Valerie Plame Wilson's Testimony, Cont'd
Byron York
The Corner
Ever since Valerie Plame Wilson testified before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, I've been reporting on alleged differences between her House testimony and what she told Senate Intelligence Committee investigators looking into the Iraq/Niger/uranium affair. Republican Sen. Christopher Bond, vice chairman of the Senate committee, has told National Review Online that key parts of Mrs. Wilson's House testimony were news to him; for example, he had never heard the story she told of how her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, came to be chosen for a fact-finding trip to Niger.
Yesterday, I reported that Oversight committee member Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, R-Ga., has asked committee chairman Rep. Henry Waxman to ask the Senate Intelligence Committee for the transcript of Senate investigators' interview with Mrs. Wilson, along with the full text of the February 12, 2002 memo Mrs. Wilson wrote touting her husband's qualifications for the trip.
Now, Waxman has made a request of his own. Citing "concerns that a Senate Intelligence Committee report may be inaccurate," Waxman has written a letter to CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden asking for "documents that may bear on the accuracy of information previously provided to Congress regarding Ms. Wilson." Specifically, Waxman wants a memo said to have been written by a Counterproliferation Division reports officer who, according to Valerie Plame Wilson's account, claimed that information he gave to Senate investigators was "twisted and distorted" by the Senate Intelligence Committee in its final, bipartisan report. (Bond told NRO he stands by the report's conclusions.)
Waxman appears to have no questions about the accuracy of Valerie Plame Wilson's testimony, instead arguing that her testimony "raises concerns about the accuracy of the Senate report." But he is also requesting copies of "any other records containing information concerning Ms. Wilson's role in Ambassador Wilson's February 2002 trip to Niger." That would certainly include Mrs. Wilson's February 12 memo and perhaps other evidence we don't know about. Here's hoping the CIA provides the documents, and that Waxman asks the Senate for the transcript of Mrs. Wilson's interview, and that he makes it all public.
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