Absolutely riveting, historic, under-oath testimony by Valerie Plame-Wilson in the House Oversight Committee on-going right now. Recurring theme over and over again: She was covert, covert, covert when her identity was outed and her cover was blown — for the first time in history by her own government.
Every wingnut argument to the contrary, and concerning her case has been utterly destroyed. The Republican questioning of Plame-Wilson has come up with absolutely nothing to counter and it’s been confirmed that CIA Director Gen. Hayden has also confirmed her covert status and that she we worked overseas (as per the Intelligence Identity Protections Act) in the last five years.
Hearings were covered for first 15 minutes or so on all three cable news nets. Now only LIVE currently on C-SPAN.
AP just filed this short initial item:
Plame, whose 2003 outing triggered a federal investigation, said she always knew her identity could be discovered by foreign governments.
“It was a terrible irony that administration officials were the ones who destroyed my cover,” she told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
RAW STORY currently has details on her opening testimony.
Live blogging notes on the testimony below follow below…
(NOTE: Second and Third panels now live blogged here. Includes details on stunning admission from White House Security Director that no investigation was ever made into the leak by his office!)
UPDATE: Video of complete hearing and related documents now online at House Oversight Committee website right here…
Unformatted live-blogging notes taken during hearing…hope they’ll make sense…
CHAIRMAN WAXMAN’S (D-CA) OPENING STATEMENT:
Discussed rules and facts that CIA Director Hayden briefed Congress on what they could and couldn’t discuss for classified reasons.
Smartly opened by quoting George Bush Sr. this way:
“This was an extraordinarily serious breach of our national security. President George W. Bush’s father, the former President Bush, said, and I quote, ‘I have nothing but contempt and anger for those who expose the names of our sources. They are, in my view, the most insidious of traitors,’ end quote.”
Waxman made clear over and again that Plame’s status was covert, confirmed by Hayden, that she served overseas in the previous five years before she was outed in Robert Novak’s July 14, 2003 column. Said we routinely thank military troops for their service, but do not thank intelligence agents similarly for their service.
The outing of Plame was a “national security breach”
RANKING MEMBER TOM DAVIS’ (R-VA) OPENING STATEMENT
Tries to suggest that “outing” was “unintentional”. Wonders why we’re having this hearing, “seems like a waste of time” given so many things that can’t be discussed due to classified nature.
Says (incorrectly) the Libby Trial proves nobody at the WH knew about Plame-Wilson’s covert status.
Clearly tries to blame CIA (not White House) for not protecting the identify of their agents well enough. Would like to review the rules of the CIA to improve their behavior.
VALERIE PLAME-WILSON’S OPENING STATEMENT
Will try to link to her full statement when I can get it.
I was covert when my identity was outed. Worked in counter-proliferation division of CIA where most agents were also covert. I was covert, the status of my position was classified, I was working on WMD issues in Iraq. I traveled overseas during the five years prior to my being outed at which time my cover was blown, network destroyed along with my career path.
It was “not common knowledge on the cocktail circuit” that I was a covert operative.
This was a grave breach, which jeopardized lives and national security.
Libby Trial exposed that the officials at both the White House and State Dept. “recklessly” exposed my identity. “My exposure arose for purely political motivations.”
YARMUTH (D) QUESTIONS
P-W confirms that on July 13, day before Novak column was published, “I was covert.” When asked how she felt when husband former Ambassador Joe Wilson came in and said “he did it” in reply to Novak’s column, she says “I felt like I had been hit in the gut, it was over in an instant”
As of the outing “my chosen career path was terminated.”
PAUL HODES (D) QUESTIONS
PAUL HODES (D-NH) QUESTIONS
Says P-W was victim of national security breach. Shows chart of 20 different disclosures of her identity by White House and State Dept. officials.
UPDATE: Actual chart now posted here…
AT THIS POINT FOX “NEWS” CHANNELS BREAKS AWAY FROM HEARINGS TO GET RESPONSES FROM NOVAK IN STUDIO…
Novak says “It’s beyond comprehension that a covert operative was going to work at the CIA every day.”
WE FLIP BACK TO LIVE COVERAGE ON C-SPAN…
TOM DAVIS (R-VA) RANKING MEMBER QUESTIONS
Asks if she knows if the WH knew she was covert. P-W “I worked at the counter-proliferation office at CIA where most agents were covert” implying that if WH didn’t know, they should have.
