NORTHAMPTON — Former CIA operative Valerie Plame came to Smith College Monday evening to talk about the relationship between foreign policy and social media activity, but it was her personal social media use that ended up taking center stage.
Dozens of Smith College students lined the back walls of the Weinstein Auditorium in Wright Hall and voiced their opposition to Plame’s sharing, or retweeting, of an anti-Semitic article on her Twitter account in September. Through signs, shouts and pointed questions, the students made clear their abhorrence of Plame’s actions. At least 360 people were in attendance at the event sponsored by the Kahn Institute at the college.
Plame, whose identity as a covert member of the CIA was famously unveiled in 2003, has worked as an author and activist since resigning from the agency in 2005. Recently, however, she became embroiled in controversy after retweeting an article, “America’s Jews are Driving America’s Wars.”
Three Smith College professors, Mlada Burkovansky, Brent Durbin and Darcy Buerkle, University of Massachusetts professor Paul Musgrave and Plame began their panel discussion, “Social Media and U.S. Foreign Policy,” at 5 p.m.
Before the panel started, members of the Smith College Jewish Community held signs reading “ANTI SEMITES NOT WELCOME” and “JEWS AGAINST WHITE SUPREMACY.” The signs were hung on some of the walls for the duration of the talk, and the protesters’ presence gave the panelists no choice but to address the controversy right off the bat.
“Since that invitation the controversy triggered by the retweets of anti-Semitic materials has come to dominate the conversation about this presence on campus. This panel will not shy away from that controversy but I hope and expect that we will move beyond it,” said Burkovansky, a professor of government who invited Plame to speak.
The article in question, written by Philip Giraldi, asserts that Jewish people are puppeteering U.S. involvement in the Middle East, and that “Jewish groups and deep pocket individual donors not only control the politicians, they own and run the media and entertainment industries.”
Plame in September defended her retweet of the article, calling the article “very provocative, but thoughtful” on her Twitter account. She has since apologized for sharing the article on social media, claiming she “skimmed” the piece and shared it without fully reading it.
“I’m grateful for the opportunity to do in person what I wish I could do many times over which is apologize sincerely, fully, completely for retweeting an article I did not read,” Plame said in her opening remarks, to which several in the crowd hissed, yelled “lies” or blew raspberries.
“I stand here as a lesson to everyone on the powers of using social media and the repercussions of doing so,” Plame said. “The article is completely is antithetical to everything I believe in and have done, and I am terribly sorry.”
During the panelists’ — including Plame’s — statements on the scheduled topic, the use of social media in a foreign policy context, the crowd was mostly silent, and the protesters allowed the discourse.
Plame said social media can be a “double-edged sword.” While it can be helpful in connecting with friends and like-minded people, governments can, and do, use social media against people.
“First of all, governments are way better at manipulating social media than activists. Despite promises that you will be anonymous online, commercial and government surveillance has made internet privacy a thing of the past,” Plame said.
Plame pointed to Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election as an example of successfully influencing people through social media. She said Russian-linked ads on Facebook targeted voters in Michigan and Wisconsin — states where the presidential race was very close. Russia, Plame said, wanted to help Donald Trump get elected to sow divisions in American society.
Her co-panelist, Paul Musgrave, who teaches political science at UMass, cautioned against overestimating social media’s role in foreign policy, and that “you should understand social media’s use as a message in itself.”
After some applause for the panelists, protesters sprang into action during a question-and-answer period. Plame thanked the protesters who asked questions for their openness.
“I’m wondering what actions you’ve been taking, or what actions you will take to address anti-Semitism, to support Jewish people and to combat white supremacy?” said Naomi Forman-Katz, a sophomore board member of the Smith College Jewish Community.
Forman-Katz said Plame apologizing and saying she did not read the article is not enough to equal real repentance, to which the protesters applauded loudly. Plame responded by saying that she is now involved in two organizations: the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, which tries to ensure military personnel are treated equally, regardless of their religion, and allowed to express their beliefs.
Plame also said she has been involved with Creativity for Peace, an organization based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, that brings young Israelis and Palestinians together to try and build relationships between the two embattled peoples.
“They’re put together for three or four weeks and for the first time they get to meet the other, and it turns out the other doesn’t have horns and a tail,” Plame said. “It is a drop in the bucket, but you have to start somewhere.”
Hunter Myers, a senior at Smith College and co-chair of the Jewish Community, found Plame’s response itself offensive.
“Why do you find it appropriate to now use this panel to now continue the proliferation of anti-Semitism that you’ve already spread on your Twitter?” Myers asked.
Plame said her biggest regret was adding to the “already toxic environment” in the U.S. for minorities, but Myers’ question was referring to Plame’s earlier usage of the “horns and a tail” descriptors, and said they are a “racial slur.”
Myers later explained to the Gazette “there is a difference between a controversial speaker and a bigoted speaker,” and Plame’s words reminded him of verbal abuse his grandmother told him she would hear when she was young.
Leah Parker-Bernstein, a senior on the Jewish Community board, said Plame has displayed anti-Semitism on multiple occasions, including a tweet from April in which Plame responded, “other rich Jews?” to a tweet about a Jewish businessman’s interaction with former Press Secretary Sean Spicer. Parker-Bernstein also took issue with Plame’s answers to the protesters’ questions.
“She was not talking about herself, notice, but deferred to other organizations,” Parker-Bernstein said.
Not all in the crowd were in agreement with the protesters. Some applauded after Plame’s answers and several people began walking out of the auditorium during the questioning period. One man looked at the protesters and said, “people make mistakes” and “grow up.”
At some points, some of the other panelists attempted to diffuse the situation, with Durbin prompting Plame to explain the context of her U.S. foreign policy background and why she might make a mistake in tweeting the article.
“I’ve given this a great deal of thought and hope I can be a lesson to you,” said Plame, who repeatedly apologized and said “it will never happen again.”
Still, the protesters’ anger was not quelled.