Valerie passes this intelligence to her seniors who are being pressured by the vice president’s office to accept the opinion of one dissenting analyst, who claims to have evidence of a secret transfer of fissile uranium from Niger in Africa to the Iraqi regime. In 2002, at Valerie’s recommendation, the CIA sends Joe Wilson, former US ambassador to Niger, to the said country to investigate if Niger had supplied enriched uranium to Iraq. After a visit to Niger, Wilson reports back to the CIA that the said deal never took place. Wilson’s report is disregarded as officials of the Bush administration go on television stating the Iraq had nuclear ambitions and that they had evidence of the same. On 28th January 2003, President Bush, in his State of the Union address, says that the then UK government had evidence that Saddam had sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa. Finally, the US goes to war with Iraq in March 2003.
Incensed at the US administration’s blatant lies, Joe Wilson writes an Op-Ed piece in The New York Times, titled, ‘What I Did Find In Africa’ and calls the government’s bluff. A few press conferences, talks and television shows later, an article in the Washington Post reveals the identity of Valerie Plame as a CIA agent. She is immediately sacked, all her on-going projects are annulled and her agency colleagues refuse to talk to her. She is hounded by the press and called a ‘third rate agent’. Valerie is shaken and leaves Wilson for the time being as their relations become strained after another scoop which rubbishes Wilson’s reputation. But Wilson decides to continue the single-handed fight against the White House. Will Wilson win the battle for the truth? Will Valerie be able to turn her life around?
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