Should the CIA have done more to protect her identity? He continues this line of questions/statements.
P-W repeats again: “I was covert, I did work overseas in the the last 5 years.”
Davis asks about the article in Vanity Fair long after outing, says they “are not always know for their great accuracy.” Asks whether she should have had her picture taken in the mag, she says it was long after she had already been outed, cover blown.
Davis tried and tried and tried, but got nothing to back up the wingnut disinfo line they’ve been selling on this case for years.
CUMMINGS (D) QUESTIONS
Asks again about Victoria Toensing’s repeated charges, in Washington Post etc. that “Plame was not covert”
P-W: “I was covert, just as a general who comes back from overseas duty is still a general when he comes home, I was still covert upon returning home from my duty overseas.”
Cummins asks if it’s “possible that Toensing had more info than you did about your covert status?” (laughs from audience, P-W) “No, I don’t think so, Congressman”
Cummins repeats for clarity that CIA Dir. Gen. Hayden said this morning: “Yes, she was covert”
Asks “Did you hold covert status at time of leak?” ANSWER: “Yes”
“Did you serve overseas during the five years prior to the leak?” ANSWER: “Yes”
“So repeating you were both covert and served overseas in the last five years when identify was leaked?” ANSWER: “Yes”
WESTMORELAND (R-GA) QUESTIONS
Is there a diff. between “covert” “undercover” or “classified”? P-W: “Covert and undercover used interchangeably, we don’t refer to the classification specifically”
Was her covert status widely known as charged by Republicans? P-W: “I could count on one hand the number of people who knew my true employment when I was exposed”
Including your husband? “Yes.”
P-W: At the time of Vanity Fair photo, my status was already known. The picture was taken in late 2003 after my status had already been blown.
KUCINICH (D-OH) QUESTIONS
When you look at this chart (of 20 different disclosures by WH and State of her identity) were you dismayed? She answers that the chart shows conspiracy was “reckless and wide-reaching”.
Asks has their been similar leaks of covert operative identies in the past? P-W: “None that I’m aware of by their very own Government”
Kucinich says U.S. Attorney purge, trashing by Admin of former Treas. Sec. Paul O’Neal, Gen. Shinsecki, Treas. Secretary who leaked details of medicare bill shows clear pattern by WH.
P-W confirms that Cheney’s unprecedented visits to VIA in lead up to war and looking over should of agents was “intimidating to agents”.
DIANE WATSON (D-CA) QUESTIONS
Watson “infuriated” by claims that “Oh, she just had a desk job” at CIA. Thanks P-W very much for her service to this country.
STEPHEN LYNCH (D-MA) QUESTIONS
This hearing has been a long time in coming, has been requesting one for a very long time.
Re: Joe Wilson’s assignment to go to Niger, P-W: “I did not recommend him, I did not suggest him, I did not have the authority to do so.”
CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D-MD) QUESTIONS
Do you think failure to fire those responsible for leaks undermines credibility and ability to keep National Security? P-W: “Yes, I believe it undermines the President.”
Asks whether there is a CIA memo in existence that counters the inaccuracies from the Senate Intelligence Committee report which has been used to try and discredit Amb. Wilson
P-W: “Says she believes there is”
UPDATE: Josh Marshall explains the discredited report again today, which he describes as “simply a tissue of lies” — right here…
Congressman requests they try and get that report declassified and made available to Congress.
WESTMORELAND QUESTIONS (R-GA)
Hates it that “we don’t have time for more questions, since there’s so many conflicting issues”
Asks, “Would you say your husband was a Democrat or Republican”? W-P says “though he comes from a Republican family, I believe he’d say he’s now a Democrat”
Asks, ,”Are you a Democrat or Republican?” P-W uncomfortable, doesn’t feel she should have to answer, but then says directly “Yes, Congressman, I am a Democrat.”
TOM DAVIS (R-VA) QUESTIONS
Repeats that “there is no evidence that anybody who outed her knew she was covert”
ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON (D-D.C.)
She’s outraged. P-W confirms, “Outing was devastating, in my case I was working on finding the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq” confirms that “previous outings have resulted in agents deaths.”
P-W states clearly: “I had no political agenda, Joe had no political agenda, we were both trying to serve our country.”
TOM DAVIS (R-VA) AGAIN
You said your husband came in and said “he did it”, who was he referring to?
