FAIR GAME: HOW A TOP SPY WAS BETRAYED BY HER OWN GOVERNMENT PDF, EPUB, EBOOK

Valerie Plame Wilson | 412 pages | 10 Jun 2008 | SIMON & SCHUSTER | 9781416537625 | English | New York, NY, : How a Top CIA Agent Was Betrayed by Her Own Government |

The public disclosure of that secret information spurred a federal investigation and led to the trial and conviction of Vice President 's chief of staff, , and the Wilsons' civil suit against top officials of the Bush administration. Much has been written about the "" story, but Valerie herself has been silent, until now. Some of what has been reported about her has been frighteningly accurate, serving as a pungent reminder to the Wilsons that their lives are no longer private. And some has been completely false -- distorted characterizations of Valerie and her husband and their shared integrity. Valerie Wilson retired from the CIA in January , and now, not only as a citizen but as a wife and mother, the daughter of an Air Force colonel, and the sister of a U. As readers will see, the CIA still deems much of the detail of Valerie's story to be classified. As a service to readers, an afterword by national security reporter Laura Rozen provides a context for Valerie's own story. Fair Game is the historic and unvarnished account of the personal and international consequences of speaking truth to power. Her career in the CIA included extensive work in counterproliferation operations, working to ensure that enemies of the United States could not threaten America with weapons of mass destruction. She and her husband, Ambassador Joe Wilson, are the parents of seven-year-old twins. Wilson and her family live in New Mexico. All employees of the Central Intelligence Agency must sign a confidentiality agreement that requires that they submit their writings to the CIA for prepublication review. Valerie Plame Wilson, whose work for the CIA entailed covert operations, of course abided by this agreement, and her manuscript was reviewed by the CIA and returned to her with numerous redactions -- cuts -- that the CIA determined were necessary. Many of these cuts related to material that would disclose Ms. Wilson's dates of service, information that has already been widely disseminated. Wilson brought a legal action against the CIA; we felt that the redactions required by the CIA went beyond any reasonable requirements of national security and impaired important First Amendment rights. A federal district court has disagreed, determining, essentially, that while Ms. Wilson's dates of service may be in the public domain, they cannot be reported by Ms. Accordingly, Ms. Wilson's portion of this book contains only that information that the CIA has deemed unclassified and has allowed her to include. The sections of Fair Game that have been blacked out indicate the places where the CIA has ordered cuts. Still, even with these substantial redactions, we believe the book conveys the power of Ms. Wilson's story, if, alas, not all its details. Drawn from interviews and public sources, it provides historical background and recounts portions of Ms. Wilson's life and career that she was unable to include herself. When the afterword is read together with Fair Game , a full and vivid picture of Valerie Plame Wilson emerges. Wilson has had no input or involvement in the creation of the afterword, which she has not seen before the publication of this book. Our group of five -- three men and two women -- trekked through an empty tract of wooded land and swamp, known in CIA terms as the "Farm. Having practiced escape and evasion from an ostensible hostile force -- our instructors -- we were close to meeting up with our other classmates. Together we would attack the enemy, then board a helicopter to safety. This exercise, called the final assault, was the climax of our paramilitary training. Each of us carried eighty-pound backpacks, filled with essential survival gear: tents, freeze-dried food, tablets to purify drinking water, and 5. The late fall weather was bitter, and slimy water sloshed in our combat boots. A blister on my heel radiated little jabs of stinging pain. My friend Pete, a former Army officer, usually ready with a wisecrack and a smirk, hadn't spoken in hours, while John, our resident beer guzzler, carried not only his backpack but at least fifty extra pounds of body weight. As readers will see, the CIA still deems much of the detail of Valerie's story to be classified. As a service to readers, an afterword by national security reporter Laura Rozen provides a context for Valerie's own story. Fair Game is the historic and unvarnished account of the personal and international consequences of speaking truth to power. Her career in the CIA included extensive work in counterproliferation operations, working to ensure that enemies of the United States could not threaten America with weapons of mass destruction. She and her husband, Ambassador Joe Wilson, are the parents of seven-year-old twins. Wilson and her family live in New Mexico. Praise For… "Among the risks faced by men and women who volunteer to serve in our intelligence services are those which derive from American politics. This story shows us how strong the desire to serve can be and how treacherous the risks are in the minefields of Washington. The real story in this book is in the CIA's redactions - the blacked-out sections that have been left for the reader to see on almost every page. The reader does not have to be that perceptive to see that every reference to the duration of Ms. Plame Wilson's career in the CIA spanning more than 20 years; that she was assigned to and worked with Greek nationals; that, as head of the desk in the Non-Proliferation Division, she investigated A. Kahn's actions in assisting rogue nations in developing nuclear weapons has been blacked out. These simple facts can not only be found in the appendix of her book, they are available from a variety of external sources. Plame Wilson from publishing her book by redacting such simple and harmless facts is shameful. They were not trying to preserve national security - they were trying to make this book as unpublishable as possible. To govern effectively, our leaders need to know . To vote effectively, American citizens need to know the truth. When both the government and the voters are told