Testimony: Bush Never Instituted Promised Investigation of Plame Leak
The Plame leak investigation is heating up with the victim herself testifying before congress this morning and Dr. James Knodell, Director of the Office of Security for the White House, testifying this afternoon. Plame confirmed that her status at the CIA was indeed covert and classified and that she'd traveled abroad on assignment within the past five years (contrary to the popular right wing talking point that she was a"desk jockey" and well-known agency operative).
For his show stopper, Knodell acknowledged that the White House never investigated the leak despite assurances and platitudes from President Bush that he wanted to "get to the bottom" of it in the days and weeks following Plame's cover being blown.
Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) said he was "shocked" by Knodell's testimony, but why should he be? As we now know from the Libby trial, not only did Bush know all along who the leakers were, he and Cheney authorized and directed them to do the leaking. So basically, Bush was playing the Matt Damon character in The Departed who was assigned to find the mole in the police department when it was him the whole time.
And just for kicks, here's what Bush said at the time:
"Well, the investigators will ask our staff about what people did or did not do. This is a town of — where a lot of people leak. And I've constantly expressed my displeasure with leaks, particularly leaks of classified information. And I want to know, I want to know the truth. I want to see to it that the truth prevail. And I hope we can get this investigation done in a thorough way, as quickly as possible...
...I mean this town is a — is a town full of people who like to leak information. And I don't know if we're 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. I'd like to. I want to know the truth. That's why I've instructed this staff of mine to cooperate fully with the investigators — full disclosure, everything we know the investigators will find out. I have no idea whether we'll find out who the leaker is — partially because, in all due respect to your profession, you do a very good job of protecting the leakers. But we'll find out."
