Just in from Waxman’s office after this morning’s stunning revelation that the White House never conducted an investigation into the outing of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame-Wilson, despite a number of promises from Bush to do exactly that and an executive order signed in early 2003 which requires such an investigation in the wake of such a disclosure.
In a statement sent to The BRAD BLOG, Waxman’s office explains that a letter just sent to White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten asks for an explanation as to why the White House “did not follow the investigative steps prescribed by Executive Order 12958,” as signed in March 2003. The order requires the White House to “‘take appropriate and prompt corrective action’ whenever there is a release of classified information,” according to the statement. (Waxman’s letter is posted in full at the end of the article.)
During this morning’s testimony of James Knodell, Director of the Office of Security at the White House, it was revealed — to the amazement of the assembled Congress members on the House Oversight Committee panel — that no such investigation was ever conducted.
“Taken as a whole, the testimony at today’s hearing described breach after breach of national security requirements at the White House,” the letter reads. “The first breach was the disclosure of Ms. Wilson’s identity. Other breaches included the failure of Mr. Rove and other officials to report their disclosures as required by law, the failure of the White House to initiate the prompt investigation required by the executive order, and the failure of the White House to suspend the security clearances of the implicated officials.”
Waxman asked for the following from Bolten: “I request that you provide the Committee with a complete account of the steps that the White House took following the disclosure of Ms. Wilson’s identity (1) to investigate how the leak occurred; (2) to review the security clearances of the White House officials implicated in the leak; (3) to impose administrative or disciplinary sanctions on the officials involved in the leak; and (4) to review and revise existing White House security procedures to prevent future breaches of national security.”
Waxman’s letter to Bolten follows in full…
The Honorable Joshua Bolten
Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. Bolten:
Today, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held a hearing to examine the disclosure by senior White House officials of the identity of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson. The hearing raised many new questions about the how the White House responded to an extraordinarily serious breach of national security. It also raised new concerns about whether the security practices being followed by the White House are sufficient to protect our nation’s most sensitive secrets.
James Knodell, Director of the Office of Security at the White House, testified at the hearing about White House procedures for safeguarding classified information. During his testimony, Mr. Knodell made some remarkable statements about how his office handled the disclosure of Ms. Wilson’s covert status. Specifically, Mr. Knodell testified:
- The Office of Security for the White House never conducted any investigation of the disclosure of Ms. Wilson’s identity;
- Under the applicable executive order and regulations, your senior political advisor, Karl Rove, and other senior White House officials were required to report what they knew about the disclosure of Ms. Wilson’s identity, but they did not make any such report to the White House Office of Security; and
- There has been no suspension of security clearances or any other administrative sanction for Mr. Rove and other White House officials involved in the disclosure.
According to Mr. Knodell, the explanation for the lack of action by the White House Security Office was a White House decision not to conduct a security investigation while a criminal investigation was pending. Mr. Knodell could not explain, however, why the White House did not initiate an investigation after the security breach. It took months before a criminal investigation was initiated, yet according to Mr. Knodell, there was no White House investigation initiated during this period.
Mr. Knodell also testified that it would be inappropriate to allow an individual who was a security risk to retain his or her security clearance while a criminal investigation is pending. As members of the Committee pointed out, a criminal investigation can last years, and it would jeopardize national security not to investigate the officials implicated in the leak and suspend their security clearances if there were reason to suspect their involvement. Mr. Knodell did not dispute this point.
The testimony of Mr. Knodell appears to describe White House decisions that were inconsistent with the directives of Executive Order 12958, which you signed in March 2003. Under this executive order, the White House is required to “take appropriate and prompt corrective action” whenever there is a release of classified information. Yet Mr. Knodell could describe no such actions after the disclosure of Ms. Wilson’s identity.
Taken as a whole, the testimony at today’s hearing described breach after breach of national security requirements at the White House. The first breach was the disclosure of Ms. Wilson’s identity. Other breaches included the failure of Mr. Rove and other officials to report their disclosures as required by law, the failure of the White House to initiate the prompt investigation required by the executive order, and the failure of the White House to suspend the security clearances of the implicated officials.
To assist the Committee in its investigation into these issues, I request that you provide the Committee with a complete account of the steps that the White House took following the disclosure of Ms. Wilson’s identity (1) to investigate how the leak occurred; (2) to review the security clearances of the White House officials implicated in the leak; (3) to impose administrative or disciplinary sanctions on the officials involved in the leak; and (4) to review and revise existing White House security procedures to prevent future breaches of national security.
I look forward to your response and hope you will cooperate with the Committee’s inquiry.
Sincerely,
Henry A. Waxman
Chairman
cc:
Tom Davis
Ranking Minority Member
Way to go Rep. Waxman…. I just love the smell of oversite in the morning! YAHOOOOOO!
Waxman is a candidate to get anthrax sent to him, by whomever did it to Leahy and Daschle after 9/11…they’re wondering if that “old chestnut” still works…
Waxman’s just a Democratic Congressman. Why would the White House bother to respond to him any more than they responded to John Conyers?
If Josh Bolten wants to keep his job, he won’t bring this memo to the attention of Bush or Cheney.
And anthrax is the least we can expect. They might anthrax every Democrat in Congress, or they might nuke Iran, or they might nuke a U.S. city just to get us to shut up and stop asking questions to which we already know the answers.
Yes, Bush and Cheney are liars and war criminals, and they’ll kill anyone who gets in their way. They consider themselves above that “goddamned piece of paper,” the Constitution, which they took an oath to uphold and proceeded to destroy, they were never legitimately elected, and they don’t care who knows it so long as there’s nothing we can do about it.