half-truths and outright lies, stupid wars will be fought, the economy will fall into recession, Americans will suffer and die for no reason. The truth matters. Valerie Plame Wilson and Joe Wilson are American heroes for sacrificing so much to try to tell it to us. Nov 10, Sandra D rated it really liked it Shelves: memoir , women , politics. I followed this story for nearly four years, so I was delighted to finally be able to get the story from Valerie Plame Wilson's point of view. When I first dug into the book, I thought, "Well, she's not a writer, but neither am I, so I can't hold that against her. Even the chapter where she dealt with post-partum depression failed to move I followed this story for nearly four years, so I was delighted to finally be able to get the story from Valerie Plame Wilson's point of view. Even the chapter where she dealt with post-partum depression failed to move me, and I was so disappointed that I almost gave up. I'm glad I didn't, because in the second half of the book, Valerie finally comes alive. After her exposure in Novak's column and the uproar that followed, she frankly discusses how she and Joe dealt with the havoc wrought on their marriage, their careers, their finances, and their reputations. They experienced threats and some weird episodes at their home that made them fear for their children's safety while they bore the full force of the wrathful Republican noise machine. It was pretty scary. View all 5 comments. Shelves: biographical-and-autobiographical , political-non-fiction , educational , non-fiction , dnf-lost-interest , spies , skimmed-to-finish-or-unfinished , read-and-reviewed. While I enjoyed parts of it and was pretty angry on Plame's behalf , as others have said, it was tough.. I have heard the word "redacted" so much on the news lately I hate to use it myself, but that aspect made it tough to get full enjoyment out of. I still rated it a 4 because, were it not for the redactions, I am sure it would be a 4 or even a 5. Plame is a good writer and it isn't her fault they made it as hard for her as possible. Obviously I'd still recommend this book, particularly to political junkies. May 01, Eastofoz rated it liked it Recommends it for: People interested in Valerie Plame-Wilson's side of the story. Shelves: memoir-bio , non-fiction. This is the story of ex-CIA spy Valerie Plame-Wilson whose cover was blown by the government that employed her all out of pure spite because her husband, a diplomat, told the powers that be that there was no cause to go to war with Iraq. Having read her story in the media I always found it extremely confusing and chaotic to make heads or tails of the whole thing. Granted this is her side of the story but there is so much evidence that she provides explaining how all she was doing was her job, something she did well, and people in the took it upon themselves to ruin her to get to her husband. The first half of the book chronicles her life in the CIA and how she moved up in ranks to become a spy tracking the proliferation of WMDs around the world. She felt she did her job as any true patriot would, she fell in love later in life and got married and had twins. A lot of the first half of the book is hard to appreciate because the government has redacted several paragraphs, individual lines or just the odd word in various chapters so there are holes. What makes no sense though is that the person she wrote the book with, Laura Rozen, was able to recount nearly all of the holes in the extensive Afterward. Many chapter written by the Plame-Wilson had an accompanying chapter by Rozen in the Afterward. According to Rozen, the government was fine with that because it was public knowledge but the main author could not say the same things herself. A very WTF moment. And the story continues like that. Plame-Wilson's career was ruined and she had to move to another state and all for what? Just makes your hair stand on end. View all 7 comments. Valerie Plame Wilson has a story to tell, and it's a compelling one. But the story isn't the problem. The execution in this book is almost unreadable and while Wilson has been through a lot, I don't think that absolves her of the blame for pushing this book to publication when it wasn't ready. Wilson's story is probably interesting and exciting, but I'll never know because she and her publisher chose to move forward with a book after the CIA redacted almost all of its contents. And instead of sta Valerie Plame Wilson has a story to tell, and it's a compelling one. And instead of starting over at square one and rewriting the narrative under those constraints, Wilson and co. Her point about censorship is completely valid, but she makes it in the first few pages. An entire book of blacked out lines - sometimes entire pages with no words on them - is not an indictment of the CIA, it's a punishment for the reader who paid to muddle through this for some reason. The book then contains an afterward that basically reveals most of the information that was classified and makes excuses for the piece of garbage book you just read. This should have been handled much differently. If nothing else, the publisher should have included a warning of some sort on the cover. This is the first book I've read in years that I felt was almost a complete waste of time and money. The information I gleaned could easily have been printed in a magazine article. If you want to learn about Wilson, check out the Wikipedia page. Apr 30, Ed rated it really liked it. Those who followed the machinations of the cabal that used bogus and cynical claims that and the Iraqi armed forces had so-called weapons of mass destruction were familiar with the scurrilous treatment of Valerie Plame, career CIA officer and her husband Joseph Wilson, retired State Department manager and ambassador. Yellowcake has the same relationship to nuclear weapons as a rubber plant in Malaysia does to Maserati Quattroporte, although about times more complex. Still, shipping tons of it to Iraq where rumored banks of smelters and centrifuges lay waiting, would be a shocking development and one requiring further action. A former ambassador of with long experience in and other Francophone West African countries he had the expertise and gravitas for the mission. That he was married to a CIA officer working on