In Saturday’s NYT article by Judy Miller in which she described her grand jury testimony, Miller revealed that her notes included references to “Valerie Flame” and “Victoria Wilson”. That peaked my interest as I wondered who else might have been provided with an inaccurate name in the case of Valerie Plame (if, indeed, it is inaccurate).
A Google search shows that, in 2003, numerous articles and blog posts referred to “Victoria Plame”. Some of these refer to that version of the name being used in an October, 2003 Newsweek article The Plame Game by Howard Fineman. It appears that the original article has now been revised.
An October 5, 2003 post at Whiskey Bar quotes the Fineman article:
I’ll stipulate that it is a felony to disclose the name of an undercover CIA operative who has been posted overseas in recent years. That’s what the statute says. But the now infamous outing of Victoria Plame isn’t primarily an issue of law. It’s about a lot of other things, like: the ongoing war between the CIA and the vice president’s office.
The Wayback Machine provides this cached version of the original Newsweek story.
more…
Sidebar: As of October, 2005, the name “Victoria Plame” is still being used by some outlets.
Note: I have contacted Joe Wilson via his publisher, Carrol and Graf, to see if they can help unravel the mystery of “Victoria Plame” for us. In the meantime, those interested in Joe Wilson’s chronology and opinions about what happened can read the preface to his book, The Politics of Truth online here.
Is this all much ado about nothing or does Judy Miller know more than she’s letting on? Was Valerie Plame known by some as “Victoria”? This looks like a job for the blogging sleuths.
(This posting was the result of a collaborative effort between jpol, SusanHu, Booman and myself. Thanks guys!)