Paul E. Vallely - The Plame Affair

The Plame Affair

Vallely made the following statement to World Net Daily on November 5, 2005 regarding the disclosure of Valerie Plame's CIA affiliation:

Maj. Gen. Paul Vallely told WorldNetDaily that Joseph C. Wilson mentioned Plame's status as a CIA employee over the course of at least three, possibly five, conversations in 2002 in the Fox News Channel's "green room" in Washington, D.C., as they waited to appear on air as analysts....Vallely says, according to his recollection, 'Wilson mentioned his wife's job in the spring of 2002' -- more than a year before Robert Novak's July 14, 2003, column identified her, citing senior administration officials, as "an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction."

Vallely later said that only one such conversation had occurred:

After recalling further over the weekend his contacts with Wilson, Vallely says now it was on just one occasion – the first of several conversations – that the ambassador revealed his wife's employment with the CIA and that it likely occurred some time in the late summer or early fall of 2002.

Joseph C. Wilson denied ever having disclosed his wife's CIA status to Vallely, and his attorney wrote to Vallely and World Net Daily demanding a retraction, as reported in that publication.