nuclear non-proliferation was seen as a bonus. It had the impact of rolling a grenade into a henhouse. More importantly from a legal and perhaps ethical standpoint, Valerie Plame was identified as a CIA officer. She had been working undercover for years—not undercover like a DEA agent trying to bust Pablo Escobar but as an unacknowledged U. It was a dastardly thing to do and seemed to be the result of a fit of pique by Vice-President Dick Cheney and his chief of staff. Plame does an excellent job describing the fears and frustrations after her exposure. Some are big deals—she was denounced on more than once for example—some mundane although still the type of thing that can cut to the quick. She was shunned by people she had trusted at the CIA; the Wilsons lost most of their income; they were denied security even after being informed of real threats against them. As the weapons of mass destruction refused to appear in Iraq and the Wilsons plus a few allies fought back, they became symbols of what can happen to citizens that the government decides to harm in shadowy extra-legal ways. I think the real turning point in the entire debacle was when , a tenacious workaholic career prosecutor and U. Attorney was named . Among his successful prosecutions were the Gambino mob family, the blind sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman and a generation of Chicago politicians who had been beyond the law for decades. Nov 25, Bob Nichols rated it it was ok. I followed her story at the time of its unfolding. This book tells the story again, though not much new or interesting was added. A good part of this book shows the CIA redactions. But it was like adding a second book and it was just too much. The Bush people were shameless when it came to payba I followed her story at the time of its unfolding. Plame Wilson begins her book by describing her cultivation of relationships under false pretenses, so there's some irony in the book's subtitle, "My Betrayal by the White House. Aug 24, Captain rated it really liked it Shelves: non-fiction. A cautionary tale of what can happen when you, A. I learned a lot from this book and it also confirmed a lot o A cautionary tale of what can happen when you, A. I learned a lot from this book and it also confirmed a lot of what I believe went down leading up to the war in Iraq. And I happen to completely agree with Valerie Wilson, that Iraq was a rouge state that was bound to cause problems but frankly we did not have enough intelligence to invade a country as unstable as Iraq and to poorly attempt to establish a democratic style government the people themselves had no desire to be a part of. We created a huge power vacuum in the middle east and now we're paying for it. Also based on the source material provided on was Iraq actually had in its weapons program I've come to the following conclusions; A. Saddam Hussein was a huge asshole, but he had to have been hands down the worlds greatest poker player. He literally had some of the world's best intelligence agencies, unsure of or convinced that he had WMDs, when really he didn't have shit. By witch time the US intelligence apparatus would have caught on and easily thwarted. There was no real reason for our country to go to war with Iraq the way we did. I've also come to the conclusion that justice is an illusion especially when you live in a country where the white house administration is more than willing to throw a highly trained and valuable CIA asset under the bus because they felt some kind of way about an article her husband wrote; and essentially get away with it. That said I would like to take advantage of my first amendment rights and say that is a shriveled raisin like anus and that Scooter Libby is literally the world's biggest brown noser, who suckled the tit of Dick Chaney who is in fact a heartless vampire to screw over an innocent American family and our country. Not only did they undermine our country's security and intelligence apparatus but they also undermined and abused our judiciary system to cover their shame and their own dried out crusty asses. They are so lucky they are citizens of the United States where the only real penalty they had to face for their actions were a few dragged out inconvenient trials and the withering comments on this book review. Thousands of men and women are dead because they cherry picked the intelligence that helped forward their agenda and pushed our country into near endless war. In short this woman and her family paid a heavy price for speaking truth to power and I have a ton of respect for her. View 2 comments. Apr 03, Clarrissa Moon rated it it was amazing. Awesome biography! I'd like to thank her and her whole family for being strong enough and tough enough not to let our White House get away with it. The Bush administration unfortunately has still gotten away with too much and in my opinion the result of Karl Rove and Scooter Libby was too tame. They should have been tried for treason I wish justice could have been done the right way with not only this but itself. We'll never see it done. Not enough people are yelling for justice. W Awesome biography! We'll be lucky not to wind up with a dictatorship within 20 years. This and more still to me is a side issue with the whole thing that has happened to her family, however. What I gained from this story is this United we stand, Divided we fall. When this whole thing hit her, it destroyed not only her career and the rest of her life and almost her marriage as well. But when she and her husband stood side by side and fought back, they gained at least a modicum of justice and held their family together which is the most important thing. They eventually regained some of what they lost and they did gain their reputations because they stood together and fought together. That was the really cool part and the lesson we should all learn. Adversity can break you if you're alone but with somoene to stand by your side and have your back, you can overcome anything. What they did gives me hope there is still time to get our country back and enforce our Constitutional rights which the Patriot Act has stolen. United we stand people. Thanks to Valerie and her husband for doing the right thing for our country. Apr 16, Belinda rated it liked it. I had followed this story in so was eager to read Ms. Plame Wilson's memoir. The book wasn't horrible, but not the juicy read I hoped for. The redacted sections courtesy of the CIA, as if they haven't done enough to her! For example, the part explaining how Valerie meets Joe is so buried in blacked out pages that the reader goes from Valerie hoping to "have it all" to giving birth to twins. The narrative lacks the emotion I expect Well The narrative lacks the emotion I expected from someone who had experienced such professional and personal upheaval - as if the CIA succeeded in sanitizing even her feelings. Fair Game : How a Top CIA Agent Was Betrayed by Her Own Government, Paperback | eBay

