Charlie Rose Science Series
Click here to watch previous episodes of the Charlie Rose Science Series
10/31/2007
Valerie Plame Wilson
A conversation with Valerie Plame Wilson
Keywords:
A conversation with Valerie Plame Wilson, a former United States CIA officer who worked as a classified covert intelligence agent for over twenty years and author of Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House.
DVD
Charlie Rose DVDs on Amazon.
Charlie Rose DVDs on Amazon.
Audio
Audio available through Audible.com.
Audio available through Audible.com.
Transcripts
Transcripts available through Voxant.
Transcripts available through Voxant.
Ms. Plame is attractive, articulate, and writes well. I enjoyed her book. Joe is a lucky guy. Of course, the question in my mind: If, from the onset, Fitzgerald knew that the leaker was Richard Armitage, did he, Fitzgerald, ask Armitage to keep quiet, and proceed to drag Rowe in front of the grand jury 5 times, and prosecute Scooter Libby ?
Comment by Bill Jackson on Thursday, Nov 1 at 02:07 AM "So, we are to believe that Plame ignored protocal and accepted a request from someone in the VP's office and went as far to send someone to check out something they had already investigated." No, she did not accept any request nor send anyone. Her husband was recommended by someone else in the CIA and sent by CIA. In fact, she followed protocol strictly by not attending the original meeting (she made introductions and then left) and his the debriefing (where she left the room to order food for all involved). "She wants the politics out of the CIA. I think see is up to her neck in politics." How is wanting politics out of the CIA in and of itself political? The results of politics entering the intelligence process are obvious and blaring. It distorts the view. And let me add that while this is not new at CIAâ??they have had similar problems in the pastâ??they learned from that and train their analysts to resist allowing bias to enter into their assessments. That careful work has largely been undone under this administration, and that should concern every American who cares about national security.
BUSH LIED AND PEOPLE DIED! Even deep covered intellegent agents!!!! I mean just cause the CIA counter prolifelater must have a blonde secratery with a covert label to get his coffee in order to keep him safe from being poisioning doesnt mean herr Bush can just let her name out to let her be dragged through the streets in East berlin by the chikoms!!! how dare you mr bush! how dare you attack such a noble american who was just trying to do her job to find out if terriorsts around the world meant us harm! and had such a sucessful track record untill 9/10/01 that she wanted more time to figure out if saddam or someone else posed a threat! but just wanted more time to figure it out. Great job Charlie! another totally increadble job of just letting a victim sit up there and blather on about her injustucies for about 25mins before you ask her about armitage.... 25 mins later and you get to the crux of the main leak... but I guess that not improtant good job Charlie! keep up the job of giving power to the people in order to put those white christian republicans down!
I'm prsently watching Charlie talking to the "American Gangster" troop. The interviews made me think back on the Plame interview. Somewhere along the line a large segment of the American public has taken to rooting for the crooks and against those who expose them. Plame and Wilson should be lauded as heroic rather than trashed and treated like "fair game". I blame our obsession with crooks, gangsters and thugs of all sorts. We got mixed up along the way from Independence Hall when we didn't know who to be loyal to then. We need collective psychotherapy.
Rumsfeld was looking at Iraq "before the smoke even cleared" as Valerie stated. As Donald has been quoted elsewhere: "Everything related and unrelated." "Because Afghanistan doesn't have any good targets." Iraq is his snowflake baby.
I can't believe Cheney is still vice-president. Not easy being an American these days... Great interview by Charlie, he was taking the questions out of my mouth.
Valerie Plame was most impressive. It's shocking that her years of service were so casually thrown away by members of the Bush Administration. Jeanette Baust's post says it all.
Addendum to 7:02 PM: Omitted Rendition, Torture, and Water Boarding etc. Shrub is for it, which should be all that's needed for their rejection. The CIA as well for long term longevity of our democracy. Answering to noone is a recipe for its death.