P-W: “Novak. We had word earlier in the week that he had the information. I had been informed by CIA superiors that they would take care of it.” Says Novak was told “don’t do this” by her superiors.
END OF PANEL…
TESTIMONY BY WHITE HOUSE SECURITY OFFICE DIRECTOR IN NEXT PANEL IS AMAZING! ADMITS WHITE HOUSE NEVER DID INVESTIGATION INTO LEAK!!!
LIVE BLOGGING THAT STUNNING 2ND PANEL HERE!…
Text transcript of hearing, Plame testimony now available here…
Another neoCon delusion bites the dust.
How ironic that the bush regime claims to have been looking for WMD while at the same time doing great damage to the professionals who really were trying to keep Americans safe from WMD.
They gotta go … jail Rove.
Valerie Plame is HOT !!!
FYI,
CNN.com currently has Plame as their main story. What you may ask does Foxnews.com have as their main story? Anna Nicole Smith and her drugs.
This is followed by JetBlue and then the hiccup girl.
Down in the small print is the Plame hearings.
Classic.
If that ain’t enough to impeach Blow Your Face Off of HIGH TREASON, I don’t know what is!
But maybe he’ll join Ole Kenny Boy on Fake Heartattack Island!
Isn’t that Fake Heartattack Island somewhere near Dubai?
The inane “what political party are you” questions by the Republicans are grimly amusing… apparently it’s supposed to be OK for the White House to out Democratic covert agents.
Yeah, the Republicans on the committee are shamefully transparent in their attempt to exonerate the Administration for leaking her name.
Plame made it very clear — she said that merely by the fact that they knew she worked at the CIA should have been a huge signal to them to not play fast-n-loose with her name liek they did. The idea being that most experienced government officials would have assumed she might be covert and not taken that step.
But they weren’t interested in the truth of her status, when they were peddling her name around to cast aspersions on Wilson’s trip — and his findings that they have since confirmed are true!
this Knodell guy is really screwing the White House here… basically shrugging his shoulders at every question, and giving no answers… not even excuses… pretty sad… I’ll be surprised if he has a job much longer after this performance…
it’s pretty damning of Bush when this guy admits no internal investigation was done, even though one was promised… Rovey is still on the payroll, with full security clearance… how to explain this, Mr. President?
PS: glad I’m not the only one who thinks Plame’s hot!
The -fact- that the White House tried to blow smoke around one of their lies should be all it takes to impeach these slime.. but doing it by destroying the career and national security surrounding WMDs (and in Iraq, no less)? Treason, clear and simple.
The fact that our “rich white leaders” can engage in full on treason without -any- consequences is proof that America and Justice and Fairness is dead.
Shrubby and Cheney and Rove and Rummy and Rice and Wolfy and Powel and et. al. need to be tried for treason and executed. It’s clear to -anyone- with an IQ over 60 that these people “knowingly and willingly” put this country at risk, and did it for OIL and personal gain.
Americans are totally brain dead now. The MSM has succeeded in killing our ability to think and use logic and reason. We’re a Fast Food 30 second sound bite society, easily lead sheep who seem content to lemming right off the face of the planet. Once world leaders, now the laughing stock of almost every country in the world.. Heckovajob, Shrubby (and Repukes and neo-cons and other right-wing knuckledraggers).
Great coverage Brad!
Pokey tells me that she was watching the hearing on a news channel in Meridian, MS, and as soon as Kucinich got in a couple of questions, they switched to the latest news on Anna Nichole Smith.
Please. This is all very amusing, but you are not watching a bunch of amateurs. The leaders have a fist full of aces. Bush pardons all of his cronies. Then Bush resigns. Then Cheney pardons Bush. Everyone lies low for four years, then they start all over. Remember Nixon was disgraced and died as a revered Republican party elder. Do not even dream that these people will ever pay for anything.
OK, I don’t have time to do the checking, so can somebody tell me where TOM DAVIS (R-VA) represents, and who his last Democratic or Independent or Progressive opponent was? I assume it’s probably some rural area full of right-wing gun nuts, but I don’t discount their desire to protect America and their willingness to vote against somebody who would condone TREASON.
Somebody in his local jurisdiction should hold a press conference TOMORROW and throw this crap back in his face with words like “TRAITOR” and “TREASON” and “CARRYING WATER FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVE COMMITTED TREASON” and “CARES MORE ABOUT HIS PARTY THAN ABOUT THE SECURITY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE” and “SUPPORTING THE TERRORISTS” and, most importantly, “NOT WORTHY OF HOLDING OFFICE IN THE U.S.A.”