In my class of fifty or so, just fewer than half were female. Of that number, about four were destined to go into operations. I was assigned to interims mostly in the European Division of the DO. I generally enjoyed my work, menial as it was, but was anxiously counting the days until we could go to the Farm for our paramilitary training. Finally, the time arrived for me to pack a few items in my car and head south with the other young CTs. All my friends outside the Agency were busy starting their own careers and so training was part of everyone's early professional life. Only my parents and brother knew where I really worked. My mother and I agreed not to tell my uncle: her brother was an early Air Force jet jockey and would have been so proud of my career choice he could not have kept it to himself. As I sped along the highway toward the Farm, I was looking forward to this next phase of training, one that would move me much closer to a field assignment as a case officer. Let's go! In the dim light of the warehouse we picked combat boots, fatigues, webbed belts, caps, canteens, backpack gear, and other paraphernalia out of enormous bins. This stuff would see us through the next three months of military training. As our arms overflowed with equipment, the instructors, all ex- military types, took us next to the Quonset huts located deep in the scruffy pine woods. These would be our sleeping quarters. The women's barracks was lined on both sides with bunk beds and had a spartan bathroom at the end. Our training quickly assumed a pattern: up at 5 A. Almost everything was dipped in batter and deep-fried, and a salad bar was considered newfangled. Fortunately, I had always been athletic, and though the physical requirements of the course were a challenge I was able to do them all. I began to see the Farm experience as camp for adults. The Agency clearly understood that we were rarely, if ever, going to be called upon to use these skills, but the Farm paramilitary course remained a popular class for Agency recruits because management realized it forged an esprit de corps that would last throughout one's career. One of our first sessions involved learning about weapons and how to use them. Unlike some of my ex-military classmates, my exposure to guns had been limited: I knew that my father kept his World War II service pistol strapped to the back of the bed headboard, in the event an intruder got into the house. My proudest moment came when I managed to score very high on a handgun test, despite having to balance on crutches after spraining an ankle during a morning run in the dark. From the beginning we had been taught how to build and sustain our cover and we knew that we would be severely tested toward the end of the course, but we had no idea where or when this would happen. Before dawn one Monday morning, after all the students had returned from their weekend break, we were awakened with war cries and curses and flashlights being shoved in our faces as we were pulled from our bunks. Although we had known this challenging portion of the course was coming, it was unnerving to look around and not see our instructors' familiar faces. They were unknown authorities dressed in fatigues, most with black hoods with eyeholes. As I hurried to dress, I kept telling myself that this was just an exercise, but their rough taunts and shoves as we moved out of the Quonset hut to the woods were realistic enough to set off a surge of adrenaline. After a long, exhausting march through the woods, each of us with one hand on the shoulder of the student ahead, we were thrown into a waiting army truck. We bounced over dirt roads and stopped at a small white concrete-block building surrounded by pine trees. The real fun was about to begin. Your rational mind kept saying that this was just an exercise, one that you had known was coming, but another small voice in your head wondered what the hell was going on. It was certainly realistic. At some point, hours later, I was pulled into my first interrogation. I struggled to keep my wits about me. To my delight, a classmate who had become a friend had chosen that moment as well to defy the rules. The brief smile and eye rolls we exchanged renewed my confidence that I would get through this. When I came to, I was mortified to find myself being held by the elderly director of the Farm, someone I had only seen at a distance and when he addressed our class the first day. The good news was that at least I knew it was still an exercise. I began to think about who I should put on my Christmas card list that year and how much of each address I could remember. We were filthy, disoriented, and famished. As I stood under the hot shower, luxuriating in being clean, the nightmarish capture exercise faded quickly to a surreal memory. I had passed another of the Agency's tests, had not ratted out my classmates, and after a good weekend of sleep, would be ready for the next challenge. I was terrified beyond anything I had felt before, but the instructor had vowed when he checked our parachutes and tightened our webbing that if we went up in the airplane, the only way we would come down was by parachute. As the instructors had predicted, my mind froze during the first jump, and that's where the training on the ground is indispensable. All the jumps from shoulder-high platforms and then from the tower, in which you hurtle toward a padded truck at the end of a long cable, forms muscle memory that takes over when the brain fails. As the parachute opened above me and I drifted slowly down, I reached up, grabbed the toggles, and tried to steer away from the electrical lines that were