NEWS FROM THE UNITED STATES 

CIA officer at centre of the leak case fills her life with twins and a desk job

Photo: Valerie Plame, left, is seated with her husband, former diplomat Joseph C. Wilson, in Washington in this Nov. 18, 2003, photograph for the opening spread of Vanity Fair.

WASHINGTON, DC- Joe Wilson says it was mutual love at first sight when he and Valerie Plame spotted each other at a crowded diplomatic reception eight years ago. Well, yes and no. For Plame, the stars in her eyes that night were quickly followed by a LexisNexis computer search the next day to make sure the guy with all the fantastic stories about his life as a globe-trotting diplomat was really legit. It is classic Valerie Plame: The silhouetted woman at the centre of the CIA leak investigation is said to be warm and genuine, but also a savvy professional. Tough, too, fellow CIA officers would add.  Joining the agency soon after graduating from Penn State with an advertising degree, Plame excelled in a rigorous training regimen that washed some others out. "Valerie was not a crier and she wasn't a wimp," recalls Larry Johnson, a former CIA analyst who was part of her 1985 training class. "She was 22 and very young coming into the CIA, but she was very mature, very professional." Other fellow trainees remember her as a head-turning blonde who did well wielding an AK-47.  In testimony to Congress, Johnson described their training at what CIA recruits call The Farm:  "We slogged through the same swamps on patrols, passed clandestine messages to our agents during exercises, survived a simulated terrorist kidnapping and interrogation, kicked pallets from cargo planes, completed parachute jumps and literally helped pick ticks off each other after weeks in the woods at a CIA training facility." Fast forward to 2003: Valerie Plame is married to Joe Wilson (the former ambassador's tales of diplomatic exploits checked out), and they are the parents of three-year-old twins. Known by her married name, she lives a relatively quiet life in an upscale Washington neighbourhood, helps run a support network for women suffering from postpartum depression and professes to work for a Boston-based energy consulting firm. In truth, she is a covert operative for the CIA and a specialist in weapons of mass destruction, a fact unknown even to close friends and neighbours. Chris Wolf, the Wilsons' next-door neighbor, remembers backing off when she first identified herself as a consultant. "In Washington, that often means you're unemployed," he explains. On July 14, 2003, Wolf was sitting on his deck eating breakfast and reading Robert Novak's column in The Washington Post, when something jumped out at him. The column, citing two Bush administration officials, identified Wilson's wife as a CIA "operative on weapons of mass destruction." Incredulous, Wolf called over to Wilson, who had ventured out onto his deck at about the same time. "He seemed really stricken," Wolf recalled, "and signalled for me to keep my voice down." Victoria Tillotson, the Wilsons' next-door neighbour on the other side, was certain that Novak had it wrong. "I fully believed she was an economic consultant and went to foreign countries," says Tillotson, whose grandchildren are frequent playmates of the Wilson twins. This is when Plame's world turned upside down and the couple began what Wilson refers to as "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride." "She was stoic in her manner but I could see she was crestfallen," Wilson wrote in his memoir. "Twenty years of loyal service down the drain, and for what, she asked after she had read it." Then, instinct kicked in. She began making a list of things to do to minimize damage to projects she was working on. In the two years since Plame's dual identity was revealed, the criminal investigation into who leaked her name has overtaken official Washington and led to the indictment of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, a top aide to Vice-President Dick Cheney, on charges of obstruction of justice, perjury and false statements. No one has been charged with a crime for disclosing Plame's identity, which her husband says was an act of retribution after he spoke out against the administration. Wilson says he and his wife have no regrets, although he would love to give back his wife her career as a covert operative. "I just talked to my wife this morning and we would do it again in a New York minute," he said just days before Libby was indicted. After the indictment was released, he issued a public plea for his family's privacy, adding, "They did not choose to be brought into the public square and they do not wish to be under the glare of the cameras." In all of the hubbub, just about everyone but Plame herself has taken a shot at defining her. Plame, 42, has been vilified by the right as part of an anti-Bush cabal and lionized by the left as the patriotic victim of a smear. When her identity first was revealed, one Republican congressman demanded, "We need to know if she was a spy or if she was a glorified secretary." Those were fighting words to Johnson and other former colleagues who trained with Plame and jumped to her defence. But Johnson says many at the CIA, where she now holds a desk job, treat her as a leper, afraid that association with her could damage their own career. "She's radioactive," he said. "She's keeping her sense of humour but she's legitimately angry," said Johnson. "It has completely destroyed her ability to ever work as a case officer, which is what she was trained to do." Plame's lawyer, next-door neighbour Wolf, says she has been barred by the CIA from making public comments. The CIA confirms only that she was denied permission to publish an op-ed piece she wrote to set the record straight. Neighbours and friends, although floored by her dual identity, say Plame remains the same caring friend and conscientious mother she was before her cover was blown. She drives a hybrid car, helps her little boy and girl adjust to kindergarten, takes care of the Tillotsons' cat when they are away, and keeps some pumpkins and Indian corn on the front porch of their red brick house. Plame has consented to one photo, her blonde hair and good looks glamorously shrouded by a scarf and sunglasses as she posed for Vanity Fair alongside her husband in his Jaguar. It is has been a long, wild ride for the girl who was born in Alaska and moved around in an Air Force family before settling as a teenager in suburban Philadelphia. After Penn State and joining the CIA, she picked up degrees from the London School of Economics and the College of Europe in Belgium. "You'd love them as friends," says Jane Honikman, a Californian who founded a postpartum support network and became friends with the Wilsons after their twins were born and Plame sought help for depression. "They're just such normal people." Honikman remembers sitting on the Wilsons' deck after dinner one night, enjoying the view of the Washington Monument. "We were sitting at the seat of all this power, and they were part of that and now they're not," she said. "I know that they really are hurt." It's unlikely Plame will remain at the CIA for long. "She wants to be a mom and also be respected for her work and acknowledged for her hard work, but how much more she can stay there and tolerate the stress, I have no idea," Honikman said.- Nancy Benach

