Valerie Plame To Testify Before Congress

Valerie Plame, the CIA operative exposed after her husband criticized President Bush's march to war, will testify next week before lawmakers probing how the White House dealt with her identity, the chairman of the panel said Thursday.

Also invited to testify March 16 before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is Patrick Fitzgerald, who this week won conviction of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby of obstruction and perjury in the case, said Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif.

Plame has accepted the invitation, Waxman said, but Fitzgerald has not responded.

In a letter to the prosecutor, Waxman proposed a meeting with ranking Republican Tom Davis of Virginia to discuss the terms of any testimony.

"The trial proceedings raise questions about whether senior White House officials, including the vice president and Senior Adviser to the President Karl Rove, complied with the requirements governing the handling of classified information," Waxman wrote in his invitation to Fitzgerald.

"They also raise questions about whether the White House took appropriate remedial action following the leak and whether the existing requirements are sufficient to protect against future leaks," Waxman added. "Your perspective on theses matters is important."

Fitzgerald has made clear that, unlike earlier independent counsels appointed under a law now expired, he is not required to submit investigative reports to Congress.

"I think we should conduct this like any other criminal investigation: charge someone or be quiet," Fitzgerald said when he announced Libby's indictment.

His spokesman, Randall Samborn, said he didn't know whether that policy would affect Fitzgerald's response to Congress.

"We've only just received it and we're going to review it," he said. "No decision has been made."

Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, is the highest-ranking White House official convicted in a government scandal since the Iran-Contra affair two decades ago.

Libby's attorneys, who are expected to ask for a new trial, told jurors that Libby was made a scapegoat while Rove, former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer and former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage were the actual leakers. Attorney Theodore Wells said Thursday he didn't expect hearings to bring out any new information.

"I think, for anyone who followed the case, the facts are out there," Wells said. "I don't know of any other leaks. You've got Fleischer with multiple, Rove with two, Armitage with two. I'm assuming that's it and I still believe Libby didn't leak."

Plame's name was leaked to reporters in mid-2003 after her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, began criticizing the Bush administration's handling of prewar intelligence on Iraq.

Nobody was charged with breaking a law by discussing Plame and Libby is the only person charged with a crime in the case.

Plame's name arose often during Libby's trial, but she did not testify. Waxman said the trial raised questions that Plame and others could perhaps answer.

"The Committee will receive testimony from Ms. Wilson and other experts regarding the disclosure and internal White House security procedures for protecting her identity from disclosure and responding to the leak after it occurred," according to Waxman's statement.

Though the criminal case is over, Wilson and Plame have a civil lawsuit pending against Libby, Cheney, former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and others.