the beginning that Ms. Plame was ordered by the court that even though that information was in the public domain, she could not state that information.In all it was a short, concise book that explained her side of the "outing" of her covert status with the CIA.