Reid says Rove should resign, Bush and Cheney should apologize for leak

Photo: In this photo provided by ABC News, Sen. Harry Reid appears for an interview on ABC's "This Week," in Washington, Sunday.

WASHINGTON, DC- The Senate Democratic leader said Sunday that presidential adviser Karl Rove should resign because of his role in exposing an undercover CIA officer, and a veteran Republican senator said President George W. Bush needs "new blood" in his White House. Rove has not been charged, but he continues to be investigated in the CIA leaks case that brought the indictment and resignation Friday of Lewis "Scooter" Libby, an adviser to Bush and the top aide to Vice-President Dick Cheney. Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has not made a decision on whether Rove gave false testimony during his four grand jury appearances. Rove is Bush's most trusted adviser. Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said he is disappointed that Bush and Cheney responded to the indictment by lauding Libby and suggested they should apologize for the leak that revealed the identity of covert CIA officer Valerie Plame.

"First of all, the vice-president issues this very terse statement praising Libby for all the great things he's done," Reid said. "Then we have the president come on camera a few minutes later calling him Scooter and what a great patriot he is. There has not been an apology to the American people for this obvious problem in the White House," Reid (D-Nev.) told ABC's This Week. Meanwhile, Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) said Cheney should "come clean" about his involvement and why he discussed Plame with Libby before Libby spoke to reporters about her. "What did the vice-president know? What were his intentions?" Dodd asked on Fox News Sunday. "Now, there's no suggestion the vice-president is guilty of any crime here whatsoever. But if our standard is just criminality, then we're never going to get to the bottom of this," Dodd said. Democrats appearing on Sunday talk shows portrayed Libby's indictment as one of many serious problems surrounding the White House and one of several allegations raising questions about Republican ethics. Republicans repeatedly said the charges have been made against only one individual and that Libby should be presumed innocent until proven guilty. Public opinion appears to be running against Bush. Almost half the public, 46 per cent, say the level of ethics and honesty in the federal government has fallen with Bush as president, according to an ABC News-Washington Post poll. That's three times the number who say ethics and honesty have risen during that time. Republican Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi said Bush should be on the lookout for "new blood, new energy, qualified staff, new people in administration." He said poor advice may have even contributed to the failed nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court. A grand jury charged Libby on Friday with five felonies alleging obstruction of justice, perjury to a grand jury and making false statements to FBI agents. If convicted, he could face a maximum of 30 years in prison and $1.25 million US in fines. Libby was not charged with the crime that the grand jury was created to investigate - specifically, who leaked the name of Plame to reporters in 2003. Libby and Rove were named by reporters brought before the grand jury, but it was unclear whether they knew that she was a covert agent. Reid said Rove should resign or be fired for even discussing Plame. He recalled that Bush once said he would fire anyone involved in the leak, although Bush later amended that standard to say he would fire anyone convicted of a crime. "If he's a man of his word, Rove should be history," Reid said on CNN's Late Edition. Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) said Rove has not been charged with any crime and that any talk of him stepping down is politically motivated. "Senator Reid is entitled to his opinion, but he's not the president of the United States, and he doesn't administer justice in this country," Specter said. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said there "absolutely" should be an internal White House investigation. But he said allegations of illegal activity appeared to be focused only on Libby. "I think the likelihood of Karl Rove being indicted in the future is virtually zero," Graham said on Face the Nation. Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) urged an internal investigation. "The real question for President Bush is going to be: is he going to be like Nixon: hunker down, get into the bunker, admit no mistakes," Schumer said, "or like Reagan, who actually admitted mistakes, did a mid-course correction and brought in new people, bipartisan people, people above ethical reproach, into the White House." -Nedra Picker