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Waxman Requests Plame Documents


Rep. Henry Waxman, chair of the House Oversight Committee, has sent this letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey, asking for seven classes of documents pertaining to the Valerie Plame Investigation.

The letter says the White House has been preventing Patrick Fitzgerald from providing many of the sought documents. As to the subject matter of the investigation, the Committee wants to know:

(1) How did such a serious violation of our national security occur? (2) Did the White House take the appropriate investigative and disciplinary steps after the breach occurred? And (3) what changes in White House procedures are necessary to prevent future violations of our national security from continuing?

Why now?

As the recent disclosure from former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan underscores, there remain many unanswered questions surrounding this incident and the involvement of the President, the Vice President, and other senior White House officials in the security breach and the White House response.

Among the sought documents: [More...]

Transcripts, reports, notes, and other documents relating to any interviews outside the presence of the grand jury of any of the following individuals:

a. President George W. Bush
b. Vice President Dick Cheney
c. Andrew Card
d. Stephen Hadley
e. Karl Rove
f. Dan Bartlett
g. Scott McClellan

Waxman points out:

The role of the Attorney General is to administer the laws with impartiality. The Justice Department provided the exact same information to Congress during the Clinton Administration. There is no special standard for President Bush that exempts him and his senior advisors from responsible congressional oversight.

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    Questions and Answers (1.00 / 0) (#3)
    by jimakaPPJ on Mon Dec 03, 2007 at 06:13:32 PM EST
    (1) How did such a serious violation of our national security occur?

    Well you see, Valerie was setting there in her office in Langely, VA, aka CIA headquarters, when this person wandered by, saw her and said..

    "Val! Can you help me?? Who should I send to Niger to figure out if Iraq tried to purchase uranium..."

    And Valerie said.... "Well, I wouldn't mind getting Joe out of the house. He has been just impossible to deal with since he retired...."

    A Test? (none / 0) (#1)
    by squeaky on Mon Dec 03, 2007 at 12:11:06 PM EST
    I won't be holding my breath on this one.

    violation of national security (none / 0) (#2)
    by diogenes on Mon Dec 03, 2007 at 03:38:01 PM EST
    If a serious breach of national security occurred, then surely the person who committed it should have been indicted for committing a crime by now.

    Probably would have been, too (5.00 / 0) (#4)
    by Repack Rider on Mon Dec 03, 2007 at 06:57:13 PM EST
    If it hadn't been for the obstruction of justice at the highest levels.

    At least we got the guy who did that, didn't we?

    Unfortunately, the president took all the deterrent value out of being caught red-handed and convicted, by commuting the sentence of a traitor.

    Parent