[From the diaries by susanhu.] Live on C-SPAN 3 at 10 am ET:
Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) and Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) co-chair a meeting on the national security implicatings [sic] of disclosing a covert agent’s identity. Former intelligence agents participate in the meeting, co-sponsored by the Sen. Democratic Policy Committee and Democratic members of the House Gov. Reform Committee.
Hopefully, this time the Dems have been given a larger room than they had when Conyers gathered people to meet about the DSM.
Henry Waxman’s site has an extensive chronology of events about the outing of Valerie Plame’s identity.
Attendees:
Congresspeople: Along with Rep. Waxman and Senator Dorgan, Harry Reid (D-NV), Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ), Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY), Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA), other house and senate members will appear.
Witnesses:
W. Patrick Lang – former Defense Intelligence officer for the Defense Intelligence Agency
Larry Johnson – former CIA analyst
Jim Marcinkowski – former CIA case officer
David McMichael – former CIA case officer
Mel Goodman – former senior CIA analyst
Please don’t post pics since they slow down load times. Thanks.
Welcome! If you’ve never joined us as we watch a live discussion before, you’ll see a few of us furiously transcribing testimony and adding our always insightful, witty, and intelligent commentary (cuz we’re special) – along with some moans, groans and outrage along the way. Just jump right in and join us.
THANK YOU !
Also: I heard on INN World Report that today there’s a full-day discussion in D.C. on the 9/11 report.
Right. I heard a blurb about that yesterday. A lot of important things are happening behind the scenes that are just not getting much media air time, unfortunately.
(I have sore, blistered hands today. I was out digging up actual dirt outside yesterday. So much dirt – real and political…so little me.) 🙂
You mustn’t do that. Your hands are too precious and must be saved for blogging only.
I will keep that in mind! 🙂
Thanks for this. I don’t get CSpan3 and don’t know if Cspan 1 or 2 will re-broadcast the hearing. Of course it ourght to be covered by CNN or MsNBC but they’re obsessing over London and the alleged shooting of a SB, so fat chance of that.
They usually do rebroadcasts. It should be up on C-SPAN’s site sometime today. Crooks and Liars or DEMbloggers might have it as well.
My key:
[…] – summary of testimony presented
(…) – my commentary
no brackets – actual quotes by speakers
_______
Dorgan, Schumer and Waxman will begin with their opening statements.
I don’t understand.
Okay. When I transcribe, if I don’t use any brackets that means I’m writing (as closely as possible) the speaker’s actual words. If I use square brackets, I’m summarizing what they said (not actual quotes) and I throw in my personal commentary in round brackets. So, it goes something like this – usually:
Waxman: it is the job of special prosecutor Fitzgerald to determine whether and actual crime was committed…[the WH has gone silent and isn’t taking investigatory actions]…blatant failure on the part of the WH (what else is new?)
Schumer: Andrew Card must begin a new investigation in the WH.
(What did his FIRST investigation conclude?)
Are we going to have Benedict Arnold’s royalist wife investigate Benedict Arnold?
What’s the matter with Schumer? CONGRESS MUST investigate the entire Bush Administration on this.
They’re in an honest-to-goodness committee hearing room. Green tablecloth on the witnesses’ table and all. We should keep an eye out for members having to leave for votes every now & then; I’ll be interested to see if the Repub. leadership “coincidentally” schedules lots of floor votes.
Glad they got an actual hearing room! 🙂
Are there are scheduled votes happening today or are they just going to pull stuff outta their butts?
Looks like the House is debating the NASA reauthorization this morning, while the Senate is taking up the Defense authorization. Another flurry of floor votes would be highly unusual.
Dorgan: this is not a “political spat”.
Schumer:…dastardly crime…[emphasized that this is not a political matter as well]…
Waxman: [providing a brief history of time a la leak]
(yay!)
I don’t think we need many more opening statements (adds his statement to the record)…the only thing I would add is that 90 members of the congress joined with me on my letter to the president on July 14th…to urge the presidenbt to require that Karl Rove come forward immediately to explain [his role]…
George W Bush campaigned on restoring dignity to the WH…striking form of relativism [in the WH]…transparency has eroded in the last 5 years…closed door meetings…[lack of accountability]…[mentions Gitmo, Abu Ghraib, DSM and payola propaganda scandals]…(going through a bit of the history)…[mentions the memo ending up on AF One and mentions Ari Fleischer possibly having access to it as well]…given that so many of the president’s men had access to the memo:
We will not get the answers to these questions today…this is a compromise of national security at a time of war…[brings up Bush’s promise to fire anyone involved in the leak but last week Bush took back that promise]…abysmally low ethical threshhold [in the WH]…despite the gravity of these incidents we have failed to [get] accountability from the WH…America deserves more than ‘no comment’…
Nobody died in Watergate and over 1700 of our [sons and daughters have died in the Iraq war]…
Inslee made a strong statement but I missed transcribing the rest of it.
