WASHINGTON, 2 June 2007 — An ex-spy whose unmasking led to the conviction of Vice President Dick Cheney’s top aide is suing the Central Intelligence Agency, accusing it of unconstitutionally interfering with publication of her memoir.
Valerie Plame Wilson and her publisher, Simon & Schuster, filed a suit in the US District Court in New York on Thursday against J. Michael McConnell, the CIA director of national intelligence, and CIA Director Michael Hayden.
The suit said Plame has worked with the CIA Publications Review Board for the past 10 months to comply fully with her secrecy agreements and avoid divulging any national security information.
All publications by current and ex-CIA agents must be approved by a review board, which says its only objective is to prevent classified material from being released to the public. The case centers on whether Plame can publish her dates of service. While the CIA says the information is classified, Plame and her publisher Simon & Schuster say the details were released unclassified in 2006.
According to the suit, the CIA has demanded that significant portions of the manuscript “be excised or rendered ‘fiction.’” Plame is arguing that the CIA cannot limit the publication of previously unclassified material.
Plame was at the center of a scandal that erupted when her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, wrote a July 2003 opinion piece in the New York Times criticizing President George W. Bush’s case for war against Iraq.
She contends White House officials deliberately leaked her name to the media to ruin her career and punish Wilson.
Nobody was charged with blowing her cover, but Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Cheney’s former chief of staff, was found guilty in March of lying and obstructing the investigation.
