TPMCafe Plame Redux by Rush Holt

[seemslikeadream]

....


I am particularly interested in learning who in the State Department wrote the June and July 2003 memos that apparently named Valerie Plame Wilson by name, and who among the White House staff and the staffs of the Departments of State and Defense saw the memos, either before, during or after the President's July 2003 trip to Africa--a trip that preceded Novak's column by less than a week. The circumstances surrounding how that classified and sensitive information made its way into a policy memo for then-Secretary of State Colin Powell, and whether it was shown to other people in the administration, deserve a thorough inquiry by Congress.

Very soon, members of key Congressional committees will have to decide whether they intend to take their Constitutional responsibilities seriously and investigate this flagrant breach of national security, or to vote four more times to rubber stamp their approval of an executive branch abuse of power whose damage to our nation's intelligence services will be with us for decades. That process will start Wednesday afternoon at 2pm, when the House Armed Services Committee takes up H. Res. 417, my Resolution of Inquiry that seeks any documents and related materials in the Plame case from the Secretary of Defense.

I will use that hearing, and the subsequent hearings in the other three committees, to remind my colleagues that the issues in this case are far more serious than the damage to one person's career and the harm that may come to those associated with her. The outing of Valerie Plame has damaged the efforts of all those serving America under cover, intelligence officers who from now on will never be sure that their government will not cut them adrift--without even a peep of dismay from the White House. And the damage will be magnified as our clandestine case officers--the people who recruit, manage, and care for the foreign nationals who give us the secret information we need to protect America--find it increasingly difficult to convince their foreign contacts to risk their lives talking to an American. That is why legal accountability in this case and legislative corrective action are both vital, and it's why I'll keep fighting for both for as long as it takes.


more
http://www.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/9/6/113925/6344

[Wilber_Stool]

1. If I were Fitz

and was watching how "*" et al were getting away with this debacle, I might be a little frightened to charge them with anything.

[emulatorloo]

2. if fitz indicts, and rove machine goes in overdrive, would there be legal

ramifications?

What would happen legally if Rove tried to swiftboat Fitz?

[Wilber_Stool]

3. I think they tried a couple of months back

but backed off. Maybe they were afraid they might piss him off.