Finally Telling My Story

My publisher decided to print the blacked out redactions demanded by the CIA and hopefully those passages speak for themselves and the extent to which the CIA thought the material in the book was classified.
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I'm Valerie Plame Wilson and I'm excited to be here and blog about mybook Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House,which goes on sale Monday, Oct 22. When my publisher sent me thefinished copy earlier this week, it was thrilling. It felt like a newchapter (forgive the pun) has begun on the journey that has taken someincredible twists and turns since July 14, 2003, when my covertidentity was exposed and ended a career that I loved. I've writtenhonestly about my life: why I went to work for the CIA, myparamilitary training, the sort of operations we developed and ran tofind intelligence on Iraq's alleged WMD programs in the run up to thewar, as well as personal information, such as my battle withpostpartum depression and the difficulties I had going from a privateto a public persona literally overnight. My publisher, Simon andSchuster, decided to print the blacked out redactions demanded by theCIA and hopefully those passages (or lack thereof) speak forthemselves and the extent to which the CIA thought the material in thebook was classified.

Watching myself on 60 Minutes was surreal -- who can ever getused to seeing themselves on TV? I guess the book tour has reallystarted and it will be a crazy week ahead. After four and a half yearsand everyone else in world talking about me, it feels good to finallybe able to tell my story myself. It's a story about the consequencesof speaking truth to power and the critical importance of holding ourgovernment to account for its words and deeds. I'm off to bed,because I have an early wakeup call tomorrow to do the Today Show. Ilook forward to sharing my reactions and stories with you from theroad over the next few days. I will be posting throughout the week andappreciate your comments and support.

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