Valerie Plame

In the first such account from Vice President Dick Cheney's inner circle, a former aide testified Thursday that Cheney personally directed the effort to discredit an administration critic by having calls made to reporters in 2003. Cheney dictated detailed "talking points" for his chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, and others on how they could impugn the critic's credibility, said Catherine J. Martin, who was the vice president's top press aide at the time.

Former vice presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's defense in his perjury trial rests largely on the claim that he was too busy with pressing affairs of state to recall minor events such as conversations with reporters about an obscure CIA employee.

Former White House official I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby told a grand jury in 2004 that Vice President Dick Cheney was upset by an ambassador's public questioning of the Iraq war and that President Bush, Cheney and Libby were involved in a plan -- kept secret from other senior White House officials -- to leak previously classified intelligence to reporters to counter the criticism.

I. LEWIS 'SCOOTER' LIBBY Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, he was found guilty by a federal court jury on four counts of lying and obstruction of justice in the CIA leak investigation. -- VALERIE PLAME A former covert CIA officer identified in a July 2003 column by Robert Novak, she is the wife of Joseph C. Wilson IV. -- JOSEPH C. WILSON IV A former U.S.

She has been silent for nearly four years. Today, the former CIA officer whose unmasking fueled a political uproar and criminal probe that reached into the White House is poised to finally tell her own story -- before Congress. Valerie Plame's testimony will have all the trappings of a "Garbo speaks" moment on Capitol Hill, with cameras and microphones arrayed to capture the voice of Plame, the glamorous but mute star of a compelling political intrigue.

With a phalanx of cameras awaiting her entrance, Valerie Plame stepped out of the spy-world shadows and into the spotlight. For nearly four years, Plame had been a silent, Garbo-like figure at the center of one of Washington's most consuming scandals. Her unmasking as a covert CIA officer became a case study of the brutal politics of the Iraq war, and launched a criminal probe that led to the conviction of a top White House official. On Friday, Plame finally offered her inside account.

Simon & Schuster and author Valerie Plame, a former covert agent for the Central Intelligence Agency, said Thursday that they are suing the CIA for attempting to block her efforts to write a book about her years of service. Plame became the focus of controversy when several Bush administration officials were accused of leaking her covert status to journalists in 2003 after her husband, former envoy Joseph C.

A federal judge on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit seeking to hold Vice President Dick Cheney and others personally responsible for damages arising from the 2003 disclosure of the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame. U.S. District Judge John D. Bates ruled that the civil suit by Plame and her husband, former envoy Joseph C. Wilson IV, was preempted by laws that protect federal workers.

NEW YORK -- In a setback for Valerie Plame, a federal judge ruled Friday that the former CIA agent cannot divulge the dates she worked for the agency in her forthcoming book, "Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House." The decision by U.S. District Judge Barbara S. Jones was a victory for the CIA, which had argued that such information was classified and should not be made public.

Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan blames President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for efforts to mislead the public about the role of White House aides in leaking the identity of a CIA operative. In an excerpt from his forthcoming book, "What Happened," McClellan recounts the 2003 news conference in which he told reporters that aides Karl Rove and I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby were "not involved" in the leak involving operative Valerie Plame. "There was one problem.