Ex-spy Plame vows to battle CIA over free speech

By Claudia Parsons

NEW YORK (Reuters) - An ex-spy whose unmasking led to the conviction of Vice President Dick Cheney's top aide vowed on Saturday to press on with lawsuits against Cheney and the CIA for the sake of freedom of speech.

"Just as we have to be vigilant to protect our national security -- something I believe in passionately -- we have to be vigilant to protect our freedom of speech and First Amendment rights," Valerie Plame Wilson said in a speech at a book convention.

Plame and her publisher, Simon & Schuster, filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in New York on Thursday against top CIA officials for blocking publication of her memoir on national security grounds.

Plame's cover as a CIA agent was blown when her identity was leaked to reporters and appeared in a newspaper column in July 2003, shortly after her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, emerged as an Iraq war critic.

Plame said she had no intention of endangering national security with the book but was entitled to tell her story.

"This has nothing to do with national security and everything to do with political influence and manipulation," Plame said of the CIA's demand that she not discuss her service before 2002.

The CIA has argued her book could hurt operations and affect its ability to conduct intelligence activities in the future.

"I'm not seeking carte blanche to reveal all the details of my government service," Plame said.