Plame never was an undercover "operative" ... and her stint at the CIA ended MORE THAN 10 YEARS AGO. 

This is just another attempt to lynch George Bush.

Demo-RATS and the MSM have repeated this pattern WEEK AFTER WEEK for almost 7 years now.

Liar! Liar!  Pants on fire! or, should I say, 'Plame's a flame'.

The media proves once again, a lie repeated enough time becomes the truth.

Dirty, rotten scoundrels.  What a sad joke. 

"He who has a thousand friends has not a friend to spare, and he who has one enemy will meet him everywhere"          -Ali ibn-Abi-Talib, 4th Islamic Caliph

Just like Plame's testimony, too, the Pink Pimpernel back there is a bit -- um -- suspicious. If you look between the fake blond wig and the flaming pink stuffed shirt, that's a notably male jawline. Transgendered, perhaps, or just cross-dressed for the occasion, but there's testosterone in that there mandible.

So the bottom line here is that Plame was lying?

I only heard a bit of today's testimony before the Committee on C-Span radio, but amidst all of the political posturing, the highlight for me was when a female Committee member proposed to Chairman Henry Waxman that the Committee subpoena Bob Novak, put him under oath, and ask him who leaked the named to him. (WHAT?)  Waxman, possibly disturbed that the Congresswoman had inadvertently diverted the inquisition away from its quest to Mt. Rove, reminded the Congresswoman that there was no need to ask Novak under oath whom the 'leak' was because we already know.

Duh!  Of course we know.  Just like Fitzgerald before he began his ruthless two year investigation to discover the identity of the man who had already admitted to it:  RICHARD ARMITAGE. 

This House investigation is indeed surreal.  The Fitzgerald investigation ended with one indictment and conviction on a crime --- perjury and obstruction of justice --- which occurred after Fitzgerald already knew who his guilty party was.  And now this House committee picks up where the exhaustive Fitzgerald inquisition ended with a fizzle, and carries on as if they don't know Armitage's confession.

It's transcended Orwell and is rushing headlong into Kafka. 

My reaction to hearing Plame's testimony was that it's no wonder the CIA couldn't connect any pre-9/11 dots; she sounds like a dolt. Are we to trust anything a "covert" agent says?

These kinds of congressional "dog and pony" shows are pathetic grandstanding and certainly don't help the democrats. 

Good lord, this is the real life Seinfeld show about nothing.  Can you say Asshattery?

HT:FA

The CIA desk jockey was asked to testify to Congress about a four year old story in which the Special Prosecutor found no crime, other then perjury unrelated to the crime he was investigating.  What should this tell us about the new leadership in Congress?

Former CIA officer Valerie Plame Wilson told a congressional committee Friday that she believes she was outed in 2003 for "purely political reasons."

Plame, whose outing triggered a federal investigation, said she always knew her identity could be discovered by foreign governments but said she was surprised to be identified by her own government.

"My name and identity were carelessly and recklessly abused by senior official in White House and State Department," Plame testified before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. "I could no longer perform the work for which I had been highly trained."

So her husband outed her for political reasons?  Richard Armitage outed her for political reasons?  Is this what she is saying?  Because we all know who did the outing, and I would have to agree, it was most definitely for political reasons.

It was done to bring down the Bush administration in 2004.  They crossed their fingers and threw everything they had at Bush in the hopes that Kerry would be the next President.  Thankfully the American people saw through their obvious ploys.

Oh, and take a look at this article by Walter Pincus at the WaPo.  Check out how he begins the thing:

She has been silent nearly four years.

Oh really?  So all the press releases, the book, the book signings, magazine interviews, etc...is staying silent?

As I have been known to say.....

No media bias here.

And take a look at these jaw droppers from The Corner:

Henry Waxman, who is chairing the hearing into the revelation of Valerie Plame Wilson's name, just quietly slipped in that "the President" was among the people who leaked her name. 

Plame included that line in her testimony a few minutes ago. A former CIA officer emails me: 

The covert status of CIA officers should not be known AT ALL to non-cleared persons or to ANY ONE on the "Georgetown cocktail circuit."

Will someone on the panel think to ask her to name those few on the Georgetown cocktail circuit who were aware of her covert status? And to ask how they became aware of that? From hints that she and Wilson provided, perhaps?

