This will be a bitter pill for some conservatives to swallow. CIA Director Michael Hayden personally reviewed and okayed Henry Waxman's opening statement for Valerie Plame's testimony today. Furthermore, Hayden took pains to set the record straight: Plame was indeed a covert agent up until the day Robert Novak revealed as much to the public. You see, many on the right (including some here at The Stump) have spent a lot of time trying to convince us otherwise. They never fail to use quotation marks when referring to the administration's "outing" of Plame so as to suggest that no such undercover status ever existed. While Patrick Fitzgerald may not have believed he had enough evidence to prove that a crime was committed, there was really never much doubt that Plame had covert status.
In fact, Plame's testimony proved illuminating on a number of fronts. Under oath, articulate, and forceful, she laid to waste a veritable forest of myths that the right has erected against her. No, she wasn't a mere pencil pusher, she'd undertaken undercover missions to foreign countries over the past five years. No, she hadn't been the one to select her husband to go to on his fact-finding mission to Niger. No, she didn't talk to Nicholas Kristof (or others in the media) about her job at the CIA. But most importantly, in the words of the man who now heads the CIA, she was very much a covert agent.
Reader Comments ( Page 5 of 11)
61. if she is a covert agent why in the world is she on National television, which is broadcast WORLDWIDE and admitting it. Would this not be a case of the "stupids"! Not to mention putting her own life in danger as well as those around her for pissing in the wind publicly.
opey97 at 3:59PM on Mar 16th 2007
62. The only time Ms. Plame was covert was the day she posed for the VANITY FAIR photo shoot........this husband and wife team are really suspect. More like wanabees...........why is this thing STILL NEWS? Move-On.Org.
D.ann at 3:59PM on Mar 16th 2007
63. What a joke. Plame and her pathological liar husband, Joe Wilson, attempt to engage in the political destruction of the administration, concoct a plan to show Saddam wasn't working on nukes, (even though he knew Saddam was). Wilson lied and the NY Times printed his lies, and now Plame cries foul. Plame wasn't outed, and wasn't covert. Typical hypocrisy of Demoncrats and liberals. If you can't take punch, don't throw one. Libby's innocent. As Lisa Myers of NBC has said, "It was common knowledge that Plame was CIA." What dirtbags. These people are a disgrace.
Tim Buck at 4:59PM on Mar 16th 2007
64. OK Plame was a "covert" agent -- uh, passively passing details of cocktail party chat with her husbands' diplomat friends in Niger - I can tell you with certainty that Plame was as covert as any state department employee working in an embassy overseas - they're all "covert" and all pass information to the CIA - every embassy is a CIA outpost -- so the fact is Plame was an "agent" - true. But who is really to blame for her outing??? Bush, Cheney, are you kidding me? And if you think her outing is putting anyone, including herself or her husband or their friends at risk you're foolish. For the record, any foreigner who hangs out with Diplomats and their wives KNOWS VERY WELL what they do with the information they share with them. If you've never travelled overseas then you may be naive enough to believe this story. But I assure you no one is at risk in this entire saga.
Guess we should get used to this - the Dems are in and its gonna be nothing but revenge tit for tat games for the next four years minimum. This whole Libby attack story is a revenge attack for the Ken Starr council on Clinton's purgery - I mean truth - to the American people -- oh, meanwhile Al Qaida and our enemies will continue to get stronger -- and these sideshows only distract us from what we should really be doing.
Maxx808 at 4:19PM on Mar 16th 2007
65. The word is out that both Valerie and her husband found publishers for their books, so they can walk away from all of this smiling.
I guess letting Scooter Libby take the brunt of all this is OK with them.
I would like to know what is covert about a person who shows up to work every day at the CIA building?
