Palisades Democrats Honor Wilson and Plame

May 23, 2007

Bill Bruns , Managing Editor

'One of our responsibilities as citizens is to hold our government to account for what it says and does,' former American diplomat Joe Wilson said Sunday night. Which is exactly why he and his wife, Valerie Plame, a former CIA officer, were being honored by the Palisades Democratic Club at a sold-out banquet in the Fairmont Miramar Hotel.

Wilson and Plame each received the second annual Anne Froehlich Award for Political Courage, in recognition of their personal bravery and tenacity in fighting the Bush Administration for the past four years.

When Wilson wrote his now-famous Op Ed piece for the New York Times in early July 2003 ('What I Didn't Find in Africa'), based on his trip to Niger on behalf of the CIA to investigate the possibility that Saddam Hussein had a deal to buy enriched yellowcake uranium, 'he clearly knew he was speaking out and taking a risk,' said author/commentator Arianna Huffington as she introduced Wilson Sunday.

'When you do this, you know anything can happen--and everything did happen,' Huffington continued. 'Joe and Valerie had two little children, and they had to live publicly with the attacks, the slanders, the lies'And yet they persevered, and now they are going forward with a civil lawsuit for which we are grateful.'

In his Times article, Wilson concluded that 'it was highly doubtful that any transaction [between Iraq and the Niger government] had ever taken place,' and he reported this to CIA officials. But in President Bush's 2003 State of the Union address, in his lead-up to the Iraq invasion, Wilson noted, the president referred to Saddam Hussein seeking quantities of uranium from Africa.

Within days, thanks to leaks from angry officials within the administration, columnist Robert Novak disclosed Plame's role as a CIA operative to the world and as a result, jeopardized her safety and those of her colleagues. Ultimately, Plame testified as a key witness in the trial of Louis 'Scooter' Libby, who was indicted on charges of obstruction of justice and lying to federal investigators regarding the leak of Plame's status as a CIA officer.

'What a delight to be here among friends,' Plame said Sunday, 'after living the past four years with all the editorials and articles and vitriol directed our way.'

Plame gave four reasons why she and her husband decided to file a civil suit for damages against the government officials involved in the leaking of her name.

'First, we wanted to hold government officials to account for their words and their deeds. Second, to get the truth out and see what's out there. There's a lot more we need to learn. Third, as a preemptive way to keep this from happening to others. And fourth, we have 7-year-old twins and we want to be able to tell them years from now, 'You know, we tried everything.'

Plame said she and her husband had been in court in Washington, D.C. three days earlier as lawyers made oral arguments before a judge, who will rule 'within 30-60 days' if their civil suit goes forward. Meanwhile, she is completing a memoir titled 'Fair Game,' scheduled to be published this fall.

'We moved six weeks ago from D.C. to Santa Fe,' Plame said. 'At least now, as Joe and I live through all these problems, we can go outside and look at the mountains. We're very happy. We're with our family and we'll continue our fight.'

When Wilson addressed the audience, he noted that he was 'proud to have served my country for 23 years as a diplomat. I was an agent of the state, but now I'm an enemy of the state.' He said he was amused by the irony that after he served in Iraq for two-and-a-half years around the time of the Gulf War, 'Karl Rove said I was 'a true American hero.''

Wilson, who wrote his own memoir in 2004, 'The Politics of Truth,' said that the couple's civil suit is 'a fight about returning power to the people' and the freedom of citizens to 'stand up against our government leaders' without fear of reprisals.

'We must all fully participate in our responsibility as citizens,' he said.