His Plame ‘Facts’
Were Plain Wrong

I am writing this letter in response to Mr. Wright's Nov. 22 letter to the editor claiming several "facts" concerning the Valerie Plame/CIA leak case. I'd like to set a few things straight:

• Valerie Plame was indeed covert and therefore "outed." The initial investigation was initiated by her employer. The CIA requested that the Justice Department look into the possibility of her name being illegally leaked. The Justice Department responded by asking for the CIA to respond to 11 questions concerning Plame's duties and status. Based on the answers from the CIA, the Justice Dept. appointed Patrick Fitzgerald as special prosecutor to investigate. No covert status, no investigation.

• Plame was only "instrumental" in her husband being chosen for the Niger trip because it was known that Ambassador Wilson had experience and contacts in the region.

• Both the CIA and State Department found that documents claiming to prove that Saddam had sought yellow cake uranium from Niger were at best inaccurate and at worst completely fraudulent, well before Bush's 2003 State of the Union address. The IAEA later reached a similar conclusion. The Bush administration also later admitted that including the famous "16 words" in the address was a mistake.

Whether Saddam sought uranium at some point or not is irrelevant. He didn't obtain any, and the administration knew it.

As far as Plame's recent activities—I have no problem with her making money from her book (complete with CIA-censored, blacked-out sections) or with her speaking out about her treasonous outing by senior administration officials. Any patriotic citizen so wronged would do the same to preserve what's left of their paycheck and their sense of justice.

Guy Best

Bethel