John Nichols: Waxman to Open Hearings on CIA Leak Case (The Nation)

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BLOG | Posted 03/08/2007 @ 8:38pm
Waxman to Open Hearings on CIA Leak Case
John Nichols


Vice President Dick Cheney may have avoided serious law enforcement scrutiny in regard to his office's efforts to discredit and harm the man who exposed the administration's manipulation of pre-war intelligence.

But Congress has the power to examine wrongdoing by members of the executive branch, and it is going to start using that power.

The House Oversight and Government Affairs will open hearings – perhaps as early as March 16 -- on issues raised by the trial of Cheney's former chief-of-staff, I. "Scooter" Libby, who this week was convicted of obstruction of justice, perjury and lying to the FBI in an investigation into the leaking of the identity of Valerie Plame, a CIA operative who is married to former Ambassador Joe Wilson.

The revelation by Wilson that members of the Bush-Cheney administration should have known statements the president and vice president were making to be false enraged Cheney, who personally dictated talking points designed to discredit Wilson.

Congressman Henry Waxman, the California Democrat who chairs the powerful oversight committee, announced Thursday afternoon that his committee will investigate the scandal. Waxman, who is widely regarded as the House's most diligent scrutinizer of governmental wrongdoing, says he may open the hearings with testimony from Valerie Plame. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?bid=15