Plame, S&S Sue CIA

by Jim Milliot, PW Daily -- Publishers Weekly, 5/31/2007

Simon & Schuster has joined with its author Valerie Plame Wilson to file a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against the CIA, charging that the agency is interfering with Plame's efforts to write her memoir. The suit, which names the CIA; the director of the CIA Michael Hayden; and J. Michael McConnell, director of national intelligence, alleges that the executive branch of the government is trying to stop Plame from using the dates she served in the CIA in her book even though those dates have been made public.

The lawsuit is seeking a declaratory judgment that the executive branch "cannot restrain publication of previously unclassified or currently unclassifiable information documenting Ms. Wilson's dates of federal service." According to the complaint, Plame's service dates had been released by the CIA in an unclassified document and can be found in the Congressional Record and on the Web at www.gpoaccess.gov. "This is public information. The CIA can't just make it disappear," said S&S spokesperson Adam Rothberg.

Plame's book, Fair Game, is due out from S&S in October. Rothberg said the company "is trying everything we can to meet that date." He added that Plame is still expected to appear at Saturday's BEA author lunch.