Some facts about ex-covert CIA agent Plame

(Reuters) - Former CIA officer Valerie Plame told U.S. lawmakers on Friday that senior officials at the White House and U.S. State Department "carelessly and recklessly" blew her cover to discredit her diplomat husband.

Following are some facts about Plame.

* Plame's identity was divulged publicly in 2003 after her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, accused the Bush administration in a New York Times column of manipulating intelligence on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction to build its case for war.

* A week after Wilson's column, columnist Robert Novak wrote that Plame was a CIA operative who had suggested sending Wilson to Niger.

* Plame signed a book deal worth more than $2.5 million, a publishing industry Web site said on May 6, 2006. The Washington Post reported Friday that during the past year Plame, 43, has completed the book, "Fair Game," but it remains tied up in a CIA review process and its publication date is uncertain.

* Plame and her husband on July 13, 2006, sued U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, top Bush aide Karl Rove and other White House officials for their role in the disclosure of her classified status. Plame and her husband sued Richard Armitage, the former deputy secretary of state, on September 13, 2006, for disclosing her identity.

* Armitage said earlier in September 2006 that he was the first one to discuss Plame's identity with reporters after her Wilson criticised the Bush administration's Iraq policy.

* Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the former top aide to U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, was found guilty last week of lying and obstructing the investigation into who blew Plame's cover.

* No charges were brought for the leaking of Plame's name. Federal law makes it a crime to knowingly reveal the identity of a covert operative.