| FAIR GAME Valerie Plame Wilson Laura Rozen (Afterword) New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007 |
Rating: 4.5 High |
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| ISBN-13 978-1-4165-3761-8 | ||||
| ISBN-10 1-4165-3761-9 | 410pp. | HC/FCI | $26.00 | |
There's no doubt that operational details of CIA activities — like names of undercover personnel, and dates and locations of their undercover service — should remain unpublished. Redaction therefore must be allowed.
At the same time, it is so often taken to absurd lengths. That is the case with this book. Redacting Plame's height and weight, as I mentioned in my review, does little by itself to forestall damage to America's security, and by now is obsolete caution. The same is true of the name of the department store where she worked while waiting out the CIA approval process. (Of course, it is possible this store is a CIA front. But if so, the Bush administration — so (selectively) ardent about prosecuting leaks — ought to be going after Laura Rozen, who reveals it in her Afterword.)
It gets worse. Miniscule details of actions Plame took during hostage training are concealed, even though they can have no possible impact on national security. At one point, part of her cover story is redacted. Toward the end of the book, when she describes her negotiations with the CIA's Publication Review Board (PRB) over the content of her manuscript, details of the specific arrangement proposed are redacted. In at least three places, they even hide the words describing which half of the manuscript she is allowed to take to her editor. I really don't think it gives much aid and comfort to America's enemies to know whether this was the first half or the last half. And there is one case where, while the name of an individual is hidden early on, the same individual is openly named near the end of Plame's section of the book.
My position is that this is needless and inconsistent suppression. In many cases, the same result could have been achieved as effectively, and far less jarringly, by substituting an innocuous word or phrase. Below I attempt to support my contention by quoting a few examples of redaction from the text and trying to guess what was concealed. To do this, I make use of context. The lengths of redacted passages are also a helpful clue, since they indicate the approximate number of characters in the passage. In these excerpts, I've attempted to match those lengths.
These are only guesses. In each case, what's blacked out could be something I haven't thought of — something that really merits concealment. But knowing the text of an English-language paragraph, and the true length of a short redacted passage within it, puts powerful constraints on what the passage might say.
In a few places, the evident absurdity called forth an attempt at sarcastic humor. These are indicated by blue highlighting.
_______________________ I nervously settled into my chair in a nondescript office building in a congested Virginia suburb. I took in my __ classmates in our CIA introduction course. Many of the young men were clearly ex-military types, some still sporting regulation buzz cuts. Just less than half were women, but as I later learned, less than half of those were destined, like me, to work in the Directorate of Operations (DO). The rest were pegged to become analysts in the Directorate of Intelligence (DI) or administrative/logistical officers and the like in the Directorate of Administration (DA). A few were engineers who would ultimately work in the Directorate of Science and Technology (DST), the Agency's research arm. It looked like I was the __________ by far and this suspicion was confirmed when a tiny woman, nearly as wide as she was tall, took me and three other (male) classmates into her office during a break. – Page 7 |
The first redaction probably covers a location, and that's fine. The second apparently gives the number of students in her class. This might be justified if it would help identify the dates of training for that class. But what does context tell us about the third passage? Judging by the remainder of the sentence, it has to do with Ms. Plame's height, weight or appearance. What possible reason is there to hide those, when they are a matter of public record and also mentioned in the clear elsewhere in the book? Of course, this might hide something which does merit concealment. I just find it extremely unlikely.
As instructed early on by the Agency, I had told my family and friends that _______________________ ____ my time away from Washington was for some vague, undefined "training." – Pages 10-11 |
In this second example, the CIA redacts her cover story! Even at the time she was undercover, the fact that a woman named Valerie Plame worked as an energy analyst for Brewster Jennings and Associates1 was intended for public consumption. Now that it's become widely known to be a cover story, concealing it is doubly absurd. Even if this passage gives a date, that is almost certain to be in the public record. In that case, would it not make more sense to write something innocuous like "during this period"?
As I sat down—a slight concession that they had given us a few hours earlier—I dared ______________________ check my surroundings. To my delight, a classmate who had become a friend had chosen that moment as well to defy the rules. The brief smile and eye rolls we exchanged renewed my confidence that I would get through this. – Pages 14-15 |
Here she is describing POW training at some undisclosed location in the U.S. southeast. But the redacted passage can only be something like "peek though my blindfold to". Again, blindfolding POWs, or POW trainees, is merely a logical part of the process. Revealing it in no way damages the CIA.
Vicious summer thunderstorms cut out the power several times and rendered our ________ useless, so on a few nights our classroom looked like a twisted tableau from a medieval monastery—we were bent over yellow legal pads writing out our reports in longhand while candles flickered in the middle of the table. – Pages 25-26 |
They had an Interociter? No wonder that was redacted! If it got out that the CIA had Interociter technology, the balloon would really go up!2
But seriously, this is another useless concealment. The term it hides can easily be deduced from context; it can only refer to some sort of electronic recording devices. What could they be: dictation machines? IBM Selectrics? personal computers? If the latter, the fact that the CIA had reliable, portable personal computers at the time of Plame's training — probably 1985 or 1986 — is mildly surprising,3 but hardly a security concern.
That evening ________________________________________________________ our class graduated. This time I did not trade in my wineglass for water with a twist. ______________________________________, I had gone from an idealistic and intimidated _______ woman overwhelmed by my new surroundings, to an idealistic ___________ woman who had been challenged and had thrived. – Page 27 |
Ha! These last two passages tell us that Valerie Plame is some kind of woman. Now, there's a revelation!