racing toward me at an alarming speed and land in the zone marked with white chalk. The jump instructors had drilled us to land on our feet and immediately absorb the ground's impact up the side of our body and then roll. At pounds, I was so light that I could have just stayed upright on my feet when I hit the ground, but went through the motions of dropping and rolling so I wouldn't be chewed out by the instructors. My relief at being on the ground somewhere inside that chalk circle was overpowering and gave way to a huge surge of ego and pride. I knew from the moment I heard about this opportunity that it was something I would try for. Still, not everyone opted to jump and some of those who tried, failed. One woman, Karen, whom I had come to regard warily because of her overly ambitious nature, clearly wanted to jump. She was not a nemesis per se, but her superior airs got my competitive spirit going and I passed the test with flying colors, if only because I didn't want her to beat me. After a few days of training, we were told that we would make five jumps over a period of three days to earn our wings. The day of the first jump dawned gray and cool with light wind gusts. Our group of six went through the safety procedures and scrambled, two at a time, into the light aircraft with our craggy jump instructor, Red, who never went anywhere without a full cheek of tobacco. I was dismayed that my ultracompetitive classmate, Karen, was in the planeload with me. As I watched her tumble out first, again with a helping hand from Red, I thought, If she can do it, so can I, and a few minutes later, out I went, too. Then Red walked out from the airplane hangar with his unmistakable swagger. He had just heard that a storm was coming in for the next few days and he wanted to know if we were willing to complete all five of our jumps that afternoon. We gathered up our parachutes without a word and hustled over to the hangar to prepare for our next jumps. We weren't about to leave the Farm without pinning those little silver wings on our fatigues. I tapped lightly on the door at A. I heard "come in" and stepped into the office for a meeting with my operations course adviser. The heavy pall of tobacco already filled the small space. His salt-and-pepper buzz cut, short-sleeved plaid shirt, and thick glasses completed the look. Next to the ashtray was his customary can of Coke. Breakfast of Champions. Dick was not a bad adviser, but he was not terribly effective. Years of living abroad, dealing with agents, and juggling the demands of a demanding double life inevitably took their toll on officers' health, marriages, and families. The Agency's frequent solution was to send its troubled officers to the quiet of the Farm, which perhaps helped restore the officers' balance, but the result was that many broken-down officers taught the new, idealistic students that a life in the CIA was a tough one. Senior management periodically vowed to put only their brightest stars at the Farm and reward them with a promotion for their stateside tours so the junior officers could be taught by the best. But the reality was that most of the time the best and most effective officers wanted to be in the field recruiting spies. Still, Dick had significant field experience and I asked him how to pace an upcoming exercise. Through short deadlines, sleep deprivation, constant surprises, and changes in the scenarios, the instructors ratcheted up the pressure on the student cadre. We knew we were being evaluated: Did we have "the right stuff"? There was no real reason for our country to go to war with Iraq the way we did. I've also come to the conclusion that justice is an illusion especially when you live in a country where the white house administration is more than willing to throw a highly trained and valuable CIA asset under the bus because they felt some kind of way about an article her husband wrote; and essentially get away with it. That said I would like to take advantage of my first amendment rights and say that Karl Rove is a shriveled raisin like anus and that Scooter Libby is literally the world's biggest brown noser, who suckled the tit of Dick Chaney who is in fact a heartless vampire to screw over an innocent American family and our country. Not only did they undermine our country's security and intelligence apparatus but they also undermined and abused our judiciary system to cover their shame and their own dried out crusty asses. They are so lucky they are citizens of the United States where the only real penalty they had to face for their actions were a few dragged out inconvenient trials and the withering comments on this book review. Thousands of men and women are dead because they cherry picked the intelligence that helped forward their agenda and pushed our country into near endless war. In short this woman and her family paid a heavy price for speaking truth to power and I have a ton of respect for her. View 2 comments. Apr 03, Clarrissa Moon rated it it was amazing. Awesome biography! I'd like to thank her and her whole family for being strong enough and tough enough not to let our White House get away with it. The Bush administration unfortunately has still gotten away with too much and in my opinion the result of Karl Rove and Scooter Libby was too tame. They should have been tried for treason I wish justice could have been done the right way with not only this but itself. We'll never see it done. Not enough people are yelling for justice. W Awesome biography! We'll be lucky not to wind up with a dictatorship within 20 years. This and more still to me is a side issue with the whole thing that has happened to her family, however. What I gained from this story is this United we stand, Divided we fall. When this whole thing hit her, it destroyed not only her career and the rest of her life and almost her marriage as well. But when she and her husband stood side by side and fought back, they gained at least a modicum of justice and held their family together which is the most important thing. They eventually regained some of what they lost and they did gain their reputations because they stood together and fought together. That was the really cool part and the lesson we should all learn. Adversity can break you if you're alone but with somoene to stand by your