Live Thread - House Oversight and Government Reform Cmte. hearing (Valerie Plame Wilson Testifies)

Cspan ^ | March 16, 2007

[Mo1]

ON CAPITOL HILL Valerie Wilson Testifies

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) chairs a House Oversight and Government Reform Ctme. hearing on the disclosure of CIA Agent Valerie Plame Wilson's identity. The hearing will look into whether White House officials followed appropriate procedures for safeguarding the identity of Ms. Wilson.

FRIDAY, C-SPAN AT 10AM ET

[mass55th]

"It will be interesting to see how she reacts when today's testimony is bounced against facts in the upcoming civil trial."

Which is why the Republicans should have been there in force to question her today.

[pinz-n-needlez]

Byron York talking about Plame on John Gibson now.

[STARWISE]

John Gibson .. FNC ... Byron York discussing Plame's contradictions .. NOW!

[mass55th]

I'm watching it now.

[piasa]

MARCH 2003 : (VIPS REARS ITS HEAD - See {RAY MCGOVERN, PATRICK EDDINGTON {See VIG}, PAT LANG, VINCE CANNISTRARO, ALEXANDER COCKBURN, COUNTERPUNCH}) A small group composed mostly of retired CIA officers is appealing to colleagues still inside to go public with any evidence the Bush administration is slanting intelligence to support its case for war with Iraq. Members of the group contend the Bush administration has released information on Iraq that meets only its ends -- while ignoring or withholding contrary reporting. They also say the administration's public evidence about the immediacy of Iraq's threat to the United States and its alleged ties to al-Qaida is unconvincing, and accuse policy-makers of pushing out some information that does not meet an intelligence professional's standards of proof.
"It's been cooked to a recipe, and the recipe is high policy," said Ray McGovern, a 27-year CIA veteran who briefed top Reagan administration security officials before retiring in 1990. "That's why a lot of my former colleagues are holding their noses these days."
A CIA spokesman suggested [Ray] McGovern and his supporters were unqualified to describe the quality of intelligence provided to policy-makers. "He left the agency over a decade ago," said spokesman Mark Mansfield. "He's hardly in a position to comment knowledgeably on that subject."
McGovern's group, calling itself Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, includes about 25 retired officers, mostly from the CIA's analytical branch but with a smattering from its operational side and other agencies, he said. Carrying an anti-war bent, they invoke the names of whistle-blowers like Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers, a top secret study on U.S. involvement in Vietnam.
Leaking classified national defense information is illegal, and CIA officers take a secrecy oath when they join. Prosecutions of violations are rare, but government personnel caught leaking nondefense information may lose their security clearances, or their jobs. Federal law also offers protections to whistle-blowers in some cases. McGovern and his supporters acknowledge their appeal to their colleagues inside the CIA and other agencies is unusual. The CIA's culture tends to keep disputes inside the family, and many intelligence officers shun discussions of American policy -- such as whether war on Iraq is justified -- saying it is their job to provide information, not to decide how to act on it.
McGovern, who now works in an inner-city outreach ministry in Washington, said of his group's request, "It goes against the whole ethic of secrecy and going through channels, and going to the (Inspector General). It takes a courageous person to get by all that, and say, 'I've got a higher duty."'
Agency spokesman Mansfield said, "Our role is to call it like we see it, to provide objective, unvarnished assessments. That's the code we live by, and that's what policy-makers expect from us."
The administration says its information is sound. During Secretary of State Colin Powell's address to the United Nations Security Council last month [Feb 2003], he said, "These are not assertions. What we are giving you are facts and conclusions based on solid intelligence."
But other countries have challenged the accuracy of several of Powell's statements. And it is no secret that in the past some people with access to intelligence information -- such as members of Congress or a presidential administration -- have leaked selected pieces that lend support to a given policy. This can provide the public with a less-than-complete picture of what the CIA and other agencies have learned.
Another member of McGovern's [VIPS] group, Patrick Eddington, resigned from the CIA in 1996 to protest what he describes as the agency's refusal to investigate some of the possible causes of Gulf War veterans' medical problems. Eddington said would-be whistle-blowers can privately contact members of Congress to get their message out. "They have to basically put conscience before career," he said.
Vince Cannistraro, a former CIA counterterrorism chief, said he saw little chance of CIA analysts going public to contradict the Bush administration. "Sure, there's a lot of disagreement among analysts in the intelligence community on how things are going to be used (by policy-makers)," he said. "But you are not going to see people making public resignations. That would mean giving up your career."
------- "Former CIA officers appeal to current analysts to make public any anti-war information," BY JOHN J. LUMPKIN, AP, 3/14/03

