'CIA leak' hearing: Waxman says Plame was 'covert'

[sabra]

http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2007/03/cia_leak_hearin.html

'CIA leak' hearing: Waxman says Plame was 'covert'

<snip>

Update at 10:29 a.m. ET. She was "covert:"

The question of whether Plame was a "covert" agent when her identity was revealed in 2003 has been greatly debated. The issue is important because leaking the name of a "covert" agent violates a specific law designed to protect such operatives.

Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., just said he has been told by the CIA, in a statement authorized by CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden, that "Miss Wilson's CIA employment status was covert." (Plame is married to former U.S. diplomat and Bush administration critic Joseph Wilson. She does go by the name Valerie Wilson, but is most often referred to in the media as Valerie Plame, her maiden name, because that is how she first came to be known when her name was leaked.)

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/03/16/plame.congress.ap/index.html

Plame: I was outed for 'purely political reasons'

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Former CIA officer Valerie Plame told a congressional committee Friday that she believes she was outed in 2003 for "purely political reasons."

Plame, whose outing triggered a federal investigation, said she always knew her identity could be discovered by foreign governments but said she was surprised to be identified by her own government.

"My name and identity were carelessly and recklessly abused by senior officials in the White House and State Department," Plame testified before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. "I could no longer perform the work for which I had been highly trained." (Watch Plame describe how she felt when her identity was revealed Video)

...

"It's not our job to determine criminal culpability, but it is our job to determine what went wrong and insist on accountability," Rep. Waxman said as he opened hearings.

[paparush]

1. Tom Davis - Rethug fromVA is playing Bush** Defense Lawyer..

what a schlub. he's not investigating, he's making LAME excuses.

BTW- Plame-Wilson is smokin!

[yellowcanine]

4. Please tell us when Victoria is up and what lies spill forth.

[theaudacity]

9. I would "uncover" her "covert status." *wink wink*

[yellowcanine]

2. Take that, Victoria (Toensing ) and Novak. Your "facts" are contradicted by the CIA director.

But of course this was never about the facts in the first place.

[AndyA]

3. Miss Wilson's CIA employment status was covert.

So, anyone involved in her outing committed treason against the United States of America. This is something that the pResident cannot "declassify" - he does not have the power or authority to out a covert CIA operative.

TURN THE FAN ON, SHIT IS FORTHCOMING!

[maddezmom]

5. Valerie Plame Wilson: Leak destroyed 'entire networks' of agents

Valerie Plame Wilson: Leak destroyed 'entire networks' of agents
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Former CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson said Friday the leak of her identity as a covert operative "has jeopardized and even destroyed entire networks of foreign agents."

"Lives are literally at stake," she testified before a congressional committee. She accused administration officials of "carelessly and recklessly" releasing the information.

Wilson said she had been traveling to foreign countries on secret missions to find vital intelligence for the United States as part of her work.

"It was not common knowledge" in Washington that she was a covert operative, she said.

The disclosure damaged U.S. efforts, she said. "If our government cannot even protect my identity, future foreign agents who might consider working with the Central Intelligence Agency in providing needed intelligence would think twice."(Posted 10:50 a.m.)

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/03/16/friday/index.html

[Demeter]

6. "There's a kind of hush all over the world tonight...'

ORIGINAL LYRICS CAN BE FOUND AT:

http://www.lyrics007.com/Engelbert%20Humperdinck%20Lyrics/There's%20A%20Kind%20Of%20Hush%20(All%20Over%20The%20World)%20Lyrics.html




There's a kind of hush all over the world tonight
All over the world you can hear the sounds of LIARS UNMASKED
You know what I mean
Just the DEMOCRATS and nobody else concerned
UNCOVERING TRUTHS, and I'm feeling good AS QUESTIONS ARE ASKED

So listen very carefully, LOOK closer now
And you will see what I mean (see what I mean)
It isn't a dream (it isn't a dream)
The only sound that you will hear
Is when I whisper in your ear, I love you forever and ever!

THANK YOU SENATOR WAXMAN; MAY YOUR TRIBE INCREASE!

[Kagemusha]

7. So that's it. She got permission from the CIA to say this much.

Wonder how that got past the Party political officers.

