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“VALERIE PLAME LEAK INVESTIGATION” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the Senate section on pages S7946-S7947 on July 13, 2004.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
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 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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