[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 102 (Wednesday, July 21, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8499-S8500]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           LEAK INVESTIGATION

  Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, it has now been 1 year and 1 week, 1 year 
and 7 days since senior White House officials leaked the identity of a 
clandestine officer of the CIA, Valerie Plame, to Washington 
journalists. According to the Washington Post, there were two senior 
White House officials who called a number of reporters--at last count, 
maybe six--to reveal the name of Valerie Plame as being a covert CIA 
agent. Of course, only one reporter sought to publish that--was Mr. 
Novak--in one of his columns.
  This criminal act was a brazen act of revenge and retaliation to 
punish Ms. Plame's husband, who dared to question one of the 
administration's key justifications for invading Iraq.
  One year and 7 days and nothing has been done, nothing.
  Here is what the White House had to say yesterday, July 20. Deputy 
Attorney General James Comey said:

       We take issues of classified information very, very 
     seriously. As you know, we have prosecuted or sought 
     administrative sanctions against any number of people 
     throughout the years for mishandling of classified 
     information.

  Say again? After they exposed Valerie Plame, what happened? It took 6 
months from the time of the leak of the Plame matter for Attorney 
General Ashcroft to recuse himself. Not until December 30 was a special 
prosecutor appointed. The President and Vice President have never 
appeared to take this leaking of her name and her identity very 
seriously--or even seriously.

  In his only public statement about this leak, here is what the 
President said:

       I don't know if we are going to find out the senior 
     administration official. Now, this is a large administration, 
     and there's a lot of senior officials. I don't have any idea.

  That was George W. Bush, October 7, 2003.
  If you look at the video of this, he is smiling when he says it. He 
has kind of a smirk on his face. Does that sound like a matter being 
taken very seriously? One year and 1 week later we are still awaiting 
any sign that prosecutions or even sanctions will be brought against 
anyone in this matter.
  This dismissive attitude on the part of the President and the Vice 
President is not acceptable. We are not talking about a Washington game 
of gotcha. We are talking about a calculated act of betrayal and 
treachery against our Nation. A clandestine officer of the CIA was 
brazenly exposed by a couple of senior White House officials who 
somehow got access to this information. Who gave them access? Who in 
the CIA or the National Security Council gave her name to these White 
House officials? How did they come by it? She was a very deep 
undercover agent.
  This betrayal has real consequences in terms of the national security 
of the United States. This single act by the White House has undermined 
the clandestine capabilities of the CIA. It has damaged our national 
security. It has weakened our country. In this respect, the Valerie 
Plame incident fits a much broader pattern, a pattern of actions by 
this administration that have made our Nation weaker, less secure, more 
vulnerable to terrorist attacks.
  Don't take my word for it, take the word of some former CIA people. 
Here is Larry Johnson, former CIA analyst and State Department 
employee:

       For this administration to run on a security platform and 
     allow people in the administration to compromise the security 
     of intelligence assets, I think is unconscionable.

  And here is James Marcinkowski, former CIA operations officer:

       The deliberate exposure and identification of Ambassador 
     Wilson's wife, by our government, was unprecedented, 
     unnecessary, harmful and dangerous.

  Yes, the leaking of Valerie Plame's name weakened our country, made 
us less secure, more vulnerable to future attacks.
  Almost 4 years ago, when President Bush was running for election, he 
went around the country raising his right hand, saying I swear to 
restore honesty and integrity to the White House.
  It is time for Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney to raise their right hands 
again and to take an oath to tell the truth, the whole truth, and 
nothing but the truth regarding the Valerie Plame incident and what 
they know and what they have done to find out who exposed her name.
  We had an example of this a few years ago when a President of the 
United States was put under oath and was filmed. We sat in the Senate 
and we looked at that film on video monitors during the impeachment of 
former President Bill Clinton. Regardless of how you felt about the 
impeachment, whether you thought it was good

[[Page S8500]]

or bad or what, the fact that the President of the United States was 
put under oath sent a clear message to the people of this country. No 
President is above the law, neither then nor now. It is time for this 
President and this Vice President to be put under oath. What happened 1 
year and 7 days ago is unconscionable, unprecedented, harmful, 
dangerous to the security of our country.

  The President of the United States could have solved this in 24 hours 
by calling in every one of his top senior officials, have them sign a 
piece of paper, have them swear under oath that they did not do this 
and had nothing to do with this. We could have solved it in 24 hours, 
but the President of the United States dismissed this. He sort of pooh-
poohed the whole thing, smiled about it, and said, I don't think we 
will catch whoever did this.
  Where is the sense of outrage by this President and Vice President 
that two senior officials would so brazenly, with such calculation, 
expose the cover, expose the person in the CIA with assets around the 
world, giving human intelligence to our CIA which we need so 
desperately in our war against terrorism.
  I task the Senate this morning, as I will every day, to call upon the 
President and the Vice President and to call upon the special 
prosecutor to put the President and Vice President under oath. If this 
is not resolved, America will become weaker, less secure, and more 
vulnerable. We cannot allow that to happen to this country.
  The people who exposed Valerie Plame are guilty of violating a law 
and they should be punished to the full extent of that law. That sends 
the signal to any other administration, be it Democrat or Republican, 
that this kind of treachery, this kind of violation of our laws, will 
not be permitted under any administration.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Nevada.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, how much time do we have remaining on our 
side?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. There is 11 minutes remaining.

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