Politics of truth – a diplomat’s memoir

'Ambassador Joseph Wilson was the last American official to meet with Saddam Hussein before Desert Storm, successfully parrying the dictator's threats to use American hostages as human shields against U.S. bombing.' Yet since July 2003, Wilson has been battling intimidation by another government - his own. After George W. Bush alleged that Iraq had sought nuclear material in Africa, Wilson called the administration on the lie in a New York Times Op-Ed. Wilson spoke out because he had traveled to Niger the previous year - at the CIA's request - and found no evidence there to support the claim. To punish Wilson and scare others who might come forward, senior administration officials leaked to reporters the name of Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, and her covert CIA status. But rather than back down after the bullying, Wilson continued to criticize the administration's case for war. In a book that encourages all Americans to build a stronger democracy in their own hometowns, Wilson - while chronicling an episode that's testing the limits of press freedom, with reporters who may end up in jail - continues fighting the good fight by revealing the perils to the country from a war-hungry and vindictive White House.