As a _________ female with blonde hair and blue eyes, I looked as nonthreatening and non-CIA as possible... – Page 28 |
Warning! Valerie Plame is some kind of female person! You must not reveal what kind, or it will bring this great nation down!
Despite the perks I offered, his face remained impassive. I could feel the _____ beginning to eat away at my stomach and imagined returning to the office empty-handed, my colleagues sympathetic but perhaps secretly a little pleased. – Pages 40-41 |
But... what could be eating away at her stomach? Fear? Tension? Worry? Apprehension? (No; that last has too many letters...) Acid? None of those, obviously. It had to be something whose existence was highly classified — something like a Goauld symbiote, or the larval form of the Alien that so troubled Ripley and her companions aboard the Nostromo.
One dreary day in February 2002, a young and capable officer rushed into my office. Normally somewhat reserved and calm, ______ looked unusually animated and alarmed. She hurriedly told me that "someone from the vice president's office" had called on her green secure line. – Page 108 |
The name of this individual, redacted twice on this page, is apparently disclosed on page 168: "I had forgotten that Penny received the call from the vice president's office that had set Joe's trip in motion."
I stayed home, working on operational issues ____ at my CIA office, taking care of the kids, and trying to get back from work at a decent hour. – Page 111 |
Here, "home" means she stayed in town while her husband flew overseas. So what could this four-letter blank conceal? "Here", "there," "back", "when", "while"? The mind boggles at the waste of black ink.
...we marveled at how much the Agency had changed from the rigid and paternalistic organization that it had once been. _____________ On its inception in 1947 it was a stronghold of the "old boys school" but.... – Pages 114-115 |
Context implies the missing passage describes the general current state of the CIA; that it is no longer "rigid and paternalistic," but something approaching the opposite. I can't guess what exactly is hidden here; many variations are possible. But it's only twelve or thirteen letters, and not part of a sentence. That's not a whole lot of room for a descriptive phrase, still less for one containing state secrets.
They understood that I could not tell them the truth of my employment, but some did mention that they now understood my constant ________ travels. – Page 151 |
Okay, Valerie Plame was constantly travelling somewhere, and her friends knew that. Judging by the context, they also knew where she travelled, in general terms. So where was that somewhere? It looks like one word with 8 or 9 letters. It modifies "travel", therefore it's an adjective. "International" is too long, "foreign" too short. What could it be? My guesses are "European" or "overseas." Not much potential for damage there.
Back at CIA Headquarters that summer, our ____ once bustling office fell eerily quiet. – Page 151 |
Here's a 5-letter word describing an office. But it doesn't look like it identifies the organization or division within the CIA to which the office belongs, else it would follow "once bustling." So my guess is that it describes some physical characteristic of the office or the group that uses it. Examples include "small", "happy", or "tense." So why redact it?
As the challenging task of securing and stabilizing Iraq began in earnest, the drive and energy drained out completely from ____ my team at Headquarters and morale was low. My office mates began to ____ look for new jobs elsewhere in the DO. – Page 156 |
Based on my guesses, neither of these redactions makes any sense. Could it be that the redactors are getting cagey, that the lengths aren't accurate any longer? That would be a useful stratagem. But I have trouble believing they're that clever.
I got right to the point and asked him if he—and all the others—had been instructed not to speak to me about the case. ____ There was an awkward pause. – Page 229 |
Please tell me I'm wrong. Tell me that they're now altering the lengths. There's no way in this context that one four- or five-letter word, inserted between sentences, could be anything but an expression of dismay. That alternative is too depressing.
I assumed that ___________________ was chosen because it included the run-up period when the vice president's office inquired about the report claiming Iraq was seeking uranium from Niger. – Page 268 |
This refers to a period of time printed openly in the same paragraph. WTF.
Perhaps looking to compensate for the bombshell they just dropped, they set down in front of me the _______ half of my manuscript, covering my story ____________________, and said I could give it to my editor. – Page 269 |
Here, apparently, it's knowing which half of her manuscript was approved that's deemed the vital secret. (The second redaction seems justified.)
As I left, feeling somewhat shellshocked, the PRB handed me the redacted version of ________ half of my manuscript so that I could send it to my editor at the publishing house. – Page 273 |
And again.
The only bit of hope I grasped was the PRB's promise to release _________ half of my manuscript, in redacted form, so I could have something to work on with my editor in trying to reshape the story. – Page 275 |
And yet again. In fact, this same passage is redacted twice more further down the page.
This was patently false—I was always willing to meet with the PRB at any time—and it was also clear that the only "approach" they wanted to pursue was one where _______________________________________________ so thoroughly it would make the book unfit to print or read. – Page 280 |
The PRB (Publication Review Board) is redacting the procedure they want to use for redacting Plame's book. It seems clear to me that the reason for doing this is not to protect the nation's secrets, but to hide the PRB's heavy-handedness.
A collaborator, of course, is merely someone who works with another on some project: most commonly, a book. In that sense, Laura Rozen is a collaborator of Valerie Plame's — just as reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein were collaborators in probing and writing about the Watergate scandal.
But "collaborator" has a more sinister connotation: that of someone who cooperates with a nation's enemies. It is with reference to that sense of the word that I, tongue planted firmly in cheek, point out the dangerous nature of Laura Rozen's collaboration. In the guise of setting the record straight, she reveals names and other facts the CIA redacted in Valerie Plame's own manuscript. This is a ruse intended to circumvent the legitimate suppression of information that is so vital to our national security. O wretched Rozen, reckless revealer of random redactions!
Among the dastardly disclosures is the name of the Washington department store where Plame worked while awaiting her Agency position. How can this great nation survive now that our enemies know the name of Woodward & Lothrop?
To contact Chris Winter, send email to this address.