Valerie Plame Wilson has been testifying for an hour, and while it appears on a chart, the name of Richard Armitage — the actual person who actually leaked her identity to Robert Novak (and, a month earlier, to Bob Woodward) — has yet to be spoken. Scooter Libby's name? Ten times.

Valerie Plame Wilson complained that Dick Cheney — the elected vice president of the United States — made an "unprecedented number of visits" to the CIA in the run-up to the Iraq war. She's right. It's shocking. Evidently, Cheney actually listened to the CIA.

And this has to be the most hilarious words uttered by Plame in quite some time:

This is what Valerie Plame Wilson just said about her husband's trip: "I did not recommend him, I did not suggest him, I did not have the authority." An officer serving under her was upset to have received an inquiry from the vice president's office about yellowcake from Niger and evidently, while she was comforting that junior officer, some guy walked by her office and suggested her husband should go to Niger to check it out.

She said she was ambivalent about the idea because she didn't want to have to put her 2 year-old twins to bed by herself at night. Still, she and the guy who had just happened to walk by then went to her supervisor.

Supervisor: Well, when you go home this evening, would you ask your husband to come in.

Then her supervisor asked her to write an e-mail about the idea. She did so. That e-mail, she said, was the basis for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence claim that she had been responsible for sending her husband to Niger for the CIA.

In other words, she didn't recommend him or suggest him. Rather, it was a guy who walked by. 

Ok, now I have to say it.  I have interviewed many criminal suspects after committing a crime and this defense is a common one.  "it wasn't me you see....it was the other guy and I just happened to be standing at the cash register as he took the money out, you see?"

Oh, I'm not saying she is a criminal...I would never say that.

A CIA desk jockey actively working with a core group of intelligence agents to bring down the Presidents campaign for a second term isn't a crime......is it?

In other news, secret decoder rings were used at this hearing:

Valerie Plame, whose CIA career ended when columnist Robert Novak blew her cover in July 2003, today testifies before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee whose members will receive a special secret decoder ring so they can understand her without revealing sensitive intel in a public forum.

Ms. Plame (aka Valerie Wilson) lived such a secret life that when she and her husband, former ambassador Joe Wilson, appeared in a photo spread in Vanity Fair magazine, she was compelled by CIA covert spy protocol to wear dark sunglasses.

The former agent will speak in a top-secret cipher language. Committee members will break the encryption as she speaks using the secret decoder device.

At least the WaPo had a few unbiased nuggets in their otherwise horrible reporting:

"I did not recommend him. I did not suggest him. There was no nepotism involved. I did not have the authority," she said.

That conflicts with senior officials at the CIA and State Department, who testified during Libby's trial that Plame recommended Wilson for the trip.

She has really screwed herself over on this one. 

Question.  Was she sworn in today?

Oh, by the way, here is a blast from the past in the form of the Senate's Prewar Intelligence Report:

Some CPD officials could not recall how the office decided to contact the former ambassador, however, interviews and documents provided to the Committee indicate that his wife, a CPD employee, suggested his name for the trip. The CPD reports officer told Committee staff that the former ambassador's wife "offered up his name" and a memorandum to the Deputy Chief of the CPD on February 12, 2002, from the former ambassador's wife says, "my husband has good relations with both the PM [prime minister] and the former Minister of Mines (not to mention lots of French contacts), both of whom could possibly shed light on this sort of activity." This was just one day before CPD sent a cable REDACTED requesting concurrence with CPD's idea to send the former ambassador to Niger and requesting any additional information from the foreign government service on their uranium reports. The former ambassador's wife told Committee staff that when  CPD decided it would like to send the former ambassador to Niger, she  approached her husband on behalf of the CIA and told him "there's this crazy report" on a purported deal for Niger to sell uranium to Iraq.

The former ambassador had traveled previously to Niger on the CIA's behalf REDACTED. The former ambassador was selected for the 1999 trip after his wife mentioned to her supervisors that her husband was planning a business trip to Niger in the near future and might be willing to use his contacts in the region REDACTED. Because the former ambassador did not uncover any information about REDACTED during this visit to Niger, CPD did not distribute an intelligence report on the visit.

Woopsie...

And this testimony from Robert Grenier, a 27 year employee of the CIA, as reported by Outside The Beltway:

He called “Kevin” at the counter-proliferation division (the #2 guy) and neither he nor the chief were available. He talked to someone else and left a message for Kevin. He got a response “probably within a couple of hours.” It was from someone he did not know but was “fully knowledgeable about what had happened.” He got confirmation that CIA had sent Wilson to investigate Niger uranium and went into some detail about the mission. Conveyed that State, Office of VP, and Defense had all “expressed interest” in the issue.

