I’m watching Valerie Plame Wilson in C-SPAN; she is testifying to the House. She says she did not send Joe Wilson to Niger; nor did she suggest him or recommend him. She is saying that another CIA agent suggested sending Joe Wilson. She is saying she was ambivalent about sending him. The colleague made the suggestion to her supervisor, and the supervisor asked Plame Wilson to ask her husband to come in to discuss the trip.
Update: “Karl Rove clearly was involved in the leaking of my name, and he still carries a security clearance,” she said.
Update update: One rightie talking point that comes up frequently is that, when Wilson came back from Niger, he told the CIA that the Niger-uranium story was credible. They get this from a 2004 bipartisan Senate intelligence committee report. Plame Wilson says that another CIA employee’s testimony was twisted out of context. This employee asked the Senate to re-interview him, so he could set the record straight. The request was denied.
Update 3: See Think Progress.
Update 4: Here’s a transcript of Valerie Plame Wilson’s opening statement.
Man, this is great testimony!
Think Progress’s transcript leaves out Plame’s statement about the politicizing of intelligence, which I think is important. DailyKos posted it in its entirety:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/3/16/111828/917
A great book that gets into the details of the case is Marcy Wheeler’s *Anatomy of Deceit* (I believe Wheeler is one of the FDL bloggers). Wheeler is not part of the establishment media, which I think frees her up to tell the media side of the story in great detail, without, say, stepping on the toes of any future potential employers:
http://www.amazon.com/Anatomy-Deceit-Bush-Administration-Media/dp/0979176107
Joe Wilson has a blurb on the back saying that Wheeler knows more about the case than he does.
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GAH … what seemed to me to be clear, absolute, and final vindication of Plame and Wilson and the whole covert-agent-got-outted story made me curious how the righties would handle it, so I visited one … Flopping Aces…
Now I have to scrub out my brain… I would think that much stupidity would hurt…
-me
I watched the testimony as well. I could not understand why the republicans only had two congressmen there? They did their best to follow the Faux News talking points (that leaking her name was of no real consequence), although they looked quite tired from carrying bu$hco’s water. The one guy was really condescending bordering on sexist in his remarks and questions to Mrs. Wilson. In fairness I thought her testimony as to how a co-worker overheard her talking to another agent about the V.P’s request to send somebody to check out the Niger-yellowcake link was a little weak. I believe her that she did not suggest sending him but she could have explained it a little better. ABC news did a real right-wing hack job covering the story, pointing out she was wearing designer clothing and that she has a book deal, what a bunch of schmucks, worse than Faux news?
What a bunch of fucking Schmucks.
GAH … what seemed to me to be clear, absolute, and final vindication of Plame and Wilson and the whole covert-agent-got-outted story made me curious how the righties would handle it, so I visited one … Flopping Aces…
Now I have to scrub out my brain… I would think that much stupidity would hurt…
There is nothing more damning than an attractive,articulate, and credible witness.Knock ’em dead, Val!…….
Hmmm, ‘path points’ seems better nowadays for what were called ‘talking points’ when referring to what righties say…..’path’ used as shorthand for pathological-lying points, or pathological-personality-type points, or even blind-path-follower points.
If this had happened in the Clinton administratrion, Clinton would still be scraping off the tar and feathers.
You have got to think Plame’s compelling testimony would hurt this administration deeply. But here’s where the right-wing pundit brigade steps in and really earns their money.
You have got to think Plame’s compelling testimony would hurt this administration deeply. But here’s where the right-wing pundit brigade steps in and really earns their money.
I doubt it will have any impact at all. The True Believers at this point are all just talking to themselves, and they are telling themselves what they want to hear. What Valerie Plame Wilson said won’t register.
I got a kick out of the righties that couldn’t accept that she had immense value to the United States… that she was a highly trained asset firmly planted in a cover. And they still insist in calling her a desk jockey.. Is it because she’s a woman and they can’t accept a women with a brain, or the qualities of character that they themselves don’t possess?