|
|
|
|
|
Books : Fair Game: How a Top CIA Agent Was Betrayed by Her Own Government |
List Price: $15.00Amazon.com's Price: $10.95 You Save: $4.05 (27%)Prices subject to change.
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
This item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping.
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 320
EAN: 9781416537625
ISBN: 1416537627
Label: Simon & Schuster
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 432
Publication Date: June 10, 2008
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Sales Rank: 68841
Studio: Simon & Schuster
Related Items:
Editorial Review:
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 Publisher's Note and First Chapter from Fair Game
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
The author lost credibility (and my continued interest) on page 4 of this non page turner when she stated, "As a teenager, I read William Stevenson's A Man called Intrepid, about the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) days during World War II".
William Stevenson (code named "Intrepid") was a Canadian who served under British Prime Minister Winston Churchill during WWII. He was instrumental in the coordination and set-up of a branch of British Intelligence (British Security Coordination or 'BSC') here in Canada for the express purpose of creating Special Training School STS 103 (Camp 'X' ) that trained allied agents in the techniques of secret warfare for the Special Operations Executive (S.O.E.) branch of the British Intelligence Service.
The only connection this book had with the O.S.S. was that it's first director (William "Wild Bill" Donovan) and others were trained here in Canada at Camp 'X' (located about 30mi. east of Toronto along the northern Lake Ontario shoreline, bordering between Oshawa and Whitby). Mr. Donovan went on to create the O.S.S. (forerunner of the CIA) and modeled it's training methods after that which he obtained while at Camp 'X'.
Very little of the book has to do with either the O.S.S. or William Donovan, and is focused much more heavily on the British, Canadian and other Commonwealth countries war efforts in the fight against the Axis powers, prior to the U.S. entering the war.
I guess Ms. Plame's ... Read More
Rating:  -
This is a really fascinating look at how politics became a battlefront in the war on intelligence. Wilson's role in assisting the CIA becomes a firestorm with repercussions that surround the globe. This is an amazing look at what the toll of speaking up took, and should be a call for all Americans, of all political leanings, to stop, look past party loyalties, and question everything, even it it comes from your own candidate. I found the additional section at the end very helpful for filling in those blank pages. For anyone who is questioning this story you need to ask yourself, what were they going to gain by making this stuff up? Thank you Valerie for speaking up. You've made many Americans more determined to be forthright and honest.
Rating: -
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.
Rating:  -
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.
Rating: -
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.
Browse for similar items by category:
|