That person “mentioned” that Wilson’s wife worked in the division and was the impetus behind the trip. “I am certain the individual did not tell me the name, only that it was Amb Wilson’s wife.”

Additionally we get this idiotic response from the desk jockey: (via Just One Minute)

Plame said she wasn't a lawyer and didn't know what her legal status was but said it shouldn't have mattered to the officials who learned her identity.

"They all knew that I worked with the CIA," Plame said. "They might not have known what my status was but that alone - the fact that I worked for the CIA - should have put up a red flag."

Which Tom Maguire takes apart:

She didn't know her legal status?  She's so covert that not even she knows if she is covert!  Oh, my - well, I don't know her status either.  Maybe they call her the wind.  (But they call the wind Maria...)

Headline: The Uranium Joe Wilson Didn't Mention
Dateline: Sunday, July 17, 2005
Source: NewsMax
Byline: Carl Limbacher

Headline: The Incredibles

Subheadline: The only debate about Joseph Wilson's credibility is the

one taking place at the Washington Post and the New York Times.

Source: Weekly Standard

Byline: Stephen F. Hayes

Dateline: October 25, 2005

Headline: Plame security breach? It just ain't so, Joe
Source: Chicago Sun-Times
Dateline: July 17, 2005
Byline: Mark Steyn

Headline: The White House, the CIA, and the Wilsons
Subheadline: The chain of events that gave rise to a grand jury investigation.
Dateline: 10/24/2005
Source: Weekly Standard
Byline: Stephen F. Hayes

Headline: Four Facts and Five Conclusions
Subheadline: What a week it's been in politics: Bad for
Democrats, bad for the Joe Wilson, and good for George W. Bush.
Dateline: 07/15/2004
Source: Weekly Standard
Byline: Hugh Hewitt

Headline: The Nine Lives of Joe Wilson's Reputation
Source: Weekly Standard
Dateline: July 25, 2005

Headline: Joe Wilson in a Bind
Source: The American Spectator
Dateline: October 31, 2005
Byline: Clinton W. Taylor

Headline: Plamegate's Real Liar
Source: LA Times
Byline: Max Boot
Dateline: November 2, 2005

Headline: Patrick Fitzgerald Ignored Witnesses Who Contradicted Wilson
Date: Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2005
Source: NewsMax

Headline: The Plame kerfuffle illustrates the CIA's sloppiness
By: Reuel Marc Gerecht
Date: November 9, 2005
Source: The Wall Street Journal

Headline: Joe Wilson's Credibility Problem

Dateline: July 15, 2005

Byline: Joel Mowbray

Source: FrontPageMagazine.com

Patrick Fitzgerald: Leakgate Filing was False

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/4/12/94619.shtml

On Wednesday, Wayne Simmons, a 27-year veteran at the CIA, told Fox News Radio: 'As most people now know, (Plame) was traipsed all over Washington many years ago by Joe Wilson and introduced at embassies and other parties as 'my CIA wife.' Last week, Maj. Gen. Paul Vallely told WABC Radio's John Batchelor that during a 2002 conversation with Wilson while the two waited to appear on a TV show, Wilson casually mentioned that his wife worked at 'the Agency.' In Oct. 2003, NBC's diplomatic correspondent, Andrea Mitchell, told CNBC that Plame's occupation 'was widely known among those of us who cover the intelligence community and who were actively engaged in trying to track down who among the foreign service community was the envoy to Niger.' Mitchell added: 'So a number of us began to pick up on that.' And in Sept. 2003, NationalReviewOnline's Cliff May wrote that when Plame's CIA connection was mentioned in Novak's column - 'That wasn't news to me.'

