Hume Launches New Smear: Valerie Plame Lied Under Oath

[babylonsister]

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/03/18/hume-plame-oath/

Hume Launches New Smear: Valerie Plame Lied Under Oath

Today on Fox News Sunday, Brit Hume continued his campaign to smear Valerie Plame Wilson. Previously, he had falsely said that it was “unlikely she was” covert.

Instead of apologizing this morning, he launched a new attack against Plame, claiming that she had lied under oath when she testified on Friday about whether she recommended her husband be sent to Niger to investigate Iraq’s supposed nuclear ambitions.

Hume said Plame’s testimony “flies in the face of the evidence” produced by the “bipartisan” Senate Intelligence Committee, which said that “she very much did have something to do with it, that she recommended him and that she put it in a memo.” Watch it at link:

Plame testified that she never suggested her husband for the Niger trip. “I did not recommend him, I did not suggest him, there was no nepotism involved — I didn’t have the authority,” she said.

Hume’s false claim originated from a statement attached to the Senate Intelligence Committee report on Iraq that was released in 2004. In an addendum to that report, Sens. Pat Roberts (R-KS), Christopher Bond (R-MO), and Orrin Hatch (R-UT) wrote definitively, “The plan to send the former ambassador to Niger was suggested by the former ambassador’s wife, a CIA employee.” The right-wing, including columnist Bob Novak, have taken the statement written by three Republican senators and falsely attributed it as the “unanimous” conclusion of the Senate report.

The three conservative senators based their claim on testimony by a CIA employee who appeared before the Senate Intel Committee. Plame revealed on Friday that the CIA employee later apologized to her “with tears in his eyes” because he said “his words had been twisted and distorted” by the senators. And in fact, the unnamed employee drafted a memo, asking that he be re-interviewed by the Senate to correct the record. His attempts to set the record straight were denied. On Friday, Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) asked to retrieve a copy of that memo:

REP. VAN HOLLEN: So, just so I understand, Mr. Chairman, if I could — so, there was a memo written by the officer, upon whose alleged testimony the Senate wrote its report that contradicts the conclusions –

MS. PLAME WILSON: Absolutely.

REP. VAN HOLLEN: — contradicts the conclusions from that report.

MS. PLAME WILSON: Yes, sir.

REP. VAN HOLLEN: Mr. Chairman, it seems to me that this committee should ask for that memo. And it bears directly on the credibility of the Senate report on this very, very important issue, which they’ve attempted to us to discredit Ambassador Wilson’s mission.

REP. WAXMAN: I think the gentleman makes an excellent point, and we will insist on getting that memo.

Transcript:

HUME: And the other thing that needs to be noted here is when she says that she had nothing to do with getting her husband the trip, that flies in the face of the evidence adduced by the Senate Intelligence Committee whose findings were released not on a partisan basis — the bipartisan findings of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which was that she very much did have something to do with it, that she recommended him and that she put it in a memo.

WALLACE: So she was lying under oath?

HUME: I think that there is reason to question her credibility on that point.

[Buzz Clik]

1. Good call, Brit.

What a total dumbass. Plame's status when she was outed is known with certainty by the CIA. If she was not covert, she would not have walked out of the Senate chambers without handcuffs.

Hume's imitation of journalism is tragic.

[hlthe2b]

4. Hume is a horrendous man totally lacking in conscience..

I used to feel sorry for him (a bit) after hearing that his son had died from suicide. Now, I fully understand the son's actions.... It is the son, who I hope finds peace and the father I hope finds eternal anguish.

[reality based]

2. Fox Noise

The propaganda organ of the Confederate Republicon Party.

[theoldman]

3. If Valery Plame lied under oath she will be convicted of

perjury. If she told the truth one of the Bush cronies will by convicted of perjury. It's that simple.

[Qutzupalotl]

27. Maybe he meant to say Victoria Toensing lied under oath.

Brit's just confused. I mean, Valerie/Victoria, truth/lies...it's hard to keep it all straight.

[sendero]

5. Here we have..

... a blowhard announcer accusing someone OF COMMITTING A CRIME.

She ought to be able to sue his ass right into skid row.

[POAS]

6. It doesn't matter what is in the memo from

the CIA employee. When it contradicts the preconceived Rupublic notions they will make up another lie. Probably something like the CIA has it in for the Whitehouse or that the guy is probably a Democrat.

[rodeodance]

11. bingo

[AnnieBW]

7. She had NO reason to lie

Why in the world would she perjure herself? To protect her husband? To protect some higher-up in the CIA? She's not there anymore, which is why she was allowed to finally testify. Civil servants, especially in the intelligence biz, value the idea of truth versus falsehood. Didn't she say that all CIA analysts would "rather be fired on the spot rather than make things up to push a political opinion"?

BTW, "covert status" means that, even if you are no longer active, your identity remains covert for several years afterward, to protect yourself, your agents, and the entire program. I believe that both Hanssen and Ames gave up the identities of CIA Agents and the Russians who were working with them to the KGB. So, yes, it's a dangerous profession. Even though she's "just a desk jockey" now, who's to say that the Iranian intel service couldn't come back and kill her, or her family, because of what she did in the past? Not to mention those Iranians who were talking to her. They're probably already dead.

