WP: Valerie Plame, the Spy Who's Ready to Speak for Herself

[kskiska]

Years of Silence Will End Today With Capitol Hill Testimony

By Richard Leiby and Walter Pincus
Friday, March 16, 2007; A01

She has been silent nearly four years. Today, the CIA officer whose unmasking fueled a political uproar and criminal probe that reached into the White House is poised to finally tell her own story -- before Congress.

Valerie Plame's testimony will have all the trappings of a "Garbo speaks" moment on Capitol Hill, with cameras and microphones arrayed to capture the voice of Plame, the glamorous but mute star of a compelling political intrigue. But while she hopes to clear up her status as an agency operative when her name first hit newspapers in July 2003, America's most publicized spy is unlikely to betray any details in open session about her mysterious career.

The reason: Plame remains gagged by the same secrecy rules that governed her 20 years as a CIA employee working overseas and at Langley in classified positions.

People close to Plame say her primary goal in testifying before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is to knock down persistent claims that she did not serve undercover. "She is so tired of hearing that," her mother, Diane Plame, said in an interview earlier this week.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/15/AR2007031502448.html?sub=AR

[grasswire]

1. will this be televised live?

I'll have to cancel appointments and stay home.

[I_Make_Mistakes]

2. C-SPAN1, 10:00am. n/t

[SlowDownFast]

4. Dunno, but somehow I doubt it....

being that she's not a public figure, so-to-speak.

That and the fact that some of the information contained in her testimony to Congress might be of a sensitive nature.

Hopefully, we'll get some kind of 'low down' tomorrow. I'm off work, and will be surfing the blogs and watching CSPAN for sure.

[I_Make_Mistakes]

5. It's on C-SPAN 1 at 10:00am EST you missed my post. n/t

[Eurobabe]

3. Oh this ought to be good, can't wait!!

Good luck Valerie, you've waited a long time for this! And the good ship Lollipop is seriously taking on water.

[salin]

6. won't be able tp watch, but I look forward to reading about it.

[Springster]

7. This should be interesting to say the least. I'd expect questions

regarding the classification of her association with CIA. It is very possible that her CIA ties were classified even if the specific law regarding covert employees does not apply.

I'm looking forward also to her sworn testimony relating to any role she played with respect to Joe Wilson being recommended and selected for his now-famous trip to Africa. There are several issues still unresolved such as:

Who recommended Joe for the trip?
Who selected Joe for the trip?
Why wasn't a non-disclosure agreement between Joe and CIA signed before the trip?
Why isn't there a written trip report?
Who debriefed Joe on his findings?
Who received the results of the debriefing?

and on and on and on....

[Toots]

8. Unresolved in your mind only

Those points have been addressed time and time again by her husband and also by other CIA agents. Remember it was the CIA that demanded an investigation be launched to find out who outed her. It was not her husband that did that. One question does still lurk though. What happened to the report Cheney received?...

[LynnTheDem]

9. Plame was, in absolute total fact, covert. So yes, in fact, the specific law

regarding covert agents does apply.