[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 44 (Thursday, April 14, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H1972-H1973]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               ACCOUNTABILITY IN THE VALERIE PLAME MATTER

  (Mr. HOLT asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. HOLT. Mr. Speaker, nearly 2 years after a columnist disclosed the 
identity of a CIA employee, the White House and the Department of 
Justice have yet to find and hold accountable

[[Page H1973]]

the person or persons who leaked her name to the press.
  We know that at least one, and possibly more, executive branch 
officials violated their oaths to protect classified information and, 
in doing so, they squandered an important intelligence asset and may 
have jeopardized the lives of people with whom she has been in contact. 
American security was harmed.
  Some have offered weak excuses for the disclosure, saying the 
person's identity was already known or her work was not really 
important. Those are outrageous excuses. More troubling still is the 
fact that this was leaked in the context of a political vendetta. 
According to published reports, the leaker was trying to discredit 
former ambassador Joe Wilson, who was disputing the administration's 
assertions that Saddam was trying to unleash weapons of mass 
destruction on the United States. Of course, we now know Wilson was 
right.
  As President George Herbert Walker Bush stated in a speech to CIA 
employees a few years ago, ``Those who leak the identity of 
intelligence operatives are the most insidious of traders.'' What does 
it say about the ethics and responsibilities of this body and the 
administration that attempts to find this person have been so anemic?

                          ____________________