Valerie Plame facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Valerie Plame
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Plame in 2014
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| Born |
Valerie Elise Plame
August 13, 1963 Anchorage, Alaska, U.S.
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| Other names | Valerie Plame Wilson |
| Education | |
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| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) |
Todd Sesler
(m. 1987; div. 1989)Joseph Shepard
(m. 2020) |
| Children | 2 |
Valerie Elise Plame (born August 13, 1963) is an American writer and former officer for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). She also writes spy novels.
In 2003, a big news story called the "Plame affair" happened. Valerie Plame's secret job as a CIA officer was shared with a journalist and then published in a newspaper. She said this time was very shocking and difficult for her.
After this happened, a government official named Richard Armitage was found to be one source of the information. Another official, Scooter Libby, was found guilty of lying to investigators. President George W. Bush later reduced Libby's punishment, and President Donald Trump pardoned him in 2018. The person who first shared Plame's secret identity was never charged.
Valerie Plame wrote a book about her career and why she left the CIA. She has also written two spy novels. A movie called Fair Game was made in 2010, based on books by her and her husband.
In 2020, Plame tried to become a U.S. Representative for New Mexico but did not win the primary election.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Valerie Elise Plame was born on August 13, 1963, in Anchorage, Alaska. Her parents were Diane and Samuel Plame III. She has said that her grandfather was Jewish, but she was raised Protestant and did not know about her grandfather's background until she was an adult.
She finished high school in Pennsylvania in 1981. In 1985, she graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a degree in advertising. While at Penn State, she was part of a sorority and worked for the student newspaper.
Career as a CIA Officer
After college, Valerie Plame moved to Washington, D.C. She worked at a clothing store while waiting to hear back from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). She was accepted into the CIA's training program in 1985.
A special investigator confirmed that Plame was a CIA officer from 2002 onwards. Her connection to the CIA was secret at that time. Many details about her work are still classified, meaning they are kept secret by the government. However, it is known that she worked for the CIA in a "non-official cover" role. This means she pretended to have other jobs to gather information. Her work focused on stopping the spread of dangerous weapons.
Plame worked for the CIA in places like Athens and Brussels. She used her own name, Valerie Plame, but pretended to be in different jobs to collect information. For example, she worked as a junior consular officer in Athens in the early 1990s. Later, she was an energy analyst for a company called "Brewster Jennings & Associates." The CIA later said this company was a fake business used for investigations.
After the Persian Gulf War in 1991, the CIA sent her to study for master's degrees in London and Belgium. After her studies, she stayed in Brussels and continued her work as an "energy consultant" for Brewster-Jennings. In 1997, Plame's main job moved to the CIA headquarters in Virginia.
During this time, part of her work involved looking into aluminum tubes bought by Iraq. Before the Iraq invasion, some believed these tubes could be used to make nuclear weapons. However, Plame's work and that of her CIA colleagues suggested this was not true.
The CIA Leak Story
On July 14, 2003, a journalist named Robert Novak wrote an article that revealed Valerie Plame's identity as a CIA officer. He got this information from government officials like Richard Armitage, Karl Rove, and Scooter Libby. Official documents later showed that she was a secret CIA officer when Novak's article was published.
A special prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, investigated the leak. He explained that it was important to keep the investigation secret because Valerie Wilson's (Plame's married name) secret identity had been revealed. Scooter Libby, a high-ranking official, was charged with lying to investigators.
Court documents showed that Libby said he was allowed to share secret information with a reporter. He said the Vice President told him that the President had approved this. This information was meant to challenge claims made by Valerie Plame's husband, Joseph Wilson. The special prosecutor suggested that these actions were part of a plan to discredit or get revenge on Mr. Wilson.
Libby's Trial and Pardon
On March 6, 2007, Scooter Libby was found guilty of obstructing justice and making false statements. He was not charged for revealing Plame's CIA status. He was sentenced to a fine and prison time. However, on July 2, 2007, President George W. Bush reduced Libby's sentence, removing the prison term but keeping the fine and probation. President Donald Trump later pardoned Libby on April 13, 2018.
Congressional Hearing
On March 16, 2007, Valerie Plame spoke at a hearing held by the U.S. House of Representatives. The committee wanted to know if White House officials followed proper rules for keeping Plame's identity safe.
At the hearing, a statement approved by the CIA director was read. It confirmed that Plame was a secret CIA officer and that her job status was classified information.
Plame said that her name and identity were "carelessly and recklessly abused" by senior government officials for "purely political reasons." She also explained that after her identity was revealed, she could no longer do her work for the CIA and had to leave. She clarified that she did not choose her husband for a CIA trip to Niger; a more senior officer asked her to see if her husband would consider it.
Fair Game Film and Books
Valerie Plame's husband, Joseph Wilson, announced in 2007 that they had made a deal with Warner Bros. to help with a movie about the CIA leak story. The film, Fair Game, was released on November 5, 2010. It starred Naomi Watts as Valerie Plame and Sean Penn as Joseph Wilson. The movie was based on books written by both Plame and her husband.
Plame also wrote a book about her experiences called Fair Game. Before it was published, the CIA reviewed it to make sure no secret information was revealed. A judge ruled that Plame could not include the exact dates she worked for the CIA in her book.
In 2011, it was announced that Plame would write a series of spy novels with another writer, Sarah Lovett. The first book in the series, called Blowback, was released in 2013.
Political Activities
In August 2017, Plame started an online fundraiser to try and buy a large share of Twitter. Her goal was to remove U.S. President Donald Trump from the platform. She believed he encouraged hate speech. She aimed to raise $1 billion, but her campaign raised $88,000.
In September 2017, Plame shared an article online that caused controversy. She later apologized, saying she had only skimmed the article and missed some problematic parts. She said she made a mistake and should have read it more carefully.
Running for Congress
In May 2019, Valerie Plame announced she was running for the United States House of Representatives in New Mexico. The seat was open because the current representative was running for the Senate. She spent more money than her rivals, with funding coming from outside her district. On June 2, 2020, she lost the primary election to Teresa Leger Fernandez.
Personal Life
Valerie Plame married Todd Sesler in 1985, but they divorced in 1989. In 1997, while working for the CIA, she met former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson. They married on April 3, 1998. They had two children, twins Trevor and Samantha, born in 2000. Wilson and Plame divorced in 2017. Joseph Wilson passed away in 2019. In 2020, Plame married Dr. Joseph Shepard, who is the President of Western New Mexico University.
After she left the CIA in 2006, her family moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico. Plame worked as a consultant for the Santa Fe Institute until 2016. In 2011, she said that she and Wilson had received threats when they lived in the Washington, D.C. area, and that New Mexico was a peaceful place to live.
Valerie Plame was involved in Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign.
In December 2024, it was reported that Plame's husband was leaving his job as university president. He received a large payment. Reports said he and university leaders were involved in wasteful spending. Valerie Plame, who was not a university employee, had a university credit card and used it to buy furniture and home items.
In Popular Media
Valerie Plame is the subject of a song by the band The Decemberists. The song is also called "Plame."
See also
In Spanish: Valerie Plame para niños
