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Inslee listens to a constituent.

Montage of Wing Point in Bainbridge Island and the Edmonds Ferry.

Jay Inslee: Washington's 1st Congressional District

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Legislative Issues

National Security

Protecting the Covert Identity of Intelligence Officers

22 July 2005

U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee joined other Members of Congress today at an oversight hearing on the national security consequences of disclosing the identity of a covert intelligence officer. The Members heard from a panel of witnesses that included former intelligence officers with the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency. The panelists discussed the harmful impact to national security caused by the disclosure of the identity of a covert agent. Inslee and others want to find out whether White House officials breached national security by disclosing the identity of covert CIA officer Valerie Plame Wilson.


Inslee speaks into microphrone from the dais in committee room, while other members and witnesses look on.

U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee (far right) gives a statement at the hearing on protecting the identity of covert agents.


Recently, Inslee and U.S. Rep. Rush Holt, along with other Members of Congress, introduced a time-limited Resolution of Inquiry to seek accountability for whether the White House disclosed the identity of undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame Wilson. This important resolution is similar to a resolution of inquiry introduced last year and would require that the President, Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense and the Attorney General transmit to the House all relative and substantive documents relating to the disclosure of Officer Plame’s identity.

The Congressional hearing and resolution coincide with recent news reports that the White House Deputy Chief of Staff, Karl Rove, as well as the Vice President’s Chief of Staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby might have disclosed the undercover identity of Ms. Plame to discredit Ms. Plame’s husband, Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who had published an opinion piece about the problems with the Administration's intelligence related to weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

In August of 2003, Inslee hosted a forum in Shoreline, Washington with Ambassador Wilson to scrutinize the faulty intelligence that led up to the war in Iraq. Inslee has sought for accountability into the disclosure of the CIA officer’s identity, including how this disclosure might have compromised both national security and the livelihood of Ms. Plame and her family.

Finally, Inslee and other Members of Congress recently sent a letter to the President asking that he require Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove to explain his role in the disclosure of the CIA officer's identity.

Inslee’s statement at hearing on protecting identity of covert officers:

I have come here to show my respect for our intelligence covert agents and Foreign Service officers who risk their lives to get the truth to the American people. Ambassador Wilson got the truth for the American people, and I think you can warrant without knowing too much about his wife's career, she did as well. Valerie Wilson deserved better from the president of the United States than she received, and so did Ambassador Joe Wilson.

Ambassador Joe Wilson is the guy recommended and commended by the first President Bush as the last American officer in Baghdad in the first Persian Gulf War. When Saddam Hussein threatened to kill any American officer who took Americans out of Iraq because he wanted to keep them hostage, Saddam Hussein heard from Joe Wilson, who said, "You can come get me first and put a noose around my neck, because I'm taking my people home." And he took everybody home safely from Baghdad before the beginning of the Persian Gulf War and he was commended for that by the first President Bush.

The second President Bush was not so honorable in the treatment of Ambassador Joe Wilson in his administration as the first President Bush.

What does any administration owe to America and to its Foreign Service intelligence officers when there is an outing that takes place, whether it's intentional or negligence or careless or just a slip of the tongue? In any circumstances, what does any American president and their administration owe?

I think they owe them three things. First, no excuses. And that's what we've got, is excuses. This excuse is that Karl Rove didn't use the name of Valerie Wilson, he just said it was Joe Wilson's wife; unless Joe Wilson was a polygamist, we knew exactly who he was talking about. That excuse does not work.

Second, we need a little candor and truth, just simple candor. For two years, what has this Administration told America? That nobody in the White House was involved in any way, shape or form for this. Did we get the candor from the Administration after this sordid affair? No. Through the White House spokesperson, we got falsehood.

And the third thing that any American president owes America and our Foreign Service officers, covert or otherwise, is an aggressive, assertive command of any executive in an executive branch of the government to find who is responsible for this and punish them appropriately. And this administration has sat on its hands and did nothing except hide behind the existence of saying, "I'll just let the law take its course," while the person sat three feet away from him, while the administration’s spokesperson was telling falsehoods to America.

America deserves better than that treatment, and we're calling for the president to start that investigation today.

There may not be indictments in this case; we don't know yet. But if this White House takes the position that Karl Rove was right and that he should stay on the job, then we need to change this law. If the White House says that it's hunky-dory for what Karl Rove and his staff did, or whoever is responsible for this, we need to change this law and that is why Congress needs to be involved.

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