side and have your back, you can overcome anything. What they did gives me hope there is still time to get our country back and enforce our Constitutional rights which the Patriot Act has stolen. United we stand people. Thanks to Valerie and her husband for doing the right thing for our country. Apr 16, Belinda rated it liked it. I had followed this story in the New York Times so was eager to read Ms. Plame Wilson's memoir. The book wasn't horrible, but not the juicy read I hoped for. The redacted sections courtesy of the CIA, as if they haven't done enough to her! For example, the part explaining how Valerie meets Joe is so buried in blacked out pages that the reader goes from Valerie hoping to "have it all" to giving birth to twins. The narrative lacks the emotion I expect Well The narrative lacks the emotion I expected from someone who had experienced such professional and personal upheaval - as if the CIA succeeded in sanitizing even her feelings. Reading the book left me with more questions than it answered. That said, it was interesting to learn about the mechanics of being a CIA employee and renewed my anger toward a government so ruthless that it willingly ruined a career, jeopardized a family's safety and then lied about it. I recommend reading the Afterward section first to help fill in the blanks while reading the memoir. I'm going to do my best to review this without making any political statements and focus on the book more than its deeper implications, since I try to keep my goodreads reviews book-centered. Fair Game is a true story, recounted by Valerie Plame Wilson - the center of a rather significant American political scandal. Wilson also referred to frequently by her maiden name, Plame, despite her own personal confusion over why the news latched onto it so often worked for the CIA in a covert position. I I'm going to do my best to review this without making any political statements and focus on the book more than its deeper implications, since I try to keep my goodreads reviews book-centered. In the s, her role was outed to the public, subsequently throwing her life into turmoil. To add an extra layer of complication, her husband, Joe, a former diplomat, was sent on a CIA-sanctioned trip, which threw both Wilsons under suspicion. The blame game in this case was - and likely still is - incredibly wide-ranging and ridiculously tangled. At a time when the Bush administration was searching for proof of WMDs according to more recent findings , Joe and the rest of the people who traveled with him came back with reports that directly contradicted what everyone started to assume were facts. That didn't sit well. What better way to discredit or shame someone than to nudge at his family? While that's already an inappropriate response, it's made worse when that "nudge" equates to outing the covert status of his wife. The opening pages of this book already lay out the end results for you, but I will let you read for yourself. Perhaps the most fascinating part of this book is how much of it you can't read. It's not that Wilson failed to include parts of the story; chunks of the text - from words to entire pages - are redacted. As a former CIA employee, Wilson had to let their review board scan through every bit of her book in order to block out anything classified. This makes complete sense, of course, because leaking in a personal book would have terrible implications. However, as Wilson mentions from the beginning, some redacted items are already public knowledge. This leaves a much greater layer of complication and confusion. I will say that reading a book with giant chunks redacted occasionally felt like a joke, as if it was a silly stylistic choice. Other times it was frustrating: you just want to know what the rest of the sentence says! But at the same time, I do respect not forking over classified info for anyone to read. Valerie Plame Wilson's story is a powerful one. It's thought-provoking, eye-opening, horrifying, and even juicy in its own way. One chapter title informs you it's Washington's only scandal without sex, and even if that may be an exaggeration, the proportions of this scandal make that feel true. Fair Game is well written enough to read smoothly when you're not stumbling over giant black boxes blocking out the text, but it's the sheer drama of the story that sucks you in and keeps things going. At some points, I could hardly believe it was real. Yet it was. While there are definitely parts of the story we'll never know, it's interesting enough as it already is, even if it leaves you with frustrating questions. This book was given to me by a friend after she finished reading it, having acquired it secondhand, and I think it works well in that capacity. It's riveting, but it also delves into something that feels sort of like a mythical time in the past for those not involved. It's an important story that's getting told and yet taking a backseat somehow. If you have any interest, I do recommend reading it! After finishing, I now want to read more details of Wilson's life and the entire story, especially to see what public info exists that didn't make it into the book. Most of all, it makes me wonder Dec 23, Florence rated it really liked it. Washington can indeed be a very nasty place. As the Bush administration gathered its evidence that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, prior to invading that country, it encouraged the CIA to provide evidence that he WMD did, in fact, exist. Anything contrary to that assessment was looked upon with skeptisicm and virtually ignored. Enter former ambassador Joe Wilson with a report from Niger debunking a rumor that Iraq had procured "yellowcake" from that country for use in nuclear weapons. I kn Washington can indeed be a very nasty place. I know all this stuff is complicated, but please bear with me a bit longer. Why was this significant? Because Valerie Plame was an undercover agent whose identity was a national secret. And because it happens to be illegal to "out" an undercover agent. The Wilson's lives were disrupted for years. Valerie Plame's career was ruined. And to add insult to injury, the CIA tried to prevent publication of her book. Page and pages are blanked out. Valerie's story only becomes clear because a reporter wrote an afterward section detailing