Ruth Morse at 4:25PM on Mar 16th 2007
66. The whole Plame affair is a bunch of CRAP.
David Schwartz at 4:51PM on Mar 16th 2007
67. This lady was outed by the State Dept. not the Whitehouse, I thought that was pretty much an acknowledged fact. She is also married to one of the most well know liars in Washington,D.C. and that has to be a real job getting to the top of the lair list in D.C.. It's high time that the Washington crowd begin work on the people's business and cut this political crap that they have been working on full time. If there was ever a time when the need for term limits was more apparent, I can't recall the time.
philbo620r at 4:15PM on Mar 16th 2007
68. What a big sham this whole thing is. Why are so many people ignorant about who the CIA works. They recruit just about every corporate executive, alongwith half the diplomatic corps to conduct spying/collect intelligence and information for them. The term "Covert Agent" is used by every newspaper/peson/journalist to just about everybody with a CIA connection. Having spent 32 years in intelligence I can tell you the lady was just in a long line of regular, but highly placed citizens the "Company" ask to collect information for them overseas, and sometimes ask for help recuiting the real spys, who are 99% foreigners working for us. James Bond does not exist. This is all hype being played on both sides. Intelligece community people should know the truth about so-called agents for CIA. Just too Hollywood for the truth.
Terry at 4:18PM on Mar 16th 2007
69. She was not supposed to look Middle Eastern. Her cover involved working for a supposed U.S. Contacting Company called Brewster Jennings. She was most definitely a covert agent and deliberately exposing her cover cannot be excused.
Mike at 4:22PM on Mar 16th 2007
70. How dumb are the people who think she was a covert CIA agent working in VA. If she did not recomend her husband, why did he originally say in was VP Cheney who sent him to Niger? It was no one in the Bush administration who gave her name to Novak. It Armitage who hates the Bush administration. That was why the investigation went no further.
Felix Susi at 4:27PM on Mar 16th 2007
71. Covert agents don't go to the office every day as Ms. Plame did. But since she did, her employment By CIA would have been known by many people including the agencies of many countries. Something doesn't smell right.
Dave Herrmann at 11:42AM on Mar 17th 2007
72. I am disappointed Prosecutor Fitzpatrick did not bring charges against Robert Novak for refusing to name the one who dropped Plame's name to him, then had the audacity to write about her. Wouldn't this have saved the taxpayers money. Of Course, I despise Novak...the biggest Republican of all, who saw early the disasterous effects of Bush's wars, but upheld him and still does, but cautiously, now.
Ann Richard at 4:43PM on Mar 19th 2007
73. For anyone to reveal the identity of a covert CIA agent regardless of their position and/or tittle is committing a crime against our constitution and is an enemy of our country. That is treason, and if the trail leads to Rove, Cheny, and/or Bush, charges should be filed, tried, and executed for high treason if found guilty!
Fritz1 at 4:33PM on Mar 16th 2007
74. Kathy, Gary and Pat C --
You all clearly have never travelled the world, worked for the government or known anyone who did. So please don't share your opinions about things you clearly have no knowledge of - I mean you don't even come close here. If you had any remote or even slight knowledge of how the world works, you'd know this is BS. But why do you need to have any knowledge about anything to have an opinion right? You can just read BS articles, read the news, and other liberal jargain and do it right in your sweet comfortable home. Heck, who needs the truth when you can just watch TV and feed your anti Republican agenda. I mean, you don't even come CLOSE to seeing what's going on here. Having an opinion does not make you informed on the issues. You three are living examples of how STUPID PEOPLE should not BREED.
Maxx808 at 4:38PM on Mar 16th 2007
75. Those who seem to be belittling what Valerie Plame was and who are the most upset that she has testified before Congress also seem to be those who are the least based in the facts surrounding this incident. Do some research instead of "spewing" your non-factual based opinions and slanderous comments. How could you condone the outing of anyone at the CIA in any position by members of the Executive Branch of our own government? You are fools to proud to admit that you voted for people who do not have your best interests, or anyone else's at heart and who are willing to break the oaths of their offices for leverage, power, money and revenge. You will pay the price along with the rest of us.
Mike at 4:36PM on Mar 16th 2007