The lawsuit former CIA agent Valerie Plame filed against Vice President Dick Cheney, Scooter Libby, Richard Armitage, and Karl Rove was dismissed by a federal judge Thursday. Although Judge John D. Bates said there were still significant questions left to be answered concerning the compromises to America’s intelligence program by the actions of these four Bush administration officials, federal law prohibits Plame and her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, from pursuing civil damages through legal action. The couple are expected to appeal, but in the meantime, an anonymous reader wants to speculate about what this portends for Fair Game, the memoir Simon & Schuster would like to publish in October if CIA will let her tell the world when she worked there, which is the basis of another lawsuit Plame and her publisher have filed against the agency.
“In all probability,” this mysterious would-be pundit guessed, “the book will not come out… This case sets a precedent that she was not wronged and has no legal recourse.” To be honest, that really didn’t strike me as how S&S would roll, particularly since the lawsuit against CIA isn’t about damages. Communications director and VP Adam Rothberg confirmed that impression when contacted via email, replying with a brief statement: “This does not change our publication plans.”
(Meanwhile, NYT magazine interview dominatrix Deborah Solomon goes one-on-one with Robert Novak, the political columnist who, spoonfed by Armitage and Rove, trumpeted Plame’s identity to the world, and he’s still not sorry. “I thought journalistically, it was justifiable,” he insists. “Nobody had told me—and I still don’t believe—that it put anybody’s life in danger. I don’t think she was an important person [in the agency].” It should be noted that the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982 makes no distinction as to the “importance” of the agent whose cover is blown.)