A former CIA officer whose identity was leaked to the media is suing US Vice-President Dick Cheney.

Valerie Plame is suing Mr Cheney, his ex-aide Lewis Libby and presidential adviser Karl Rove, saying they tried to destroy her career.

Ms Plame's name appeared in the media in 2003 after her husband criticised the Bush government over Iraq.

Her husband, ex-US ambassador Joseph Wilson, who is also suing, had said the US twisted intelligence to go to war.

Mr Libby has been charged with perjury and obstructing justice in connection with the leak. He has resigned pending trial but denies the charges.

It was revealed last month that Mr Rove would not be charged over the leak.

'Punishment'

Ms Plame's name appeared in an article written by columnist Robert Novak about a week after Mr Wilson made his criticisms of the government in the New York Times.

As their chief method of punishment, the White House officials destroyed [Ms Plame's] cover by revealing her classified employment with the CIA to reporters

(Lawsuit wording)


The CIA had sent Mr Wilson to Niger in 2002 to find out whether then Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was trying to buy uranium from the African country.

Mr Wilson reported that there was no truth in the claim but it still appeared in President George W Bush's 2003 State of the Union address.

In the lawsuit, Ms Plame and Mr Wilson accuse the three named officials and 10 others of putting their lives and the lives of their children at risk.

"This lawsuit concerns the intentional and malicious exposure by senior officials of the federal government of [Ms Plame], whose job it was to gather intelligence to make the nation safer and who risked her life for her country," it says.
(From the BBC)