The CIA is a fatuous organization, totally contrary to the 'lasting' function of a democracy. Upsets the balance between branches for the first problem. Next, it has to be populated with folks of arrested development at about the age most of us gave up cops-and-robbers. The book, Legacy of Ashes exposes its negative history. To date we would have netted better without it. The Kennedys assassinations are directly attributable to a boomeranged CIA conspiracy to assassinate Castro. They setup Pinochet. Useless re WMD's where some real benefit was sorely needed. And Plames 'desk' was 'proliferation????'
As a meaningful entry for your Women-in-influental positions PLEASE CONSIDER NAOMI WOLF!! She authored a powerful 156 page pamphlet, THE END OF AMERICA. Everyone should read it and particularly Mrs. Plame, along with all other CIA functionaries - and wanna-be's. It's a gut-grabber. Her message is potent!
People can spin the Iraqi war any way they like to suit their partisan politics. The fact remains that the Bush Administration sold the Iraqi war to the people of the United States like Procter and Gamble sells soap. It was blantant manipulation of the facts to suit their own ends. Those exact ends to this day remain an enigma that only the principles have any inkling of an idea about.The results of that war are an unescapable failure on the part of the Bush administration to have a "mission accomplished." The tar baby that the Bush Administration ME policies have created are likily to affect generations of peoples throughout the world. It won't be anytime soon that the Bush Administration for all their Washington savy won't be viewed as blundering fools. What was required of American foreign policy in the region was a deft hand that is sensitive to the shifting sands of the regions politics. What the United States got from the Bush Administration was akin to a blind man using a sledge hammer to drive a tack.
Thank you Charlie, for acknowledging the requests of your viewers to hear from more women. Those in majorities and power / privilege positions don't even notice when others are not in the room, let alone in the spotlight. My heartfelt appreciation for your listening. I found some of your viewer's comments also very telling. Somehow for them, Plame is not believable and has the nerve to politicize her job and Bush/Cheney and their ideological, theological, and economic hubris is given a pass. What could be worse than politicizing the unilateral, pre-emptive invasion of another sovereign nation, causing mass destruction, the murder of many innocents, the fanning of the flames of civil war, and the creation of millions of refugees who we are barely letting into this country? And Plame is suspect to some of those who commented here? Incredible.
Bravo Charlie, two intelligent women on the same show. My life is now complete. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
So, we are to believe that Plame ignored protocal and accepted a request from someone in the VP's office and went as far to send someone to check out something they had already investigated. She wants the politics out of the CIA. I think see is up to her neck in politics. She provided vague answers during the entire interview. I,do not believe at word she said.
Charlie --- I watch your show avidly and find it to be one of the best intellectual spaces on television. However, I thought that you went a little too easy on Valerie Plame. I don't think it is the job of a CIA Operative to get involved in politics and important decisions made by the President; and I don't think it is appropraite for Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson to undermine our President in a time of war. Moreover, I think that when one looks at all the evidence on Saddam, his regime, his secretly overcoming the UN sanctions, his tendency to violence and war, his outright threats towards Israel and the United States - I just don't see how he couldn't be viewed as a very dangerous threat to our country and one which should be eliminated.
This entire issue is based on the 16 words. â??The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa .â?? The word "sought" seems to complicated a concept for the media to understand. Joe Wilson's own report states that an Iraqi delegation went to Niger in 1999 to "improve trade relations". Since Niger is dead last in the UN development index, with their only significant export being Uranium, it does stand to reason that the Iraqi delegation was seeking Uranium using eupheamistic language. The fact that Niger hand just had a coup and an assassination, leads one to understand that the country wasn't exactly a stable place. If you cannot accept the above facts, you are the problem. You have been brainwashed. Or are simply too enthralled with your hatred for Bush to see or think clearly.\ There was no lie in the state of the union address. Unless your understanding of the word "lie" rivals your understanding of the word "sought."
Did Plame work with Blix when the inspectors all reported to the CIA? Why did the CIA leak the weapons inspection program and was it why the war was 'inevitable?' Did PLame work with WMD too and did CIA make a deal with the doctor who made all the WMD in the lab in Iraq? Is this why she looks all confused in the 'Time' picture the day she was freed by the Iraqi courts? Is this why Saddam was hung so fast, so there could be no trial of these people?