PLAME'S TESTIMONY. Valerie Plame Wilson made an impressive appearance before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee this morning. The Democrats were clearly trying to put to rest the notion that Plame was not under cover at the CIA when numerous administration officials leaked her identity to reporters in summer 2003. We learned both from Rep. Henry Waxman's relaying of information cleared by the CIA and from Wilson herself that she undertook secret work overseas in the period shortly before her outing. The likes of Republican operative Victoria Toensing, who is set to testify later today, and others have sought to cast doubt on Plame's status in order to question the very possibility of a crime in outing her. There was one very important factual matter that Plame cleared up. Emphasizing that she was under oath, she explained that she neither authorized, recommended nor suggested her husband for his mission to Niger. She undermined several key claims that we have heard from the right both about her role -- and the role of the Office of the Vice President -- in her husband's mission. On February 12, 2002, one of Plame's subordinates at the Counterproliferation Division (CPD) of the CIA got a call from Cheney's office inquiring about a previous intelligence report about Iraqi pursuit of uranium in Niger. The subordinate reported the call to Plame, and one of her coworkers, hearing what was going on, suggested that Plame's husband, Joe Wilson, be sent on a mission. Valerie's superior asked her to ask her husband to come in to discuss the possibility the following week, and to write up an email or a memo memorializing the matter. This is significant for two reasons. First, the fact that OVP got in touch with CPD on February 12 means that in fact OVP's inquiry is what triggered CPD to come up with the idea of Wilson's mission and send him on it. This had been called into question by a piece of evidence entered at Libby's trial, and seizedupon by conservative writers like Byron York, which appeared to show that OVP tasked the CIA with its Niger questions only on February 13, the following day. If that were the case, it would mean that the idea of sending Wilson on his mission preceded the inquiry from the OVP. In fact, though, York and others are wrong. It turns out that Plame's unit knew about the interest from the OVP the day before. Second, Plame's account contradicts the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence report's claim that she suggested her husband for the mission. To draw its conclusion, the SSCI misunderstood her February 12 email. The email was not Plame suggesting or recommending her husband, but simply a memo at her superior's suggestion. Plame gave this account to the SSCI, but the report failed to include the level of detail she gave today. The SSCI also was silent on the fact that OVP contacted CPD directly on February 12. This has ramifications beyond the public controversy over Plame. Josh Marshall puts it bluntly and accurately: "The section of the report dealing with Niger, Wilson and Plame is simply a tissue of lies. It's a shame on the Democrats who served on the committee who got gamed into approving it." --Jeff Lomonaco