He’s a great young man. Many people who know him up close wish he’d run for president someday.
Well, I do still wonder about the plane crash that killed Howard Hunt’s wife . . . and what really happened to Martha Mitchell?
But nothin’ compared to my students who have died in this war.
LARRY!
the people is this group [represent all parties – all politics]…[introducing Col Lang to start the testimony]…[witness Marcinkowski used to be a pres of a Young Republicans group]…
[this isn’t personal – it’s professional]
what has happened here is an assualt on the ability of the United States to do that [act covertly to aid in intelligence gathering]…it’s all about…it’s completely about trust…[describing the seriousness of this trust relationship]…the obligation to protect this person is absolute – not only morally (cat jumping on my keyboard – grr)…community of the well-informed…our former Soviet oponents are a good example of the fact that you have to do this the right way…they never gave away an agent…they knew that if the word got out – their sources of recruitment would dry up and go away…
when you have an incident like this [where the identity of a covert officer is given up trivially – the word gets out around the world]…
I wouldn’t be here this morning [if Bush had done his job to uphold the constitution and had taken action on this]..I see a group of mostly men ganging up on one woman..basically bullies..and when I see bullies, I get involved…
I didn’t really know her as Valerie Plame, I knew her as Valerie P…that’s how serious it was [to protect agents’ identities]…leaked her name for petty, trivial, political reasons…[neither Valerie nor Joe Wilson asked me to speak on their behalf here]…when I left the CIA in 1989 [only then was my cover allowed to be lifted]…she went from official to non-official cover [no protection from the US gov’t exposing an agent to execution at worst since they aren’t protected]…[chastising Hatch, who wrote his reco letter getting him into the CIA in the first place, for being out in the media trivializing this issue]…
we’re told that Valerie was just a “desk jockey”…it is that expression by people on intelligence committees who [showing gross ignorance – makes you wonder if they understand the community]…
[commenting about Plame’s supposed role in setting up her husband to go on the Niger trip – thinks i’s laughable]…[describing the process for choosing someone to go on such a trip]..she’s not a manager…she has no authporization to spend taxpayer money…it was up to a boss…
back in 2000 I voted for G Bush because I was tired of wondering what the definition os “is” was…[wanted stronger ethical standards]…so where are we?…{describes Bush’s lack of action in this matter]…this is wrong and this should stop [political operatives going around and smearing]…I fear [something about people not knowing what the definition of ‘leak’ is]…when we’re at war…we cannot expend our energies [smearing] people like Valerie and Joe Wilson…
I cannot even begin to put into words how much I admire larry Johnson. Honest to God folks, I am crying I am so GD proud of him.
And he is so humble. I wrote him yesterday that he is my hero and what he is doing is the highest form of Patriotism. He wrote back three little words. “Thanks. I try”. What a magnificent human being and from a republican no less…lol!
He sure is a straight talker. Good for him for being out there fighting on this issue.
You have a big crush on him. Did you ge to ask him that question you had yesterday?
Looking at 2 different things:
The US gov’t exposed the identity of a covert agent…equally disastrous from that first wound is [the WH playing games with that trust]…no counrty, gov’t, drug ring likes to be infiltrated…to operate a ruse you need cover…the degree of cover depends on the operation [example of drug cover operation]…when you see the criticisms as a paper pusher, as a desk jockey, however they want to slander her, it’s irrelevant…
no matter what [you must protect the cover]…case officer must maintain his cover [so he doesn’t expose the people that he’s working for]…if the informant is exposed, the CIA officer is exposed [ripple effect]…the exposuer of Valerie of Valerie Plame by anyone [is the same as exposing an undercover drug agent] (which is what catnip said the other day – it’s not complicated!)…
what has suffered long term is the credibility of [the US intel community]…simply unforgivable…(he’s a lawyer, so he’s commenting on the long investigatory process and how it continues to damage the workings of the intel community)…[iow, this needs to be settled clearly so people around the world who might be informants will know whether they will be protected]…the legal niceties don’t count…(good point there)
I believe Bob Novak when he credited senior admin officials [as sources of the leak] and I believe [that possible agents around the world are paying attention to what’s going on here]…prime time patriots and partisan ninnies…playing partisan politics with the degree of cover [affects intel around the world]…distracting minutae…non-responsibility means ‘we don’t care’…before you shine up your American flag and your American flag lapel pin on your sleeve, think about [the ramifications] of your words…
[chastising the WH for not taking responsibility]…we have not lessened but increased the threat to [US security] as a result…
Trust is essential and truth is essential…[referring to the law defining covert operations decided in 1991]…there is an element of untruth involved in many [undercover] operations relating to plausible deniability…I would emphasize that the responsibility is to work to present the truth and not to alow this sytem to be used…to use this system to conceal the truth from the American people (IOW, intel operations require untruths, but the exposure of what happened here is about finding the truth about the leak)…
The Q & A session was briefly interrupted by mumblings about a possible evacuation of the Hart Bldg (someone pulled a fire alarm?)…
Where’s Rove? I wouldn’t put it past him to have someone pull the alarm to end this hearing.