No, they won’t investigate themselves, and no, they do not consider themselves answerable to anyone (not even to God, as they claim they were acting on His orders).
And no, even if Bush and Cheney admitted under oath to being the liars, war criminals, and traitors they are, Pelosi will not put impeachment back on the table. And yes, the Democrats are still going to continue to fund the war, even though they know that it was based on lies and that the White House committed treason to try to cover up some of those lies.
I’ll be at the big peace rally in San Diego tomorrow. If there’s one in your city, post your pictures to YouTube because the mainstream media won’t carry it.
Does anyone know if there were any utterances of the White House mantra “As this is part of an ONGOING INVESTIGATION, I cannot comment” can be quoted BEFORE the criminal investigation began? An of course by whom?
What is there for the White House to investigate ?
It is a well known fact that – monkey shit for brains,.. (george bu$$h II), cheney, rove, libby, rice, et al,.. are all traitors who would sell their country down the drain for a song (dime). How many times do we need be told that ? This country has come to that realization a long time ago. They are gluttonous pigs who only seek power and money and would gleefully flush the United States of America down the sewer without hesitation in-order to reach that goal.
The ME,.. me ,.. ME,.. me,.. ME,.. crowd,.. the hell with everybody else.
Nothing to add,.. nothing to subtract,.. they are vile vermin and vipers who feed off the best society has to offer. Bathing themselves in an endless cesspool of self enrichment, materialism, and aggrandizements, unbridled capitalism, corporatism, military industrialism, ostentatious consumerism,.. and with all those bountiful benefits bestowed upon them they don’t want to pay one penny in taxes. Talk about a free lunch,.. free ride crowd,.. these leaches are the pinnacle of royal corpro-klepto welfare queens. They seek to drain the United States treasury to their accounts then flee to the far lands of Dubai and Paraguay,.. leaving America high and dry to clean up their mess and pick up their tab.
Thanks for Waxman! Thanks for Oversight! It was clear (to me) when Knodell testified that a) he knows a lot more than he’s saying, and b) he knows a lot more than he’s saying.
These guys who beat up on Clinton (who has 10 times their combined IQ) for parsing words have become experts at SUBTLE lies.
Executive Order 12958 required the WH to “take appropriate and prompt corrective action” whenever there is a release of classified information. If Bush had declassified the sensitive information prior to the release, there was no need for action.
There WERE however a whole bunch of lies and omissions prior to the 2004 election by Bush about this, since he never mentioned it when asked about the leak.
These guys are guilty of TREASON.
And thar she blows (open)
The story of the century if they can get it tied into the “Leak”, which is more than plausable
Sibel Edmonds, Valerie Plame and Brewster Jennings
oops “they” meaning Waxman and crew
Wow, this saving the country and possibly the world is all such a s-l-o-w process … will we survive long enough? Imagine that, another lie out of Bush’s mouth to the American people, and the world, on national tv – covering for yet another crime. We knew the chain included the links of Rove, Bush and Cheney from the start, so this is not a shocker, but importantly revealing.
So many people have come forward in the past couple years, with so many stories of crimes, corruption and lies, what the hell will be the “magic” numbered story? The one where the guys in white hats get pissed, declare they’ve had enough, decide the money isn’t worth it, and smack the crap out of the guys in black hats saving our country, the world, our freedoms, our health, our safety, and our democracy? Which one? I believe this is #388, but I lost track.
I hope Waxman owns a white hat and THIS story will be the “magic” numbered one. We’re running out of time.
Here is one for Henry . . .
You gotta dance with me Henry (all right baby)
Dance with me Henry (don’t mean maybe)
Rock with me Henry (any old time)
Talk to me Henry (don’t change your mind)
Dance with me Henry (all right)
You better dance while the music goes on
Roll on, roll on, roll on
While the cats are ballin’
You better stop your stallin’
It’s intermission in a minute
So you better get with it
Dance with me Henry
You better dance while the music goes on
Roll on, roll on, roll on
Oooooooo-wee
Henry, you ain’t movin’ me
You better feel that boogie beat
And get the lead out of your feet
You gotta dance with me Henry
Dance with me Henry
Rock with me Henry
Talk to me Henry
Dance with me Henry
You better dance while the music goes on
Roll roll roll
Roll roll roll
Rock rock rock
Rock rock rock
Roll roll roll
Roll on, roll on, roll on
Rock with me Henry (all right baby)
Dance with me Henry (don’t mean maybe)
Rock with me Henry (any old time)
Dance with me Henry (don’t change your mind)
Jum p with me Henry (all right)
You better dance, dance
While the music goes on
Roll on
Roll on
Roll on
Roll on
Rock!
1955 “The Wallflower” (also known as “Dance with Me, Henry”)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th...ith_Me,_Henry)
So, did the shadow govt mail Henry Anthraxman any anthrax yet? To shut him up like Leahy and Daschle after 9/11? The corporate fascists say we haven’t had a terrorist attack since 9/11. Weren’t the anthrax mailings AFTER 9/11? How come they don’t count them? And I suppose Bush wasn’t the president on 9/11! The worst “terrorist” attack ever on U.S. soil.
Funny, the GOP held power in all offices and committees…but yet the anthrax mailings went to two vocal Democrats: Leahy and Daschle. Did that ever strike you as peculiar???
And did it strike you even more peculiar, that the anthrax mailings haven’t been in the news for years, and it seems the investigations were dropped? And how does something that massive, drop out of the news?
I’m curious as to why Fitzgerald didn’t uncover the fact that the White House did not do an internal investigation?
Being that it’s a legal obligation when there is a suspected breach of security to conduct one, you would have to think that that’s the first thing Fitzgerald would have asked for.