Valerie Plame Wilson is really mad right now. And it’s not just about the Bush Administration outing her as a CIA agent in 2003—a get-even move after her ambassador spouse Joe Wilson exposed the hoax of weapons of mass destruction charges as a ploy for the invasion of Iraq. Today, Valerie has surfaced as a spy-turned-anti-nuke advocate, currently appearing as a talking head know-it-all in the nuclear apocalyptic doc Countdown to Zero. I sat down with Valerie for this investigative conversation into pressing and not-so-pressing matters, like life after covert espionage, secrecy on the home front as an undercover mom of twins, and is there such a thing as spy sexism.
Q: Why did you want to be part of this film and convey your expertise and alarm about weapons and world conflict to audiences?
VALERIE PLAME WILSON: I was contacted by Lawrence Bender and Participant Media. They really believe in the power of film to effect positive social change and I knew that they were serious; they had already done An Inconvenient Truth, which had made a huge impact on global warming. I was delighted to be able to apply my expertise as a covert CIA officer—I had worked in the area of nuclear weapons—and apply it in a way that could really make a difference and that didn’t have any partisan background noise to it, which is, you know, how the media has come to know me. So I am absolutely thrilled to be part of this and to get the conversation started on this issue, the threat of nuclear weapons and proliferation. “Entertaining” is a really scary word to use with this issue! But this is an entertaining film. It pulls you in. And what a challenge, to try to tell a story, and it is a story, of using nuclear weapons and the consequences of accidental use, madness, or miscalculation. What we are hoping is this will restart the conversation. The Cold War ended two decades ago, and there are kids in college today who were not even alive then, which is hard to believe. This is not part of their frame of reference, really. And frankly after the Cold War, everyone just sort of tucked this away under the carpet. We haven’t spoken or done much about nuclear proliferation, so the idea of this movie is to get people talking again, because we have this tremendous moment in time right now.
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Q: Countdown to Zero shows how dangerously close the world is to a nuclear explosion. So how come it hasn’t happened?
VP: This is speculation on my part, but I do believe that terrorists feel that time is on their side, and they can afford to wait. The fact that we haven’t had a nuclear incident is not an indication that they do not have the technology or capability, and certainly we know they have the will.
Q: Now, some of this documentary seems to be presenting a kind of guide to making nuclear weapons. Do you think there’s any danger that it could serve as a “how to” encouragement to aspiring bombers?
VP: Absolutely not. In fact, what is shown in the film just truly scratches the surface. All of that is indeed available. There is a scene in the film where then-Senator, now-Vice President Biden convenes a Congressional hearing. And he doesn’t quite believe that one could build a nuclear bomb. But in fact, many of these are off-the-shelf items. Many universities in their physics departments sometimes use this as sort of the final exam. So they went into recess, they had some graduate students put together a nuclear bomb—obviously without the fissile material—and took it back into the Senate hearing room to demonstrate to Senator Biden how easily it could be done.
Q: So what was it like going from such a secretive political life to, with this film, where you can speak so openly about nuclear weapons and the dangers they pose. And was there one particular waiting-to-exhale moment for you, after the initial shock of being outed?
VP: After that initial shock, it really took some time to come to terms with being a public figure. Literally overnight, I went from being a covert CIA operations officer, and loved what I was doing. [I] was perfectly happy not to have any public profile whatsoever! When all this happened surrounding the leak of my name, you wake up one day and you have photographers on your front lawn. At the time, my twins were quite young, and the intrusions on your privacy and your family life, and the concurrent security concerns that brings with it, that was a huge shock. This time as I am speaking publicly about Countdown to Zero, it feels much better, I can tell you! I’m not on the defensive in any way and I don’t have people calling my spouse a liar or a traitor or accusing me of being a glorified secretary. I get to speak about something that I care passionately about.
Q: Is there such a thing as “spy sexism” in the espionage world, and did you ever feel that you weren’t treated as well at any time because you’re a woman?
VP: Well, for sure the CIA is still very much an old boys network. It has evolved some, as the rest of corporate America. But I sensed when I was called things, like people saying, “She’s nothing more than a glorified secretary,” just the mere fact that I was a woman made that an easy claim to try to stick. Clearly, our critics tried to undermine me and therefore discredit my husband, which then would have made his claims, which he wrote up in his NY Times Op-Ed article “What I Didn’t Find In Africa”—that was in July of 2003, seven years ago this month, that was all of a piece. You know, to try to simply discredit us, and hope we would go away.