some of the missing information. Politics is a dirty business. First amendment rights are fragile. If you don't believe it, read this book. Aug 11, Jackie rated it did not like it. Valerie Plame Wilson explains her version of events before and during the scandal involving her husband and trial of Scooter Libby. She insists the intent for writing this book was a means of getting the truth out. Yet the information is blatantly slanted with her obscure, subjective details and professed hatred for the Right. You get toward the final chapters and there is a plug for donations to the Wilson Trust. This trust funds her lawsuit against Cheney, Libby, Rove, and others. Overall I fe Valerie Plame Wilson explains her version of events before and during the scandal involving her husband and trial of Scooter Libby. Overall I feel this book was poorly written; unnecessarily lengthily; and had little persuasive effect. Wilson honestly outlines her numerous mistakes and how she should have handled these situations in hindsight. Well, hindsight is a bitch. As an author her tangents lead her to be unreliable and she was unable to convince me of a conspiracy against her and her husband. If there is validity to a conspiracy I wish she had written a more objective book. I will be searching for books written by others who are involved. Looking forward to learning what they have to say, hopefully they stick to facts. Always three sides to every story. We all want our own to be understood as the truth. Jan 06, Jamie rated it it was ok Shelves: read-in Okay, I was all excited to read this book after hearing Ms. Plame's interview on NPR. The CIA! Spy work! The scandal of her outing! How frustrating, then, to get this book and discover that all of the interesting parts have been blacked out by the CIA. Huge chunks of the book are reduced to fragments like "And then he said The only part of the story that was relatively intact was the sectio Okay, I was all excited to read this book after hearing Ms. The only part of the story that was relatively intact was the section about her boring desk job, which sounded pretty much like any other government desk job anywhere. All of which is really sad, considering that this was probably a really interesting story with a lot to say that I would have liked to hear. If all of the redactions are removed someday, I will revisit it. Until then, I'm not going to play Mad Libs with my reading. There are plenty of other books that I can read without having to make up half the story. I see from other peoples' reviews that there is an afterword that I apparently missed. That probably would have helped considerably. But I don't care enough about this book to get it from the library again and read the epilogue. Feb 22, Mike Hoffman rated it it was amazing. This book did everything a good book is supposed to do. It engaged me, evoked emotional response, told a good story and left me wanting more. This woman's story or as much as our government would lt her tell was totally tragic. An effective and talented spy, outed by the country she loved for political retribution. Much has been written about the "Valerie Plame" story, but Valerie herself has been silent, until now. Some of what has been reported about her has been frighteningly accurate, serving as a pungent reminder to the Wilsons that their lives are no longer private. And some has been completely false -- distorted characterizations of Valerie and her husband and their shared integrity. Valerie Wilson retired from the CIA in January , and now, not only as a citizen but as a wife and mother, the daughter of an Air Force colonel, and the sister of a U. As readers will see, the CIA still deems much of the detail of Valerie's story to be classified. As a service to readers, an afterword by national security reporter Laura Rozen provides a context for Valerie's own story. Fair Game is the historic and unvarnished account of the personal and international consequences of speaking truth to power. Her career in the CIA included extensive work in counterproliferation operations, working to ensure that enemies of the United States could not threaten America with weapons of mass destruction. Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House by Valerie Plame Wilson

User Ratings. External Reviews. Metacritic Reviews. Photo Gallery. Trailers and Videos. Crazy Credits. Alternate Versions. Rate This. CIA operative Valerie Plame discovers her identity is allegedly leaked by the government as payback for an op-ed article her husband wrote criticizing the Bush administration. Director: Doug Liman. Added to Watchlist. From metacritic. Everything Coming to Hulu in June Everything Coming to Prime Video in June Share this Rating Title: Fair Game 6. Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Wanna Watch a Game? Edit Cast Cast overview, first billed only: Valerie Plame Sonya Davison Chanel Suit Vanessa Chong Tabir Secretary 1 Anand Tiwari Hafiz Stephanie Chai Tabir Secretary 2 Joe Wilson Ty Burrell Fred Jessica Hecht Sue Norbert Leo Butz Steve Rebecca Rigg Lisa Brooke Smith Diana Tom McCarthy Jeff Ashley Gerasimovich Samantha Wilson Quinn Broggy Trevor Wilson Nicholas Sadler Edit Storyline Plame's status as a CIA agent was revealed by White House officials allegedly out to discredit her husband after he wrote a New York Times op- ed piece saying that the Bush administration had manipulated intelligence about weapons of mass destruction to justify the invasion of Iraq. Taglines: Inspired by true events. Edit Did You Know? Trivia A very distinctive ornamental mask carving can be seen on the kitchen door frame next to Joe Wilson Joseph Wilson as he leans against it during an argument with Valerie Plame Valerie Plame Wilson. It is visible immediately after Plame's "Where does all this get us? This is a Barong mask. The Barong is a Balinese mythological hero, the king of spirits, fighting the eternal battle against evil. When he exits the cab he is in front of the Capitol. The cab has taken him 14 blocks in the wrong direction. Alternate Versions Doug Liman re-cut the film for a " director's cut" that runs about six minutes longer. