Live blogging Valerie Wilson's testimony : opening statements

C-SPAN and the House of Representatives are broadcasting Valerie Wilson's testimony before the House Committee on Government Oversight and Reform , chaired by bulldog watchdog Henry Waxman (D-CA). According to a July 14, 2003 statement that is still on the committee's website, the purpose of the hearing is to ascertain whether White House officials broke national security laws in disclosing Wilson's names to reporters.

Waxman opened the hearing with a statement about the seriousness of the disclosure of Wilson's identity, and a discussion of the constraints surrounding the decision to hold a public hearing. He also denounced those who minimized the level of cover under which Wilson worked, and likened her to the members of the Armed Forces serving the US in war zones around the world. Ranking member Tom Davis (R-VA) criticized the decision to hold open hearings:

"I have to confess, I’m not sure what we’re trying to accomplish here given all the limitations the Chairman just described. Ostensibly called to examine White House procedures for handling and protecting classified information, this hearing’s lead witness never worked at the White House. If Valerie Plame Wilson knows about security practices there, she certainly can’t say much, if anything, about them in a public forum. But we do know she worked at the Central Intelligence Agency. That now well known fact raises some very different questions about how critical, but difficult, it is to protect the identity of individuals with covert status. But again, those are questions we probably can’t say much about here without violating the very security safeguards the majority claims to be worried about at the White House..."

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