Real Crime Stories/Paranormal Hauntings/Conspiracy Theories Book II

The Plame Affair

The Plame affair (also known asthe CIA leak scandal and Plamegate) was a political scandal thatrevolved around journalist Robert Novak's public identification ofValerie Plame as a covert Central Intelligence Agency officer in2003.

In 2002, Plame wrote a memo to hersuperiors in which she expressed hesitation in recommending herhusband, former diplomat Joseph C. Wilson, to the CIA for a missionto Niger to investigate claims that Iraq had arranged to purchase andimport uranium from the country, but stated that he "may bein a position to assist". After President George W. Bushstated that "Saddam Hussein recently sought significantquantities of uranium from Africa" during the run-up to the2003 invasion of Iraq, Wilson published a July 2003 op-ed in The NewYork Times stating his doubts during the mission that any suchtransaction with Iraq had taken place.

A week after Wilson's op-ed waspublished, Novak published a column which mentioned claims from "twosenior administration officials" that Plame had been the oneto suggest sending her husband. Novak had learned of Plame'semployment, which was classified information, from State Departmentofficial Richard Armitage. David Corn and others suggested thatArmitage and other officials had leaked the information as politicalretribution for Wilson's article.

The scandal led to a criminalinvestigation; no one was charged for the leak itself. Scooter Libbywas convicted of lying to investigators. His prison sentence wasultimately commuted by President Bush, and he was pardoned byPresident Donald Trump in 2018.

Background

State of the Union Address

In late February 2002, responding toinquiries from the Vice President's office and the Departments ofState and Defense about the allegation that Iraq had a salesagreement to buy uranium in the form of yellowcake from Niger, theCentral Intelligence Agency had authorized a trip by Joseph C. Wilsonto Niger to investigate the possibility. The former Prime Ministerof Niger, Ibrahim Hassane Mayaki, reported to Wilson that he wasunaware of any contracts for uranium sales to rogue states, though hewas approached by a businessman on behalf of an Iraqi delegationabout "expanding commercial relations" with Iraq,which Mayaki interpreted to mean uranium sales. Wilson ultimatelyconcluded that there "was nothing to the story", andreported his findings in March 2002.

In his January 28, 2003, State of theUnion Address, US President George W. Bush said "The Britishgovernment has learned that Saddam Hussein recently soughtsignificant quantities of uranium from Africa."

"What I Didn't Find InAfrica"

After the March 2003 invasion of Iraq,Joseph C. Wilson wrote a series of op-eds questioning the war'sfactual basis. In one of these op-eds published in The New York Timeson July 6, 2003, Wilson argues that, in the State of the UnionAddress, President George W. Bush misrepresented intelligence leadingup to the invasion and thus misleadingly suggested that the Iraqigovernment sought uranium to manufacture nuclear weapons.

However, an article by journalist SusanSchmidt in The Washington Post on July 10, 2004, stated that the IraqIntelligence Commission and the United States Senate Select Committeeon Intelligence at various times concluded that Wilson's claims wereincorrect. She reported that the Senate report stated that Wilson'sreport actually bolstered, rather than debunked, intelligence aboutpurported uranium sales to Iraq. This conclusion has retainedconsiderable currency despite a subsequent correction provided by thePost on the article's website: "Correction: In some editionsof the Post, a July 10 story on a new Senate report on intelligencefailures said that former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV told hiscontacts at the CIA that Iraq had tried to buy 400 tons of uraniumfrom the African nation of Niger in 1998. In fact, it was Iran thatwas interested in making that purchase." Wilson took strongexception to these conclusions in his 2004 memoir The Politics ofTruth. The State Department also remained highly skeptical about theNiger claim.