Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Wilson's Wife is Fair Game

"Wilson's wife is fair game."  So says Karl Rove about Valerie Plame, wife of Joe Wilson, in the movie called Fair Game.

Former ambassador Wilson had been sent to Niger to assess whether that country sold yellowcake uranium to Iraq; he concludes it did not.  

The shipment of this uranium is one of the planks of Bush's allegation that Iraq has 'weapons of mass destruction'.  As the rhetoric to support the war ramps up, Wilson speaks publicly and gives interviews about his conclusion.  But an Op Ed piece in the New York Times seems to be the proverbial straw.  In the piece entitled "What I Didn't Find In Africa", he claims that the government is manipulating intelligence about weapons of mass destruction and thus undermines the case for the invasion of Iraq.  

Retribution is swift and brutal.  A leak traced back to Dick Cheney's office results in a column in the New York Times, blowing Plame's CIA cover and putting her and her agent network at great risk.

Eventually Scooter Libby is convicted for this leak, although many feel he is the fall guy for Rove and Cheney.  He is sentenced to jail in June 2007, but less than a month later, Bush commutes his sentence.  

I was particularly interested in seeing this movie, after having heard Valerie Plame at TED last year (see my blog post about her talk and the movie TED screened called Countdown to Zero).  Both are good movies, albeit sobering and chilling.  Definitely worth picking up at the video store.

No comments: