[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Pages 15297-15298]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    VALERIE PLAME LEAK INVESTIGATION

  Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, last week I noted here in the Senate that 
it has been almost a year since the identity of a covert CIA agent was 
revealed in print by a columnist, Robert Novak. It has now been 365 
days, 1 year, and yet we still don't know who blew her cover, who 
leaked her name, who in the NSC, National Security Council, CIA, gave 
this information to people in the White House. It is clear that Valerie 
Plame's cover was blown as part of an effort at that time to discredit 
and retaliate against critics of the administration, especially anyone 
who dared to suggest that some of the intelligence used to justify the 
war in Iraq was fraud or fabricated.
  If the administration were to try to continue this campaign of 
vengeance today, I suppose they would have to go after the entire 
Senate Intelligence Committee. I believe its report that it just put 
out verifies the fact that this was done in a vengeful manner.
  As we all know, Ms. Plame's husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, 
was sent by the CIA on a factfinding mission to Niger early in 2002 to 
examine claims that Saddam Hussein had sought to purchase uranium from 
Niger. Wilson said he found the claims lacked credibility. The 
Intelligence Committee report provides an interesting new perspective 
on these events. It indicates that in October of 2002, CIA Director 
Tenet called the Deputy National Security Adviser, Stephen Hadley, to 
express the CIA's serious concerns about references to uranium and 
Africa in a speech the President was going to give in Cincinnati.
  Guess what. The references were removed.
  Then in December of 2002, the State Department officials advised that 
the documents underlying the claim were likely forgeries. That is in 
December. However, the President comes before a

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joint session in January and says that the ``British Government has 
learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of 
uranium from Africa.''
  One thing that remains unclear throughout this series of events is 
exactly how and why the same NSC officials--National Security Council 
officials--who heard Director Tenet's concerns in October, who removed 
that language from the speech the President was giving in Cincinnati, 
who also knew the State Department in December had said these were 
probably forgeries, how did they allow this back into the State of the 
Union Message in January 2003?
  We still don't have a full picture of how the administration 
manipulated intelligence on Iraq. The Intelligence Committee report 
stops short of that inquiry. But it is clear that the intelligence 
community felt a great deal of pressure to conform its views to the 
administration's public characterizations of certainty about Iraqi 
production of weapons of mass destruction and Iraq's connections to 
terrorism.
  The minority views of the report note that former Director Tenet 
confirmed that agency staff raised with him the matter of ``repetitive 
tasking'' and the pressure that it created. The CIA ombudsman told the 
committee that he believed ``the `hammering' of the Bush administration 
on Iraq intelligence was harder than he had previously witnessed in his 
32-year career.''
  The minority views went on to say:

       By the time American troops had been deployed overseas and 
     were poised to attack Iraq, the administration had skillfully 
     manipulated and cowed the intelligence community into 
     approving public statements that conveyed a level of 
     conviction and certainty that was not supported by an 
     objective reading of the underlying intelligence reporting.

  That was the fundamental point that Ambassador Wilson made in his op-
ed in the New York Times: Intelligence was stretched to fit a 
predetermined course of action.
  One year later--365 days later--we still don't know who was involved 
in leaking this name and exposing a covert CIA agent. We don't know who 
gave this classified information to the leakers in the White House.
  The disclosure of Ms. Plame's identity was malicious and probably 
criminal. Mr. Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor, has been conducting a 
thorough investigation but with very little assistance from the person 
who could easily get to the bottom of it--the President of the United 
States.
  I believe the President has been too cavalier, too dismissive of the 
situation. He has made only one statement on this issue. Here is what 
he said:

       This is a town that likes to leak. I do not 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 is the President of the United States.
  Where is his outrage?
  What about the Vice President? We know he can be relentless when he 
is on a quest for information to justify the war in Iraq. Vice 
President Cheney personally journeyed to CIA headquarters repeatedly--I 
have heard up to eight or nine times--to meet directly with analysts on 
Iraq. I am further told that was unheard of before, that Vice 
Presidents have never done this before.
  Here is Vice President Cheney personally going to CIA headquarters 
across the river eight or nine times to sit down with analysts to tell 
them to get their story straight.
  Where is that kind of determination when it comes to finding the 
people who committed treasonous acts against this country and leaked 
Ms. Plame's identity?
  This administration has used the power of the Presidency to bend 
facts to fit predetermined views and then to suppress dissent.
  That is why so much rests on the outcome of Mr. Fitzgerald's 
investigation. We need to send a clear message to any President that 
sacrificing intelligence assets and breaching national security is 
wrong and it is against the law.
  We should be as vigorous and determined and unrelenting in finding 
these perpetrators, finding those who broke this law, finding those who 
undermined the security of our country as we are in going after any 
drug pusher or drug dealer anywhere in the United States.
  This President, President Bush--yes, President Bush--has got to come 
out and help the special prosecutor. Quit hiding behind executive 
privilege. Quit hiding behind the fact that this is a large 
administration, and maybe we will never find out who did it. It is time 
for the President to come clean, and for the Vice President to come 
clean; otherwise, I fear for the future of our intelligence community 
and what kind of freedom they will have to give correct analysis to 
future Presidents of the United States.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Burns). Who yields time?
  The Senator from Kentucky.

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