The campaign to take this seat should begin NOW. When they take a poll next week, Tom Davis should not be able to get a favorable from more than the 22% nut-jobs who still support Bush. PERIOD.
We must destroy the Rethuglican party one monster at a time.
Somebody in Virginia needs to step up for this right now. Virginia Democratic Party, where are you?
By Monday, Tom Davis should be putting a gun to his head, realizing that he is a laughingstock and ruined in politics. This will let other Rethuglicans at future hearings know that they should stick to the facts and not try to put out the White House spin when all the facts show they are just lying through their teeth.
Democratic Party of Virginia, where ARE YOU?
Charlie L
Portland, OR
Regulararmyfool has it right, Charlie L.
As for the Democrats, the defense investments in their stock portfolios have been doubling and tripling in value every year of the Iraq war. They think Bush really is doing a heckuva job, and will do everything they can to keep him from being impeached. An end to the war would mean a serious cut to their revenue stream, and they don’t care if the war was based on lies or if innocent people are dying. War-profiteering is very lucrative. If you had a large stock portfolio and could double and triple its value every year just by voting to fund some continuing war crimes, would you do differently? If you think you would, you don’t have a large stock portfolio.
Don’t look to the Democrats for help. They are complicit and they are benefiting from their complicity.
The next step in this little charade is for them to issue subpoenas to the perps and grant them immunity for their testimony, so that they can never be punished. Has everyone except Regulararmyfool forgotten Iran-Contra already? When everyone already knows what happened, Congress has to hold an investigation to make sure that nobody gets punished, and then they all get pardoned anyway so they can come back in a few years and run some more death squads, torture more innocent people, and start new wars of aggression.
One of the biggest differences between the two parties is that Democrats prefer to be pardoned by Republicans, and Republicans prefer to be pardoned by Democrats. They’re never as bipartisan as when it comes time to pardon each other. After all, they never know which of them will have to be the next fall guy.
Notice the trolls are silent today.
The Faux News is looking the other way.
I think that the AP called today’s testimony “political theater”—maybe that was the NYT.
As long as Mitch has 41 votes, we are stuck with these criminals until Jan. 2009.
Good sign. The trolls are back.
Charlie L # 12
The neoCon Tom Davis, R-Va, has congressional district 11 in Northern Virginia.
I consider him to be a fascist who has rubber stamped and enabled the fascist white house for some years now.
Ancient – LMAO I’ve been saying the same thing about Kenny Boy and his martini island somewhere. I’m figuring Cheney will join him soon, when that leg clot suddenly goes to the brain – just as they approach him with the subpoena.
These “committees” are a joke. They waste a lot of time on their own BS slow talk, don’t ask the right questions, and they don’t allow enough time for questioning by each member – hence limiting the information that could be obtained and discovered, given the full opportunity.
I hope Valerie gets to submit everything she has to say, for her sake and her husband’s too. They were both wronged and their careers ruined.
Resign Repugnicons Resign
Myth dispelled:
Blonds are dumb, (accepting Ann Colter).
Assertion confirmed:
Blonds have more fun!
Victoria Toensing:
Not enough sleep.
Valerie Wilson/Plame:
Plenty of sleep.
The time spent by Congress and the press agonizing over the revelation of CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity is a pitiful waste of taxpayers’ money and airtime. Why has no one asked the REASON & MOTIVE certain government officials may have compromised her cover? To get back at her husband’s (Joseph C. Wilson IV) criticism of the Administration’s Iraq war decision is in no way a plausible reason. In what context did they name her? Did they ASK the press to publicize her name? If Robert Novak received such information, why did he feel obliged to publish it in his response to Wilson on 7/14/2003? His motive clearly was to discredit Joseph Wilson, but Novak does not work for the Administration. Does Novak have no respect for national security? Has he forgotten the old axiom “loose lips sink ships”? I think he should be taken to task and prosecuted for making public such information. However, the press is never wrong and rarely culpable! In many instances, it is the press who have put our fighting men & women in danger in Iraq and Afghanistan, by publishing sensitive information, useful to the enemy. FDR was right to gag the press during WWII in many respects. If GW were more popular, he could and should do likewise. Freedom of the press is a precious right, but it does not mean that we should harm innocent people in the process of exercising this right, especially during wartime.
3/18/2007