If You Did Not Watch the Plame Hearing

Friday morning I watched the House committee hearing on the issues involved in the Valerie Plame outing. The governmental oversight committee was investigating how this CIA agent had become publicly outed four years ago by informants in our government and what should be done to prevent such a threat to our national security from happening again.

If you did not watch, here is what you missed:

Valerie Plame, the beautiful, articulate and accomplished CIA agent, specializing in nuclear non-proliferation issues, testifying for the first time about her service undercover and about the facts involved in the CIA attempts, in the lead up to the invasion of Iraq, to verify whether Saddam Hussein had in fact tried to buy uranium from Niger. Plame testified she was undercover and that her outing has endangered her and her family, her fellow agents in the CIA and all the people and agents she has worked with from other nations through the years. She explained that the CIA had used two other highly reliable sources to check into the Niger rumor and found it to be unfounded, but that as a result of a call from Dick Cheney’s office asking them to check again, another CIA officer had suggested Plame’s husband be sent to investigate, since he had firsthand knowledge and experience with Iraq and with Niger, having served in diplomatic positions in both countries.

CIA Director Michael Hayden’s letter to the committee verifying Plame was an undercover agent of the CIA at the time she was outed and worked undercover at great personal risk on some of the most sensitive issues involving preventing use of WMD against the US.

James Knodell, Director of the White House Office of Security testifying about the investigation the White House conducted into the outing, the investigation George W. Bush assured the nation would take place.

Mr. Bill Leonard, Director, Information Security Oversight Office, National Archives and Records Administration testifying about the legal requirement under Presidential Executive Order 12958 for anyone who discloses classified information, even unintentionally, to file a prompt report with the NARA office.

Victoria Toensing, conservative attorney with roots in the Goldwater era, invited by the Republican members of the committee, grandiosely testifying about her involvement in the drafting of the criminal statute (not the Executive Order) regarding the outing of undercover CIA agents and claiming that Plame was not undercover.

Several Democrats on the Committee who respectfully expressed appreciation for Plame’s courageous service to the country and showed sincere concern about finding out how she was outed so steps can be taken to prevent such a security breach in the future.

Two of the Seventeen Republicans on the Committee, who were the only Republican members who bothered to show up and who used their time to attempt to minimize and partisanly politicize the entire matter.

Chairman Henry Waxman, who demonstrated his ability to conduct a well organized and efficiently productive hearing, courteously protecting witnesses when civility required and also demonstrating an adeptness at shooting down a bloviator like Toensing, whom he relegated to her deserved status as an uninformed, irrelevant relic. Waxman pointed out that her continued insistence on the right wing talk show circuit that Plame was not undercover is not based on any personal knowledge or expertise and is flatly contradicted by the CIA Director himself.

The Chart put into evidence (viewable here at the Brad Blog) showing the flow of all the Plame leaks from the government to the media, with all the name boxes filled in except for one at the top, the person who only had contact with Dick Cheney and Karl Rove.

Here is what you did not miss:

From the White House, any information on the investigation the President ordered, since there was never a White House investigation according to Knodell. Or as Bush in his fluent Spanish would say, “nada”. In spite of the fact Bush told the American people he would investigate, and in spite of the fact the criminal investigation did not start for several months, the Bush White House maintains that the criminal investigation by Patrick Fitzgerald, the same investigation they now discount as political and unimportant, prevented any White House investigation. Until this hearing, no one from the White House ever told the American people there has been no White House investigation as Bush said there would be.

From NARA, any information about the report filings required of the leakers, because like the White House investigation, they are non-existent. None of the leakers has ever filed a report.

From the Republicans, any expression of appreciation to Plame for her brave service or any concern for protecting the national security from such leaks in the future.

Revelation of the identity of “Unknown”, the person in the top line of the leak chart, the one who talked only to Cheney and Rove. Hint: maybe he covered himself by talking only in his fluent Spanish.

If you would like to see for yourself, the House committee has made video of the hearing and testimony available on the Web.