Imagine There's No President: The Rhetorical Secret and the Exposure of Valerie Plame

• Published in: The Quarterly journal of speech Vol. 101; no. 2; pp. 354 - 378
• Main Author: Hallsby, Atilla
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Philadelphia Routledge 03.04.2015; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Caesura; Discourse analysis; Knowledge; Psychoanalysis; Repetition; Rhetoric; Rhetorical Theory; Secret; Synecdoche; Valerie Plame
• ISSN: 0033-5630; 1479-5779
• DOI: 10.1080/00335630.2015.1024276

Covering a wide range of public discourse from 2003 to 2010 about CIA agent Valerie Plame, this essay contributes a novel rhetorical theory of secrets. By contrast to other critiques of the Bush-era secrecy that focus on policies the administration kept concealed from the public, I suggest that rhet...