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Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 327.12730092
Format: Bargain Price
Label: Simon & Schuster
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 411
Printing Date: October 22, 2007
Publishing house: Simon & Schuster
Release Date: October 22, 2007
Sale Popularity Level: 21621
Studio: Simon & Schuster
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Product Description:
On July 6, 2003, four months after the United States invaded Iraq, former ambassador Joseph Wilson's now historic op-ed, 'What I Didn't Find in Africa,' appeared in The New York Times. A week later, conservative pundit Robert Novak revealed in his newspaper column that Ambassador Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame Wilson, was a CIA operative. 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 2006, 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.S. marine, she sets the record straight, providing an extraordinary account of her training and experiences, and answers many questions that have been asked about her covert status, her responsibilities, and her life. 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.
Amazon.com Review:
On July 6, 2003, four months after the United States invaded Iraq, former ambassador Joseph Wilson's now historic op-ed, 'What I Didn't Find in Africa,' appeared in The New York Times. A week later, conservative pundit Robert Novak revealed in his newspaper column that Ambassador Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame Wilson, was a CIA operative. 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 2006, 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.S. marine, she sets the record straight, providing an extraordinary account of her training and experiences, and answers many questions that have been asked about her covert status, her responsibilities, and her life. 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.
Read the First Chapter from Fair Game
Joining the CIA
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.' It was 4 a.m. and we had been on the move all night. 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 5.56 mm ammunition for our M-16s. 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. His round face was covered with mud and sweat.
Read the Publishing house's Note and First Chapter from Fair Game
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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I second Ms. Plame in publishing the book with the exact redactions ordered by the agency. I think it was a brilliant idea to show the world how much material had been censored. It is fascinating to skim through the book and realize that a good percentage of it is blacked out. Notwithstanding the aforementioned fact, the book is riveting and very informative. Highly recommended.
Rated by buyers 
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While the book certainly makes the case that Plame was a covert operative who was wronged by the administration, I think what makes it most interesting can be appreciated by anyone outside of their political leanings. We get a candid portrait of what it's like in the center of one of these media storms and Plame offers up plenty of detail on the toll this affair took on herself and her marriage. People should be outraged.
The large section of redacted passages are tough to get around -- I wish the material included at the end could have been inserted as footnotes throughout so the reader doesn't have to jump back and forth.
Rated by buyers -
This isn't a spy-intrigue-action book, so please don't expect it to be. It's Valerie Plame Wilson's story about ow she happened to become a CIA agent, what it took to reach the levels in the institution that she did. How the scandal started who was and wasn't involved. She explains how the government managed to touch every part of her being to her personal life, social life, professional life, motherhood, finances, you name it. It's a good book, and one American's should read. Especially approaching this 2008 election.
Rated by buyers -
An excellent book, after I had to go to the library to read a copy, because Amazon lost my order, and then said they had run out of this book---great customer service, eh!!!
Rated by buyers -
The story of "How a Top CIA Agent Was Betrayed by Her Own Government" needs to be told, and can be extracted from this narrative. But to wade through the personal, sometimes partisan, and occasionally self-serving issues in the writer's life that are noted in the latter portion of the book can lead one to suggest an alternative title. However, "The Trials of Valerie Plame Wilson" would not have been as effective from a marketing standpoint.
This book begins interestingly and ends tediously, for which one may fault the editors at Simon & Schuster rather than the self-described novice writer and very first time author.
Particularly in comparison to the generally succinct and well written Afterword by Laura Rozen, both the author and the publisher would have been well served by heavy editing of the second half of the book.
Overall, a worthy addition to the reference literature of the CIA, and a chilling tale of politics gone awry with respect to American intelligence gathering.
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