[MGKrebs]

15. She testified that she had been out of the country on covert missions

within the past 5 years, and was controlling networks of active agents. That's about as active and covert as it gets.
Apparently, she could have gone overseas again at any time if her duties required it.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

33. Victoria Toesuck lied about that, too. Said VP didn't leave the country.

How in the hell would Vicki Toesuck know that? HUH???

Where's her ouija board?

[Vickers]

8. Put Roberts, Bond, and Hatch under oath, and question them about it.

They might just open themselves up to impeachment proceedings.

[rodeodance]

12. i want to see the memo

[JohnnyRingo]

9. Way to go Brit!

I'm sure the White House will welcome more testimony on the leak as cons try to snip at Plame's under-oath statements.

Let's haul them all back to Congress so Buxh can relive last friday over and over, like Groundhog Day.

Unfortunately, Hume's statements are only meant as a final word that party loyalists can take home with them. The rest of the world knows better.

[rodeodance]

10. I heard about the 'memo' a few years ago--but does it exist?

[babylonsister]

14. I think it does, but she was doing work for someone that asked

her to (her boss?), the content didn't originate from her. At least, that's what I got from her testimony.

[solara]

19. My understanding of it is that the memo in question is from one of her co-workers

validating her story that she did -not- suggest her husband for the Niger mission..

The memo proves that the idea to send her husband on a fact finding mission to Niger didn't originate with her and that the email she sent has been taken out of context and used against her.

If Wilson's mission to Niger is seen as a "favor he did for his wife' and NOT an official fact finding mission undertaken at the behest of the VP... then the seriousness of the leak is vastly diluted.

[Debs]

23. Again

My understanding from what I have read about this is there WAS a memo but it originated from her being ASKED if she thought her husband was a good choice for the mission and being TOLD to write up a recommendation. I believe this is what David Ensor was told by a high ranking CIA official

[rodeodance]

13. kand Rec

[xxqqqzme]

16. thank god we have hume getting to the bottom of this

incredibly important point. I have no doubt this is completely fair & balanced reporting. I mean hatch, roberts & bond writing a separate statement attached to the report, AFTER the committee signed off - how much more balanced can you get?

Theses rethugs certainly like their 'signing statements' don't they. If I recall, that senate committee found no criminal action in the outing of a covert agent - Did Plame testify before it? Guess scooter's guilty verdicts kind of blows that report all to hell.

[solara]

17. The Wilson's should add Hume to the growing list of

defendants in their civil suit. Hume, the pathetic journalist wannabe, accused VP of perjury on national television, isn't that libel?


INVESTIGATE IMPEACH INDICT INCARCERATE :patriot:

[kestrel91316]

18. VPW needs to add the very stupid Mr. Hume to her lawsuit.

He has slandered her publically.

[Warren Stupidity]

20. After it is revealed that they did in fact LIHOP 9-11

Brit Hume will be stating that they did so for good reasons, and that anyone who doesn't understand that simple fact must hate america.

[Debs]

21. My understanding about how that conclusion was reached

Is that she was ASKED if she thought her husband would be a good choice by a superior, she said he would then was told to write up a recommendation. Which she did and the testimony was reflective of what she wrote. Not having, or not getting into testimony, the backround about the ORIGIN of said memo

[bigdarryl]

22. Brit Hume is the biggest piece of pile of shit on the Conservative side

[grasswire]

24. and Poppy's tennis partner

That's his biggest cred, isn't it? Poppy Bush's tennis partner.

[Kingofalldems]

29. He denied he played tennis with Bush--to me

Around 1990 he was on CSPAN and I got through and asked him about this. He denied it. I have the tape somewhere.

[grasswire]

31. google shows almost 59,000 hits for the words

"hume bush tennis partner"

So I guess it must have been a non-denial denial.

[rocktivity]

25. Plame DIDN'T suggest her husband for the Niger trip

until someone ASKED if he'd be a good candidate. If what Hume is saying is that Plame initiated either the suggestion or the trip, he is slanderously wrong. A couple of (Republican) Senators "concluded" in a report that she initiated the trip? How do they know their conclusion is correct? That's not "evidence."

:headbang:
rocknation

[oasis]

26. Get the memo and blow the Plame story wide open. Put Hatch, Roberts and

"Yosemite Sam" Kit Bond on the hot seat.

[bigdarryl]

28. I have not seen FOXNEWS Sunday yet but i want to know if Hume and W. Williams got into it

thats the only time i watch that show at the end when they have that panel on with Hume and Wan Williams getting into a shouting match.

[IsItJustMe]

30. Do you expect something different from the Republican news network? eom

[xkenx]

32. If memory serves, Hume was the moderator in a 2004 Dem. debate,

in which he behaved like the lying, smearing turd that he is. Which is exactly why the Nevada Dems. were finally right in taking away their debate from Faux. Fox will always deal with Dems. on the basis of what will be good for their RW masters, not in the interests of an evenhanded debate.