"'I had been told that (Plame was CIA) - but not by anyone working in the White House. Rather, I learned it from someone who formerly worked in the government and he mentioned it in an offhand manner, leading me to infer it was something that insiders were well aware of.' The day his report appeared, May told the Fox News Channel's John Gibson: 'I knew this, and a lot of other people knew it.' In fact, rumors now swirl around Washington that Plame used to take her friends to lunch at the CIA's cafeteria. So what has Mr.Fitzgerald - who was hailed as a 'prosecutor's prosecutor' only weeks ago - done with the avalanche of testimony that contradicts his stated claim that Plame's job 'was not widely known'? Apparently nothing. In the six days since he's gone public, Gen. Vallely says prosecutors have yet to contact him." He was on Hannity & Colmes last night, and Colmes said to him, "Did Ambassador Joe Wilson expose his wife himself? That's exactly what our next guest says. Joining us now in an exclusive interview that you're not going to see anyplace else, Fox News military analyst and retired Major General Paul Vallely, who says that Wilson told him that Valerie Plame was a CIA agent in 2002. General, where did this happen?"  VALLELY: Joe Wilson and I met in Washington in the greenroom of the bureau there for Fox. Met several times in 2002, and as we talked about our families, he did not say that she was an agent, only that she was employed by the agency, and as we since learned, she is in fact and has been an analyst in Washington for a number of years. So that basically is how we met and how we discussed that.

Of course these are only a few representations of the lies Wilson spewed, just not enough room to post all of them.  You may be asking why there are none from the MSM, well that’s an easy one, they never report this because their golden boy was a hack and to report his deceit would take away their ability to attack the WH and the administration.  Some very interesting reading of the Senate Committee results and findings of Wilson and his lies.

"Stupid should hurt"

What's the point of this thread? Where is the bias? They reported on the committee hearing. Is the subject of the hearing what bothers you? If so, then post that. They reported who was there, who said what, and provided quotes. Help me to understand what I'm missing.

And here's the timesaver again...

"WhichWing is a silly liberal."

EDIT: OOPS!!! Other than managing to get in the girl with the "Impeach Bush" t-shirt. I'll give you that much.

Rush had a good observation concerning Plame's opening comments:

She also said something else very interesting or curious to me. She made it a point in her opening statement to say, “My covert status was not widely known on the Georgetown cocktail circuit.” Was not widely known? That means it was narrowly known? It was partially known? I would think if you're a CIA covert agent, no one would know. Yet her own husband listed her in Who's Who. There are any number of people in the Washington cocktail circuit who did know, and that's what I would like to know. She's going to say she wasn't "widely known" as a covert agent on the cocktail circuit. Somebody ask her, “Well, who did know?”

It's clear that this woman was not a "covert" CIA operative.  But it sure sounds like she and that idiot husband of hers wanted to be. The truth has a way of seeping out. 

Mr. Baker - the one thing not covered in the entire Plame affair.

If Valarie Plame is an example of a CIA Intelligence Analyst working full time at the desk of the Proliferation of WMDs, then how in the world could anyone believe anything the CIA reports?

This woman is obviously incompetent.  My question goes to the heart of the CIA's failures of intelligence gathering and analysis.  We know the lack of human intelligence on the ground was a contributing factor to intelligence failures in the Middle East and with the Terrorists.  That fact has been documented.

But, when the intelligence is found or reported it is the analyst who reviews it and interprets the data.

Valarie Plame was an analyst?

Aside from the issues of 'covert' versus 'classified' versus 'undercover', if this is the quality of the CIA employee paraded in public; I have grave doubts about the reformation of the agency into a serious intelligence body.

I've had experience with the CIA people in my past lives.  I wasn't generally impressed with the information provided but there were a few times it made sense and actually helped.  The problem with the CIA is the people; not the idea.

My gosh.

ACA

...

Quoted from:  'Acaiguana Notes from the Bomb Shelter' (soon to be a movie at theaters near you)

There are many events leading up to the exposure of her name that should have been avoided if the CIA really was intent on keeping her identity a secret.

1. Her name should not have been in Who's Who.

2. They should not have sent her husband (a political figure) on an assignment from her section of the CIA. There are other options available to the CIA to get similar information.

3. Her husband should not have published a signed opinion piece about the assignment that originated in her section of the CIA. I'm not saying he has no right to free speech. Just that he and the CIA should have considered the consequences of that act on her secret identity - if the secret identity was important to the CIA.

4. Her husband should not have lied - repeatedly - in the piece and afterwards. He didn't think the administration would know the truth and push back against the lies?

5. Remember the CIA's lukewarm request for Novak to not publish her name? It was something like 'we would prefer that you don't' rather than 'it's a federal crime to reveal her name.'

"...not widely known on the Georgetown cocktail circuit." This is the ultimate close to the silliest matter that  has ever received this much news coverage.