Valerie Plame Wilson, a former CIA agent who specialized in recruiting spies, was put in jeopardy by the nation she served for many years.

She was publicly exposed, betrayed by her own government.

The times and dates of her service, along with the specific locations, are classified. Most of the information on the 48-year-old’s work in Europe, Asia and Africa is not for public consumption.

What isn’t classified, however, is Wilson’s true identity, which was put into print by a Washington Post journalist in 2003. Her unceremonious outing by officials in the Bush administration has sparked debates about national security and privacy rights.

Wilson will speak in Akin Auditorium at 7 p.m. Thursday, the first guest in this year’s MSU Artist Lecture Series. She’ll talk about her life as an intelligence officer and how it abruptly ended when her cover was blown by columnist Robert Novak.

Until 2003, she was traveling around the world, involved in various covert activities. Then her husband, Joseph, a retired U.S. ambassador, made comments about the upcoming war in Iraq.

Joseph Wilson disputed a 2003 assertion by George W. Bush that Iraq had purchased large quantities of “yellowcake uranium” from Niger, Africa. For some Americans, this “proof” justified invading Iraq.

Joseph Wilson had traveled to Niger at the order of the CIA in 2002. His finding: it was doubtful that Iraq had ever obtained any uranium from Niger. The revelation embarrassed the Bush administration.

It was then that Valerie Plame Wilson’s career came to a screeching halt.

Shortly afterward, Washington Post columnist Robert Novak wrote in an article that Mrs. Wilson was an intelligence officer with the CIA.

Her cover was blown.

“I was shocked, infuriated, anxious about the network of assets with whom I had worked over the years, and concerned for the safely of my small children,” Mrs. Wilson said in an email to The Wichitan. “I also realized my career in the CIA was finished.”

Mrs. Wilson believes the Bush administration leaked her identity to get back at her husband. Her suspicions were confirmed in a September 2003 Washington Post story.

In it, an unnamed administration official said, “Clearly, it (the leak) was meant purely and simply for revenge.”

“Whatever shreds of privacy or normalcy our lives had up to that moment were ripped away,” Mrs. Wilson said. “For Joe and me, the article validated what we had suspected all along – that the leak was in retaliation for his having angered the administration and frustrated their attempts to portray the war on their own terms.”

She said she immediately called her boss at the CIA to make a list of her jeopardized assets.

“It felt like I had been punched in the gut,” Mrs. Wilson said.

Although Mrs. Wilson felt like the leak had jeopardized her personal safety and the safety of her family, the CIA refused to place a security detail at her home.

At one point, a New York Times reporter was jailed for refusing to reveal a source connected to the case and a Time Magazine journalist was grilled before a grand jury.

It later came out that Lewis “Scooter” Libby, chief of staff of Vice President Dick Cheney, was involved in Mrs. Wilson’s case.

Libby was indicted for obstruction of justice, perjury and making false statements to a grand jury.

In 2007, he stood trial in federal court. He was convicted of four counts and sentenced to almost three years of jail time, along with a $250,000 fine.

Shortly afterward, former president Bush commuted Libby’s sentence, erasing the jail time.

“Vice President Cheney pushed hard for Libby’s pardon, saying that he ‘should not leave a wounded soldier on the battlefield,’ but President Bush did not see any legal reason to overturn the jury’s verdict of guilty on four out of five counts.” Mrs. Wilson said.

Mrs. Wilson takes issue when people use First Amendment arguments to defend the journalists’ actions.

“People in the administration had used reporters to advance their own political agenda,” she said. “That alone is not unusual or even criminal. But the reporters’ refusal to testify would not help to government wrongdoing, but assist officials who wanted to cover up their illegal behavior.”

Mrs. Wilson has written a memoir of her experiences, titled Fair Game – My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House.

Huge chunks of the 411-page book’s text have been redacted by the government for security reasons.

“The loss of one’s privacy can never be described and nothing makes up for it,” she said.