Former CIA officer to sue Cheney

Former CIA officer Valerie Plame and her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, today said they had decided to sue Vice President Dick Cheney and presidential adviser Karl Rove because they engaged in a “whispering campaign” to destroy her career.

Plame told at a news conference she trusted the government to protect her and that the government “betrayed that trust. I’d much rather be continuing my career as a public servant than as a plaintiff in a lawsuit".

Said Wilson: “We are under no illusions about how tough this fight will be. But we believe the time has come to hold those who use their official positions to exact personal revenge accountable and responsible for their actions.”

His wife said they decided to pursue the lawsuit with “heavy hearts".

In the suit filed yesterday in US District Court, Plame and her husband said that Cheney, Rove and Cheney’s former chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby, leaked her CIA status to reporters to punish Wilson for criticising the Bush administration’s motives in Iraq.