Plame acknowledged sometimes seeking publicity, saying that her appearance in a Hollywood-like photo spread in Vanity Fair in January 2004 "was more trouble than it was worth."
Wilson, who at times has seemed to relish the limelight of the scandal, did not attend Friday's hearing.
Plame was accompanied by two former CIA colleagues, who said that Wilson and the couple's children were traveling in the Western United States. Wilson and Plame recently purchased a home in Santa Fe, N.M., after selling their Washington property for a reported $1.8 million.
Wilson, 57, has published a memoir, and Plame also has written a book, titled "Fair Game," that is undergoing a CIA review to prevent disclosure of classified information.
Friday's hearing, held by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, ostensibly was designed to assist lawmakers in drafting improved procedures for safeguarding classified information. But the unacknowledged purpose was to give a platform to someone who has been a mystery figure in a scandal bearing her name.
Committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles) said that the panel had negotiated ground rules for the hearing with the CIA to prevent the disclosure of classified information, including details of Plame's background. As a result, Plame offered only a general outline of her 20-year career at the agency, saying she was working in the counter-proliferation division -- a branch devoted to tracking the global spread of illicit weapons -- when her identity was exposed.
But for the first time, she offered her version of the chronology leading up to that breach. Plame said that in early 2002, she was approached by "a young junior officer" who was "very upset" after getting a phone call from Vice President Dick Cheney's office asking about a report that Iraq had sought to buy uranium from the African nation of Niger.
Plame characterized the call as part of a broader effort by Cheney to pressure the CIA into reaching harder assessments on Iraq -- a charge that Cheney as well as senior CIA officials who were at the agency at the time have denied.
"Certainly Vice President Cheney's unprecedented number of visits to the CIA in the run-up to the war might be one example" of his efforts to pressure analysts, Plame said.
Asked whether that was a form of intimidation, she said, "Yes, it is."
