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=
Nah, that gives them way too much credit. The RATS never miss an opportunity to blast away at a Republican or throw themselves in front of a bus for a RAT.
I'm quite certain that neither Sid Blumenthal nor Hillary Clinton could possibly have coached her in any way that would have affected Plame's testimony (/sarcasm)...
Here are the Republicans who did not show up:
Rep. Dan Burton, Indiana
Rep. Christopher Shays, Connecticut
Rep. John M. McHugh, New York
Rep. John L. Mica, Florida
Rep. Mark E. Souder, Indiana
Rep. Todd Russell Platts, Pennsylvania
Rep. Chris Cannon, Utah
Rep. John J. Duncan, Jr., Tennessee
Rep. Michael Turner, Ohio
Rep. Darrell E. Issa, California
Rep. Kenny Marchant, Texas
Rep. Patrick T. McHenry, North Carolina
Rep. Virginia Foxx, North Carolina
Rep. Brian Bilbray, California
Rep. Bill Sali, Idaho
That rodent Waxman no doubt already sent Westmoreland's request to the circular file.
Too bad most didn't care enough to show up and of the two who did show up they were ill-prepared.
Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson. Just how much is America willing to spend on these two clowns ? I mean we're paying their G.D. salaries\pensions now so how much more do we have to pay these two losers? These bureaucrats never contributed anything to our country,but we're sure as hell going to have to support em for the foreseeable future no doubt about it !!!
We seem to have a lot of these in the Repbulican ranks lately. But credit to Ms. Westmoreland, sounds like she has the "stones" (if thats the appropriate word) to follow her hunches.
Who's chasing Congressman Jerrerson's cold 90K, who's chasing Sandy Burger's stuffed socks?, who's fighting the Libby prosecution fraud? NFB! (N=No and B=Body)
Just saw that stuffed shirt Specter on TV spouting how, if the Demos will just do minor tweeks to a few of their demands, he will back grilling White House staff on the Justice Department firings. Somebody drop the Liberty Bell on his head...please!
Wonder why this was.
It's the norm for only a handful of committee members to show up for hearings. What was actually extraordinary was the number of RATS who showed up. The reason was obvious--it was agenda time, bigtime!
What's frustrating is that the Republican committee members should have known that this was another staged political event. Even the most casual observer can read the Democrats playbook by now. They pull the same BS every time they have a chance. There is no excuse for letting this happen.
Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.
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