[* My Note : See FAS, ANTHRAX VACCINES, DR MERYL NASS, STEVEN HATFILL, MARK ZIAD, WHO IS A WITNESS IN PLAME CONGRESSIONAL TESTIMONY]

[CT]

There are quite a few people here who still think there are or were WMDs in Iraq. Wouldn't that mean the CIA was right?

Question for those most knowledgeable on this: Didn't our inspection of Iraq after we secured the area uncover tons of yellowcake? Seems like it was 540 tons, or something like that.

[onyx]

I'm watching --- it's outrageous --- she was not confronted --- cripes --- what a travesty.

[STARWISE]

York: not many Pubbies there .. not hard-hitting questions;
those who asked didn't seem to be knowledgeable.

Kristof was mentioned .. York would've liked a few more questions about that meeting.

In other words, A TOTAL FARCE (my words).

This fraudulent "hearing" just about totally caps off my desire for Fred Thompson to run .. to win .. and to rid us of these nutcases and this kind of garbage.

[Irish Eyes]

Was Valerie Plame under oath for this hearing, or was all just a dog and pony show ?

[Peach]

We just got back from out of town and I'm trying to get caught up on this story. Is she done "testifying"?

[onyx]

All a political show to embarrass the president and she and she husband benefit financially -- book deals movie deals --- it's such a sham and the spineless, uninformed GOP house members ought to be ashamed. Who were they?

[onyx]

I don't know --- but I doubt it would matter to her ---

[PeskyOne]

He had met Plame in February 1997 at a reception at the Washington home of the Turkish ambassador. Wilson was based in Stuttgart, serving as the political adviser to George Joulwan, the U.S. general in charge of the European command; Plame was based in Brussels. Meeting in Paris, London, and Brussels, they got very serious very quickly. On the third or fourth date, he says, they were in the middle of a "heavy make-out" session when she said she had something to tell him. She was very conflicted and very nervous, thinking of everything that had gone into getting her to that point, such as money and training. She was, she explained, undercover in the C.I.A. "It did nothing to dampen my ardor," he says. "My only question was: Is your name really Valerie?"

This is from the Vanity Fair article. Joe Wilson and Valerie both came back to the States in 1997. It was reported in THE NYT that she was recalled because it was feared Aldrich Ames may have outed her in 1994 to the Russians. Funny it took 3 years to discover this. Ever notice the discrepancies in their time line when they relate their story?!! Ironically, this fear became known at the time Wilson was coming back to the States!! They were allegedly living together until his divorce became final in 1998, and they married in 1998.

Valerie Plame outed herself when she told the Blowhard Joe Wilson she was undercover! She should have been terminated at that time IMO.

[popdonnelly]

He was a member of the House Judiciary Committee when it voted to recommend a Bill of Impeachment on Nixon.

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

The plants are bogus!

[pitinkie]

Yes in her dreams perhaps

[roses of sharon]

If you remember all the press quotes, and questions by Russert to Cheney, they ALL ASKED the VP why and if he sent Joe Wilson.

Which is how the whole thing started, with the VP being asked to respond.

And NOW they claim that Wilson never said Cheney sent him?

Well, for most libs and trolls, history begins when the wake up in the morning.

[popdonnelly]

Well, the VIPS crowd has been on the Wilson's side all along.

[Chuck54]

yes she was under oath.

[JFC]

WAXMAN... Plame/Wilsons are alot more rich now than they were as CIA agents. .... and also.. you look like a pig!