She’s Plame, Valerie Plame – and no, this video isn’t the trailer for a new spy drama. It’s Plame’s campaign bid for the US Congress as a Democrat in New Mexico.
An ex-CIA agent, Plame has served in high-profile missions in countries including Iraq, investigating its alleged stockpile of mass-destruction weapons, before she was outed as an agent during the tenure of the Bush administration.
As the story goes, Plame’s husband, US diplomat Joseph C Wilson IV, wrote an op-ed in The New York Times questioning the justification for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Soon afterwards, Plame was identified as an agent in a Washington Post article that cited unnamed administration officials.
Plame has levelled allegations against the Bush administration, specifically, former Vice President Dick Cheney’s ex-chief of staff Scooter Libby, in statements and in this video.
While no one was explicitly punished for the leak, Libby was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice in connection with a special prosecutor’s investigation into the disclosure of Plame’s identity, reports Insider. However, his sentence was commuted by former President George W Bush, and President Donald Trump controversially pardoned him in April 2018.
Plame has often spoken about the scandal, and says in her advertisement, “Mr President, I’ve got a few scores to settle,” as she drives backwards on a dirt track in a metaphor to show that America is going in the wrong direction on a number of policies.
The 56-year-old is seeking to replace Rep Ben Ray Luján who is running for Senate.
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