[UPDATE] Valerie Plame and Simon & Schuster Sue CIA

Update [2007-5-31 21:42:36 by SusanHu]: LARRY JOHNSON has posted his commentary.  Feel free to UNrecommend this diary, and instead recommend Larry's commentary.  - Susan

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Reuters:  "NEW YORK (Reuters) - An ex-spy whose unmasking led to the conviction of Vice President Dick Cheney's top aide is suing the Central Intelligence Agency, accusing it of unconstitutionally interfering with publication of her memoir."

READ ALL:  Download the complete Summons & Complaint || Reuters story || New York Times story

READ ALL:  Download the complete Summons & Complaint || Reuters story || New York Times story

New York Times story:

Valerie Wilson, the former Central Intelligence Agency operative at the heart of an investigation that reached into the White House, sued the agency in federal court in New York today over its refusal to allow her to publish a memoir that would discuss how long she worked for it.

Although that information is set out in an unclassified letter to Ms. Wilson that has been published in the Congressional Record, the C.I.A. insists that her dates of service remain classified and may not be mentioned in “Fair Game,” the memoir Ms. Wilson hopes to publish in October.

Agency employees sign agreements requiring them to submit manuscripts to the agency for permission before they are published.. Ms. Wilson’s suit said she worked with agency officials for 10 months to avoid disclosing national security information. But the agency’s refusal to allow her to include material already in the public domain, the suit said, violates her right to free speech.

“The C.I.A.’s efforts to classify public domain information is an unreasonable attempt at prior restraint of publication and a violation of our First Amendment rights,” said Adam Rothberg, a spokesman for Simon & Schuster, which plans to publish the book and is also a plaintiff in the suit. ...

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Again, later today Larry Johnson will give us perspective and background, as well as his knowledge of the CIA's restrictions -- reasonable and unreasonable -- for publication by former employees.