My first thought was Mehlman. He sure is looking pasty lately. 🙂
Any cubicle dwellers out there who still require transcription? I’m taking a little break here…
These guys are DAMNING the Bush White House.
Man! I hope the MSM covers these agents. The actions and inactions of the Bush White House are treasonous in nature if not by the letter of the law.
MacMichael made a comment that might end up being a comedy show soundbite – that if “Oopsie the Clown” was doing something stupid in his office, he would be reprimanded (or something like that…). Is that someone’s cover name at the CIA? lol
Louise Slaughter “Then I frankly see no way out for them.”
… in regard to Rove, Libby, and the White House giving out classified information.
Slaughter saying that if special prosecutor just comes up with Perjury that it is not enough to cover what has happened here.
Beyond all of the political machinations surrounding this leak, today’s most important soundbite revolves around how incredibly important it is that this investigation be concluded ASAP in order to give the world community a strong message about how covert agents must be protected in order to 1) secure further informants who may presently be concerned about their own identities being leaked in the future, thus jeopardizing their personal safety 2) assure current agents that they are also protected – without reservation.
On a larger scale as well, and what most Americans would probably respond to because it’s very simple – the security of the nation is at stake because when covert agents are exposed, their intel networks break down. Thus, they may be unable to infiltrate networks that are planning possible terrorist actions in the country and around the world. It really is that simple.
The message is that the WH must do everything possible immediately to deal with this leak in order to secure the intel community and Americans. The longer the WH and Fitzgerald take, the more damage is done to the integrity of the intel community and the more at risk you are.
When Watergate was being investigated by the FBI, which was complicit in the coverup at the time, there really was nowehere for anyone like Deep Throat to go to uncover the real crimes.
With Plamegate, the intel community is being stonewalled by the WH which ought to be its prime protector.
(just my observation – not from the testimony)
They are struggling over saying that the disclosure ought to be treated as treason. What should be done is the question? How should the people responsible be treated in order to ensure this does not happen again?
The answer is very simple. This disclosure is severe enough in it’s nature that we ought to throw the book at the perpetrator. The book in this case is a charge of treason.
I think if Rove, Libby, and Cheney were charged, tried, and convicted of treason in this case we would not have to worry about subsequent White House administrations and political operatives ever doing this again.
Absolutely. The global reach of this issue and its very dire consequences demand the most serious charge possible.
Waxman: can you be sitting at a desk and be a covert agent?
Johnson: of course you can – I was.
(Take that Republican smearmongers.)
Crap…gotta go to work. Will sign on when I get there to keep up with your good work here Catnip and friends. Bye
Waxman asks if the assertion that Rove simply confirmed Plame’s status violates the law.
Johnson answered that the law covers “any information” provided regarding the identity of a covert agent. In his opinion, a confirmation would fall under that statute as well.
The RNC talking points are obviously falling on their face.
The non-disclosure agreement everyone… including the President… signs covers that explicitly. You are not allowed to confirm classified information even if it is presented to you.
Rove had also disclosed to Cooper that a declassified report was coming out regarding Wilson’s claims and told him the summary. So, there you go. Even beyond the Plame leak, he’s already guilty.
I meant to write that Rove leaked the info in a classified report, which was to be declassified…
Thank you, catnip, for another outstanding LIVE Blogging performance. Hear the applause, the cheers, the full-throated calls of Bravo! Catnip! Bravo!
Thanks. 🙂
I think at the end of the meeting when Waxman showed Bush I and his statement of the CIA and anyone who outright outs an agent the last two words said it all…flagerent treasonious…or something to that affect. This was such an important hearing! Do you think this was to set the standards for impeachment proceedings?
Hope your fingers aren’t too bloody.
And I hope this reaired later on C-SPAN. If anyone spots it, send me a fast e-mail, and I’ll post a notice about it being on.
Ditto to you Catnip from Leezy. You always do an exceptional job. You are the “cat’s meow”…lol!
thanks catnip!