In our previous 2 posts we highlighted that the Democrats are going to hold investigative hearings into the ILLEGAL WIRETAPPING scandal ("NSA hearings", the Bush-Cheney White House attempting to justify the massive, no-oversight, no warant electronic surveillance of American citizens as a matter of NSA national security), and the Democrats are also set to investigate the "US Attorneys PURGED at behest of Karl Rove, Alberto Gonzales, and other Republican officials" scandal... and now a THIRD important set of hearings is about to take place, the investigation into how the OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE and PERJURY CONVICTIONS of former Presidential staffer (and Vice Presidential Chief of Staff) Lewis "Scooter" Libby was actually tied to the underlying scandal of "OUTING" an undercover CIA operative, AND HER ENTIRE undercover CIA cover-company, as means of political retribution against an outspoken administration lies-to-war critic.
Make no mistake: IF "outing" an undercover CIA operative were NOT a crime, the CIA would not have forwarded a request to the FBI to investigate that 'outing,' and the FBI would not have taken up the case.
And, the "outing" of CIA undercover "NOC" operative Valerie Plame - "non-official-cover" means an agent has NO protection from the US government, and can be tried for espionage by any foreign government should that agent be arrested there - did not merely ruin her undercover career; the illegal, White House orchestrated "outing' wiped out her ENTIRE COVER ORGANIZATION, "Brewster-Jennings Energy Consultants Co.", and potentially put EVERY foreigner who ever dealt with that company in peril. (When FBI spy Robert Hanssen sold US secrets to Russian agents in the 15 years leading up to 2001, at least 2 of America's double-agents in Russia were executed, and probably many more Russian "assets" were compromised.)
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2001/2/20/205551.shtml
What is amazing, when you start to LIST the sins, follies, and potential crime of the Cheney-Bush White House, is to realize that ANY ONE of them would have WITHOUT DOUBT resulted in the IMPEACHMENT of President Bill Clinton. Not only did the Republican Congress actually IMPEACH President Clinton for "lying" about a brief affair, but before anyone had ever even heard of Monica Lewinsky, the Republicans and their media/press allies had made the Clinton's guest-list INTO A MAJOR "SCANDAL', the so-called "LINCOLN BEDROOM SCANDAL"!!!
Astounding: the Republicans got press-media "TRACTION" on a half-a-dozen fabricated scandals ("Travel-office firings," "Vince Foster suicide," "stealing White House furniture," and the entirely fabricated "White House trashing" scandals - but today, because of the "war on terror," the Bush White House has been able to forestall ANY congressional oversight on dozens of GENUINE scandals and potential administration lawlessness!
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Democrats to open hearings on CIA leak
By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 56 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - Democratic lawmakers are eager to hear from outed CIA operative Valerie Plame as they try to make political fodder out of the 2003 leak scandal.
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Plame was scheduled to testify before a congressional committee Friday, but it was unlikely the hearing would offer any new information about the Bush administration's discussions of her employment at the spy agency.
"Valerie's going to be talking in general about the need to protect intelligence assets," her attorney, Melanie Sloan, said prior to her appearance before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. "She's basically talking about how important national intelligence is and about how leaking is bad."
Her prepared testimony would take about five minutes, Sloan said, and wouldn't include any behind-the-scenes details about the CIA or the White House.
The man with that kind of information is Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, who spent years investigating the leak and interviewed President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and several top aides and journalists.
But Fitzgerald isn't talking, citing federal rules prohibiting such discussions. And nobody from the White House involved in the leak was scheduled to testify. Nor was someone from the State Department, where the leak of Plame's identity originated.
That leaves Plame to tell her story to lawmakers. She believes she was outed as retaliation against her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who criticized the Bush administration's prewar intelligence on Iraq.
Wilson has written a book and Plame has one expected out soon. They are also suing Cheney and others, claiming their constitutional rights were violated.
Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif., says he wants to know whether the White House appropriately safeguarded Plame's identity. During the obstruction of justice and perjury trial of Cheney's former top aide, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, it was revealed that many in the Bush administration knew Plame worked for the CIA but not that it was classified.
Fitzgerald never charged anyone with the leak and he told Waxman he could not discuss his thoughts on the case.
Scheduled to testify Friday were attorney Mark Zaid, who has represented whistle-blowers; attorney Victoria Toensing, who said early on that no law was broken and has criticized the CIA's handling of the case, and J. William Leonard, security director of the National Archives, who was to discuss general procedures for handling sensitive information.
James Knodell, director of the White House security office, also could attend to discuss general security procedures, committee officials said.
