Waxman Letter to White House Chief of Staff Today: Justify WH Failures in Plamegate

[CorpGovActivist]

http://oversight.house.gov/story.asp?ID=1213

Friday, March 16, 2007

Disclosure of CIA Agent Identity

Waxman Questions White House Security Practices

Rep. Waxman asks White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten to explain why the White House failed to conduct any investigation following the disclosure of Valerie Plame Wilson’s covert CIA employment. The letter follows the testimony of the Director of the Office of Security at the White House, James Knodell, that the White House Security Office did not follow the investigative steps prescribed by Executive Order 12958.

Documents and Links
Letter to White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten
http://oversight.house.gov/Documents/20070316154127-11403.pdf

*************************************************************************

Way to go, Chairman Waxman! Keep up the pressure after today's revelations.

- Dave

P.S. Archived video of hearing, with related docs: http://oversight.house.gov/story.asp?ID=1205

[Spazito]

1. Excellent!

He is NOT letting any grass grow under his feet and this was, imo, THE key testimony given today and, it seems, until it came up today, there was an assumption an investigation of some kind, even superficial, was done.

[AnnInLa]

2. Good for him, but they'll just say

they didn't want to interfere with the DOJ investigation....wasn't that their excuse today?

I'd rather know why rove has not reported that he'd revealed Plame's identity, to this day....apparently in violation of law/regulation???

[whistle]

3. Shrub will get Victoria Toensing to draft the reply on his behalf

...."Ms. Plame was not a covert CIA agent under the law which I wrote in 1976 and Senator Goldwater had passed in Congress, so she and all of her operatives were fair game!"

[emulatorloo]

4. GO WAXMAN -- kick and rec n/t

[w8liftinglady]

5. k and r-

[johnnydrama]

6. this is exactly...

This is exactly like the joke that's been going around about Gonzales.

Gonzales "I will investigate and get to the bottom of exactly what I did".

What was their to investigage. They knew what happened, it was their plan to do it, why investigate.

I guess they could have done a sham investigation, but they thought Republican power in Congress was going to go
on forever, who would ever ask them.

[Hepburn]

7. Excellent! n/t

[DemReadingDU]

8. and who is that Unknown person in the black box

of the flowchart picture shown at the hearing revealing all the names 'leaking' Valerie-Plame-Wilson's name? The unknown in the black box is the key as to why there was no investigation.


edit to add link for the flowchart
http://oversight.house.gov/Documents/20070316173308-19288.pdf

[halobeam]

10. That name needs to be found out.

I'm going NUTS.. I want the NAME. Wow, what a horrible time in our history.

[calimary]

15. george tenet, maybe?

Paging Mr. Dunk... Mr. Slam Dunk...

[fooj]

13. Little Lord Pissypants with Darth conducting behind the curtain.

[DemReadingDU]

9. The Non-Grand Jury Materials

Here are some more clues in Emptywheel's post about non-grand jury materials for Waxman's staff from Fitzgerald...

http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/03/16/the-non-grand-jury-materials/

[Laurab]

11. Can't get the archived video - anyone know how I can?

on edit - nothing happens when I click on it - says I need an update, then says "no update is available".

[Laurab]

12. CSPAN replaying at 11:20

Looks like I'll watch a Bill Maher repeat this week!

[DemReadingDU]

17. Waxman's site also has the video of the hearing

http://oversight.house.gov/story.asp?ID=1205

[Laurab]

18. I couldn't get it to work yesterday and still can't

is there something I need to do - I just get a message from Real Player that I need an update, then another message saying there is no update...

[DemReadingDU]

19. not sure

I know sometimes I can't see a video in IE, but can watch it in AOL, or viceversa. So maybe it is a firewall type problem?

[DemReadingDU]

22. Try C-Span

You can search the site for Waxman, and click on the video from there

House Hearing on Disclosure of CIA Agent Valerie Plame Wilson's Identity
http://12.170.145.161/search/basic.asp?ResultStart=1&ResultCount=10&BasicQueryText=waxman


This is a Real Player video, so not sure if you can view it
rtsp://video.c-span.org/project/iraq/iraq031607_plame.rm

Maybe someone has put it on u-tube?

[Laurab]

23. Thanks for all your help - I actually watched it on C-Span

when they re-ran it Friday night at 11:20 - I had missed a lot, and was really glad I caught it, even though I was up all night!

[calimary]

14. Sigh... That's my Henry!

I become prouder of him by the day!

He's one of our brightest lights. Glaringly, uncomfortably bright - as far as the Dark Siders are concerned! :toast: :headbang:

I call his office several times a week, sometimes via the TOLL FREE Capitol Hill switchboard number, and sometimes locally. I always feel good afterwards.

[bobbolink]

20. What a bright spot in my ugly week, calling Waxman's office!

It is so wonderful to have so many things to be thankful for when calling a Rep's office! The staff person who answered seemed to really appreciate being thanked. I even choked up a bit...

Thanks so much, Henry! Live long and prosper!

:yourock:


(BTW--I used all four of the 800 numbers I had, and all worked! Glad to know we haven't lost one lately....)

[calimary]

21. It's always a great idea to call these folks when you think they've done

something worthwhile. Positive reinforcement.

That way you can steer them. Guide them. Manage them. Fine-tune their focus.

THEY WON'T KNOW UNLESS YOU TELL THEM.

Don't forget - and this is for all of us - there's a growing sense, and I've heard it expressed by political analysts, pundits, Randi Rhodes-types, and more: the public is WAY ahead of Congress. WAY ahead. We were WAY ahead of our reps on the war. We were WAY ahead of our reps on the corruption issues. We were WAY ahead of our reps on global warming. We were WAY ahead of our reps on stolen elections and black box voting. Etc. Etc. WE lead. THEY follow. They can only play catch-up with us, but it's OUR responsibility to lead the way and let them know WHAT WE WANT THEM TO WORK ON. As well as what we want them to work AGAINST.

THIS FACT IS ALL-IMPORTANT. We ARE their focus groups. They're there BECAUSE OF US, and to wrestle a new-fave-rave buzz phrase out of the hands of the bad guys, THEY SERVE AT OUR PLEASURE.

We just need, ALWAYS, to make sure they know WHAT OUR PLEASURE IS.

[KoKo]

16. Nice Follow Up.....keep on their heels and nip, nip, away!

It's so good to see real follow up for a change.