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, United States Fair Game: 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 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. 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 Athens and worked with Greek nationals; that, as head of the Iraq 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 the truth. 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 White House took it upon themselves to ruin her to get to her husband.