Posted on 03/25/2007 8:51:24 PM PDT by smoothsailing
March 26, 2007, 0:00 a.m.
A GOP Congressman Asks Questions About Valerie Plame Wilson’s Testimony
Georgia’s Lynn Westmoreland wants more details about the decision to send Joseph Wilson to Niger.
By Byron York
When Valerie Plame Wilson testified recently before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, just two Republicans — out of 17 on the committee — bothered to show up. Ranking Republican Rep. Tom Davis asked few questions and seemed largely uninterested in the matter. The only other Republican to appear, Rep. Lynn Westmoreland of Georgia, showed more interest but appeared not to have mastered the details of the case.
Now, however, Westmoreland wants to know more. In a letter to committee chairman Rep. Henry Waxman Friday, he submitted more questions for Mrs. Wilson and requested that Waxman ask the Senate Intelligence Committee for information that could shed light on issues left unresolved after her testimony.
As part of its investigation into pre-war intelligence, the Senate committee interviewed Mrs. Wilson, as well as some of her colleagues at the CIA. The committee also reviewed CIA documents about the Niger uranium affair. In his letter, Westmoreland asked Waxman to ask the Senate committee for the full text of Mrs. Wilson’s interview with Senate investigators. Westmoreland also asked for the “full text of Ms. Plame’s February 12, 2002 email/memo to her boss regarding sending her husband, Joseph Wilson, to Niger.”
Westmoreland is attempting to learn more about the origin of Joseph Wilson’s trip — a question that was perhaps less clear after Valerie Plame Wilson’s testimony than before. Testifying before the House, Mrs. Wilson said the story began on February 12, 2002, when “a young junior officer who worked for me came to me very concerned, very upset. She had just received a telephone call on her desk from someone, I don’t know who, in the Office of the Vice President, asking about this report of this alleged sale of yellowcake uranium from Niger to Iraq.”
As the young officer told her story, Mrs. Wilson continued, “someone passed by, another officer heard this. He knew that Joe had already — my husband — had already gone on some CIA missions previously to deal with other nuclear matters. And he suggested, ‘Well, why don’t we send Joe?’“
As for questions about her own actions, Mrs. Wilson flatly denied that she had played a role in sending her husband to Africa. “I did not recommend him,” she testified. “I did not suggest him.” She testified that what she called a “quick e-mail” in which she described her husband’s qualifications for the trip had been “taken out of context” by the Senate Intelligence Committee to “make it seem as though I had suggested or recommended him.”
Her testimony seemed to offer new insight into the beginnings of the Niger mission. But soon after Mrs. Wilson’s appearance, Missouri Republican Sen. Christopher Bond, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told National Review Online that Mrs. Wilson, in her interview with Senate investigators, never mentioned the young junior officer, the call from the vice president’s office, or the passing CIA official who suggested Joseph Wilson’s name.
“Friday [March 16] was the first time we have ever heard that story,” Sen. Bond said in a statement. “Obviously if we had, we would have included it in the report. If Ms. Wilson’s memory of events has improved and she would now like to change her testimony, I’m sure the committee staff would be happy to re-interview her.”
Sen. Bond also took issue with Mrs. Wilson’s description of her “quick e-mail” touting her husband’s qualifications. “We have…checked the memorandum written by Ms. Wilson suggesting her husband to look into the Niger reporting,” Bond told NRO. “I…stand by the Committee’s finding that this memorandum indicates Ms. Wilson did suggest her husband for a Niger inquiry. Because the quote [the portion of the memo quoted in the Senate report] obviously does not represent the entirety of the memorandum, I suggest that the House Government Reform Committee request and examine this memorandum themselves. I am confident that they will come to the same conclusion as our bipartisan membership did.”
Now, Rep. Westmoreland is trying to do just that. In addition to asking for the transcript of Mrs. Wilson’s interview with Senate investigators, and the full text of her February 12, 2002, memo, Westmoreland submitted a question to Mrs. Wilson that could tell us more about that chance, why-don’t-we-send-Joe meeting with unnamed CIA colleagues. “List all the parties participating in the conversation you described in detail during the March 16, 2007 hearing,” Westmoreland asked Mrs. Wilson, “including, but not limited to, who told you there was a query from the Vice President’s office and who suggested your husband for the trip to Niger because of his expertise in Africa?”
The question now is whether chairman Waxman will be inclined to do anything about Westmoreland’s request. Other than place it into the official record of the hearing, he doesn’t have to do anything. But Westmoreland is hoping otherwise. “It is our understanding that no one is under any obligation to pass on our questions, and Mrs. Wilson is not obligated to answer them,” says Brian Robinson, Westmoreland’s deputy chief of staff. “That said, it is our hope and intent in doing this that she will be made aware of them, and that she will want to answer them.”
— Byron York, NR’s White House correspondent, is the author of the book The Vast Left Wing Conspiracy: The Untold Story of How Democratic Operatives, Eccentric Billionaires, Liberal Activists, and Assorted Celebrities Tried to Bring Down a President — and Why They’ll Try Even Harder Next Time.
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National Review Online - http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZDk5ZWZiNGEwOGZmNjkyY2VkNWUzYThkMWJlOGRiYzQ=
I'm pretty sure I saw Issa present while watching CSPAN.
"Rodent"? Silly, pigs aren't rodents!
Why did Davis think as the ranking minority member it made sense not to demand GOP members show up for Plame and take it to her? Where was Davis when he could have done something about Sandy Berger when it mattered, and not as he was on his way out the door? Was he too lazy or is he just stupid?
A list of questions that could NOT be asked?
Why didn't these gutless GOP wonders just ask the questions and make a scene anyway? Who is going to tell a US Congressman that he can't ask a question?
Valerie Plame should have been exposed for the liar she is, but that would have taken real work, real loyalty to the President, and real love of country--guess that's to much to ask of today's GOP.
It's much more important to be seen as a collegial twit.
Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson need to be keelhauled for the damage they done with their lies.
I wish it were that simple.
If Nostralitis waxman had a list of questions that could not be asked, A GOOD REPUBLICAN(I can't think of any) would have asked those questions only and asked him what HE was covering up.
I can't think of 1 republican with the b@lls to do that.
Please elaborate.
bookmark
Probably didn't take much. Liberals lie often and easily.
I've been following this case a great deal and have come to a conclusion.
The prosecutor was asked to find out if a crime was committed in regards to her "outing:".
The only way there was a crime is if she was protected under the 1982 Intelligence Identity Protection Act.
When she was asked this last week she fumbled and stumbled and finally said that nobody had yet said she was covered.
Are they trying to make us believe that after three years they haven't determined that yet?
Hardly believable. They just keep using words like classified or covert. NEVER has anybody from the CIA or Fitzpatrick said she was covered. This investigation was over before it started but the media and Fitz have been able to keep it going for three years.
When will somebody shout this from the rooftops? She was not covered therefore there is no underlying crime.
I totally agree with your post, just one minor point: Rep. Westmoreland is the possessor of male appendages. Unlike the other Repubs on the committee.
Thanks for the correction...I realized my error while reading the post in detail in bed (in printed form) just before going to sleep. Although I was chagrined, it did not disturb my sleep.
Let me know if you find out where to distribute similar pairs to elected Republicans!!
Did any of them have the stones to publish the questions Waxman didn't want anyone to ask? Sometimes the answers to questions aren't half as interesting as the questions themselves.
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