By MARK MORRIS - The Kansas City Star
Wilson Valerie Plame Wilson, who guarded the nation’s secrets during her CIA career, appeared in Kansas City on Friday to criticize excessive government secrecy and to stand by the Constitution’s free-speech guarantees. “After the experience of the last eight years, the public must understand that democracy is only as good as our willingness to participate in it,” Wilson said at a news conference. “These are the most profound issues that face us every day. What are we going to read in that (newspaper)? Is it just what the government wants?”
In July 2003, syndicated columnist Robert Novak disclosed Wilson’s identity as a CIA agent, sparking a long-running investigation that eventually led to the prosecution and conviction in 2007 of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, formerly Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, on perjury and obstruction of justice charges. Wilson was in town to address a media law conference on government curbs on free speech. The conference was coordinated by the University of Kansas Continuing Education. She pointed to one issue related to her recently published memoir, Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House, in which the CIA barred her from disclosing her dates of service, even though an unclassified letter to her detailing her retirement benefits was published in the Congressional Record. She is suing the federal government to be allowed to include that information — Nov. 9, 1985, to Jan. 9, 2006, according to the Congressional Record — in subsequent editions of her book.
“I am not permitted to acknowledge any agency affiliation prior to January 2002,” Wilson said. “I’d like to be able to say how long I’ve served my country.” A CIA spokesman has said the letter was sent to Wilson in error.
Two others linked to the Wilson affair also addressed the conference: Walter Pincus, a Washington Post reporter who testified at Libby’s trial, and Judith Miller, a former New York Times reporter who was jailed after she refused to say who told her about Plame’s identity.
Miller told the conferees that reporters writing on national security issues need a federal law allowing them to protect their sources. Objecting to subpoenas that seek to identify official leaks is costly for journalists, she said. “These fights are expensive, and it leads news organizations to decide that this story isn’t worth it,” Miller said. “For these reasons, I believe a shield law is essential.”
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http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/story/582702.html
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