[maddezmom]

8. Plame: Leak intended to discredit Wilson

Plame: Leak intended to discredit Wilson By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writer
3 minutes ago



WASHINGTON - Valerie Plame, the CIA operative at the heart of a political scandal, told Congress Friday that senior officials at the White House and State Department "carelessly and recklessly" blew her cover to discredit her diplomat-husband.

Plame, whose 2003 outing triggered a federal investigation, said she always knew her identity could be discovered by foreign governments.

"It was a terrible irony that administration officials were the ones who destroyed my cover," she told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070316/ap_on_go_co/cia_leak_congress;_ylt=AjxQ5uXjN95WdOWebUd9sqKs0NUE

[uppityperson]

10. Fri news dump is goind well today. Of course she was covert, of course

checking news and it is something. Sometmes it seems all a game, then it strikes home just HOW MUCH seriously serious bullshit these people have pulled.

[JDPriestly]

11. Definition of "covert agent:" under

Definition of covert agent.

50 U.S § 426. Definitions

For the purposes of this subchapter:

. . .
(4) The term “covert agent” means—
(4) The term "covert agent" means -
(A) a present or retired officer or employee of an
intelligence agency or a present or retired member of the Armed
Forces assigned to duty with an intelligence agency -
(i) whose identity as such an officer, employee, or member
is classified information, and
(ii) who is serving outside the United States or has within
the last five years served outside the United States; or

(B) a United States citizen whose intelligence relationship
to the United States is classified information, and -
(i) who resides and acts outside the United States as an
agent of, or informant or source of operational assistance
to, an intelligence agency, or
(ii) who is at the time of the disclosure acting as an
agent of, or informant to, the foreign counterintelligence or
foreign counterterrorism components of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation; or

(C) an individual, other than a United States citizen, whose
past or present intelligence relationship to the United States
is classified information and who is a present or former agent
of, or a present or former informant or source of operational
assistance to, an intelligence agency.

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/ts_search.pl?title=50&sec=426

Section 421. Protection of identities of certain United States undercover intelligence officers, agents, informants, and sources

(a) Disclosure of information by persons having or having had
access to classified information that identifies covert agent
Whoever, having or having had authorized access to classified
information that identifies a covert agent, intentionally discloses
any information identifying such covert agent to any individual not
authorized to receive classified information, knowing that the
information disclosed so identifies such covert agent and that the
United States is taking affirmative measures to conceal such covert
agent's intelligence relationship to the United States, shall be
fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than ten years, or
both.
(b) Disclosure of information by persons who learn identity of
covert agents as result of having access to classified
information
Whoever, as a result of having authorized access to classified
information, learns the identify of a covert agent and
intentionally discloses any information identifying such covert
agent to any individual not authorized to receive classified
information, knowing that the information disclosed so identifies
such covert agent and that the United States is taking affirmative
measures to conceal such covert agent's intelligence relationship
to the United States, shall be fined under title 18 or imprisoned
not more than five years, or both.
(c) Disclosure of information by persons in course of pattern of
activities intended to identify and expose covert agents
Whoever, in the course of a pattern of activities intended to
identify and expose covert agents and with reason to believe that
such activities would impair or impede the foreign intelligence
activities of the United States, discloses any information that
identifies an individual as a covert agent to any individual not
authorized to receive classified information, knowing that the
information disclosed so identifies such individual and that the
United States is taking affirmative measures to conceal such
individual's classified intelligence relationship to the United
States, shall be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than
three years, or both.
(d) Imposition of consecutive sentences
A term of imprisonment imposed under this section shall be
consecutive to any other sentence of imprisonment.

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/casecode/uscodes/50/chapters/15/subchapters/iv/sections/section_421.html

It is a defense to a charge of violation of this provision if the identity of the covert agent was publicly known.

As I recall, Plame stated that she was
(A) a present or retired . . . employee of an
intelligence agency . . . assigned to duty with an intelligence agency -
(i) whose identity as such an officer, employee, or member
is classified information, and
(ii) who is serving outside the United States or has within
the last five years served outside the United States;

Victoria Toensing claims that Plame was not a covert agent based on her knowledge of the legislative history and intent of the Act. Apparently she claims to have been a party to the drafting of the statute.

Under the plain language of the statute, it would appear that Plame was a covert agent. Did I miss something?

[jamesinca]

12. nice post JD

thanks for the post and links.