Wrap-up

Disclaimer: This is not a transcript.

Westmoreland: The counter-proliferation division seems like a place where people would keep good records.

Plame: Yes.

Westmoreland: How could they forget how they came up with Joe Wilson's name as the person to send to Niger?

Plame: At the time, they were working "flat-out" to get good intelligence. Her role was to ask Wilson whether he would be willing to meet with CIA staff to discuss the possibility of the trip. She said her role was to introduce him to the others and leave, "because I had 101 other things to do."

Westmoreland: Should there be a paper trail?

Plame: People weren't even sure there was enough of a basis for the trip to be undertaken. But they decided to do it because the Vice President has asked a "serious question that deserved a serious answer."

Westmoreland: You mentioned taking politics out of intelligence. Is your husband a Democrat or Republican?

Plame: Her husband came from a Republican family, but is a Democrat.

Westmoreland: Ar you a Democrat or Republican.

Plame: She tries to avoid answering, then said she was a Democrat.

Westmoreland: Coming from an intelligence background, you don't just depend on one report from one source?

Plame: That's correct.

Westmoreland: It's a shame that we can't ask all of the questions that we have.

Davis: It's a terrible thing that a CIA operative would be outed. But we haven't been able to establish who knew of her covert status.

Holmes Norton: Trying to understand the Executive Order

Plame: There was no "need to know" her identity

Holmes Norton: Is there any difference between disclosing the identity of a covert agent and disclosing classified information.

Plame: I think both are equally devastating.

Davis: Asks what CIA did to prevent disclosure.

Plame: She understood there was some effort to stop Novak's article, but didn't know details.

Waxman: Finds it "troubling" that White House officials disclosed Plame's identity without regard for the consequences.

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