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Report this. Q: How does the movie end? Q: How accurate is this movie? Language: English Arabic French. Runtime: min min director's cut. Color: Color. Edit page. October Streaming Picks. Back to School Picks. Clear your history. Valerie Plame. Sanchez 12, votes. After graduating from Penn State in , Plame married Todd Sesler; the marriage ended in divorce in They divorced after 12 years of marriage so that he could marry Plame. In a interview, Plame said she and Wilson had received threats while living in the D. Plame endorsed Democratic candidate in the run-up for the U. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Plame at the Texas Book Festival. Anchorage, Alaska , U. Todd Sesler. Joseph C. Main articles: , Plame affair investigation , and Plame affair criminal investigation. Main article: United States v. See also: Joseph C. Main article: Wilson v. Petersburg Times , tampabay. Vanity Fair. Archived from the original on April 6, Libby , online posting of public document, The Next Hurrah blog , May 26, Read the document that proves It. Includes screen shots of the PDF three pages. Who's There? NBC News. Retrieved August 10, Novak's column effectively ended Plame's CIA career. With her cover blown, she eventually resigned in December Henry A. Waxman, Chairman " " PDF. Archived from the original PDF on March 25, Archived from the original PDF on August 26, Retrieved February 8, Lewis Libby " " PDF. Retrieved April 13, Amended complaint at FindLaw. Lewis Libby, Jr. Retrieved May 26, Wilson, will play Valerie Plame. Free registration required. ET a. ET, accessed November 6, video clip. Pierce April 20, Retrieved September 11, . Archived from the original on May 21, Retrieved April 12, . . August 23, Archived from the original on August 23, Retrieved August 23, BuzzFeed News. Retrieved May 20, Washington Post. Retrieved June 3, Additional page references appear within parentheses in the text. . Retrieved June 19, March 10, Retrieved March 11, September 1, Amended Complaint. Accessed June 17, The Washington Post , September 1, Corn, David. Update: It's Here". The Huffington Post blog , July 9, Accessed September 24, Accessed November 20, Reply to Toensing. Capital Games blog , July 16, Crewdson, John. The , March 13, Accessed November 16, Ensor, David, et al. Inside Politics on CNN. Finn, Ed. Isikoff, Michael. , August 1, Accessed November 13, Newsweek June 18, New York: Crown, September 8. Johnston, David , and Richard W. Stevenson, with David E. The New York Times , July 15, Leonnig, Carol D. Washington Post , April 6, A Novak, Robert.

Fair Game | Book by Valerie Plame Wilson, Laura Rozen | Official Publisher Page | Simon & Schuster

Our stores are open! We are now offering both curbside pick-up and in-store shopping at our stores. If you order a book by phone or through our website, we will let you know when it is ready for pick-up at the door. You can also come into the store and shop for books yourself, following the health and safety guidelines set out by Marin and San Francisco counties. Jump to Content. Search form Search. The public disclosure of that secret information spurred a federal investigation and led to the trial and conviction of Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, Scooter Libby, and the Wilsons' civil suit against top officials of the Bush administration. Much has been written about the "Valerie Plame" story, but Valerie herself has been silent, until now. In short, this is a superbly fine drama of the lives of the people in the limelight of this political scandal, with terrific performances and strong direction worthy of a theater ticket. Go see this movie and savor the performances and the question of the US government on its own people. I find it strangely coincidental that the filmmakers from the "Jason Bourne" series both released movies this year that criticize the Bush administration. Doug Liman made this film, while Paul Greengrass made the slightly superior "Green Zone" and even managed to bring star Matt Damon with him. Composer John Powell scored both films. You can think of this movie as a companion piece to "Green Zone", hell, you can imagine the events in both movies happening at the same time. Now THAT would be a wicked idea. Looking for something to watch? Choose an adventure below and discover your next favorite movie or TV show. Visit our What to Watch page. Sign In. Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Full Cast and Crew. Release Dates. Official Sites. Company Credits. Technical Specs. Plot Summary. Plot Keywords. Parents Guide. External Sites. User Reviews. User Ratings. External Reviews. Metacritic Reviews. Photo Gallery. Trailers and Videos. Crazy Credits. Alternate Versions. Rate This. CIA operative Valerie Plame discovers her identity is allegedly leaked by the government as payback for an op-ed article her husband wrote criticizing the Bush administration. Director: Doug Liman. Added to Watchlist. From metacritic. Everything Coming to Hulu in June Everything Coming to Prime Video in June Fair Game is the historic and unvarnished account of the personal and international consequences of speaking truth to power. This story shows us how strong the desire to serve can be and how treacherous the risks are in the minefields of Washington. Valerie Wilson volunteered at the height of the cold war. She expected to be betrayed by our enemies, not us. Senator and Vice Chairman, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence "Plame spent a courageous and honorable career on the front lines of terrorism only to come home and meet the ultimate betrayal, her own country -- unethical politicians and unscrupulous journalists. Plame's story is a modern odyssey, a cautionary tale that should make Americans think twice before sacrificing their patriots. Wilson's professional camouflage -- describes how intense stress wrought havoc on the Wilsons' marriage, not to mention Ms. https://static.s123-cdn-static.com/uploads/4640994/normal_601f58c301c19.pdf https://static.s123-cdn-static.com/uploads/4644153/normal_6020b18b174ba.pdf https://files8.webydo.com/9590844/UploadedFiles/93F3DBC3-8849-4F47-0A2A-BFB86FDEE22F.pdf https://uploads.strikinglycdn.com/files/e5d966cc-40b4-433e-bfc7-ee3c1cf263b0/endvermoegensmaximierung-und-steuerbelastung-in-der-ein- personen-gmbh-nach-der-steuereform-20042005-26.pdf https://files8.webydo.com/9588020/UploadedFiles/CE9BBB32-F076-A390-A5BB-EF68E5FE147B.pdf