Plame Files Suit against Cheney, Rove, Libby

07/13/2006 @ 3:55 pm

Filed by RAW STORY

Valerie Plame, the undercover CIA operative whose identity was revealed to reporters, has filed suit against Vice President Dick Cheney, former top presidential policy adviser Karl Rove, and Cheney's ex-chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby on Thursday, RAW STORY has learned.

Plame is reportedly accusing the men of conspiring against her, targeting her career and reputation.

Conservative columnist Robert Novak revealed Plame's status as an undercover CIA operative in a July 14, 2003 opinion column. The piece ran just one week after Plame's husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, wrote a New York Times op-ed claiming that the Bush administration had manipulated pre-war intelligence on Iraq.

The couple have started a website, wilsonsupport.org, aimed at raising funds to cover legal costs.

Novak last week claimed that the revelation of Plame's name may have been an accident.

"Robert Novak, some other commentators and the Administration continue to try to completely distort the role that Valerie Wilson played with respect to Ambassador Wilson's trip to Niger," Wilson responded in a statement to RAW STORY today. "The facts are beyond dispute."

Wilson re-iterated then what he contends to be the facts in the Plame Affair:

"Robert Novak, some other commentators and the Administration continue to try to completely distort the role that Valerie Wilson played with respect to Ambassador Wilson's trip to Niger. The facts are beyond dispute. The Office of the Vice President requested that the CIA investigate reports of alleged uranium purchases by Iraq from Niger. The CIA setup a meeting to respond to the Vice President's inquiry. Another CIA official, not Valerie Wilson, suggested to Valerie Wilson's supervisor that the Ambassador attend that meeting. That other CIA official made the recommendation because that official was familiar with the Ambassador's vast experience in Niger and knew of a previous trip to Africa concerning uranium matters that had been undertaken by the Ambassador on behalf of the CIA in 1999. Valerie Wilson's supervisor subsequently asked her to relay a request from him to the Ambassador that he would like the Ambassador to attend the meeting at the CIA. Valerie Wilson did not participate in the meeting.

"As the CIA itself has officially confirmed, Valerie Wilson did not send Ambassador Wilson to Niger and she neither suggested him nor recommended him for the trip. Furthermore, the Ambassador agreed to travel to Niger pro bono with only his travel expenses being paid.""

Talking Points Memo has acquired the full, 23-page complaint, which can be read here.

Editor's Note: The statement by former Ambassador Wilson has been changed to reflect expanded remarks issued to RAW STORY by Mr. Wilson since this story first appeared.