Nov 12, 2007 6:45 pm US/Central
Plame Visits Chicago, Criticizes White House
Former CIA Agent's Book Edited By Feds
A woman who worked in the shadows of a secret world until her cover was blown and she found herself in the headlines is telling the inside story after some editing by the CIA.
CBS 2's Derrick Blakley reports on Valerie Plame Wilson's visit to Chicago.
The former CIA agent came to town Monday to promote her new book, "Fair Game".
"This is truly the book the CIA didn't want you to read," Plame said during an appearance at Border's on State Street.
She charged that Vice President Dick Cheney is now trying to shape intelligence on Iran, like he did before launching the war in Iraq.
"Iran's nuclear program, he would like to say, is more advanced and threatening, than analysts believe," she said.
It was former State Department official Richard Armitage who first blew Plame's CIA cover by leaking her name to a newspaper columnist but says, he didn't know she was a covert agent.
"I think it was extremely foolish of me," Armitage said during an interview with CNN.
"I would not disagree with Mr. Armitage," Plame said and the crowd applauded.
Plame says her outing was revenge against her husband, former ambassador Joe Wilson, for his criticism that the Bush administration hyped up the evidence for war against Iraq. Plame says the revenge continues.
"It further illustrates how far this administration will go when they feel they're being criticized," she said.
Thanks to the spy agency, Plame's book isn't a tell-all. It's a tell-some.
The CIA blocked pages and pages of her book from being published even though, she says, nothing that's blacked out endangers security.
"What is clear is that it's so capricious, arbitrary, and in my case, punitive," she said.
To fill in some of the blanks, the book contains a 50-page addendum by another writer.
Which, Plame says, leads to the ultimate irony: even though she's been outed, the only person that can't tell parts of her story is her.
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