Rep. Holt proposes House inquiry of CIA identity leak

Rush Holt – rocket scientist, House Intelligence Committee member and congressman for the University's district – introduced a resolution of inquiry Jan. 21 regarding last summer's disclosure of the identity of undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame, despite claims that congressional involvement will heighten political tension.

Holt's legislation comes six months after Bush administration officials allegedly leaked Plame's identity to the press when her husband, who had traveled to Niger to investigate whether Iraq was seeking uranium ore, publicly criticized Bush's description of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

Four months ago, the CIA's general counsel requested a Justice Department investigation. One month ago, Holt received a negative response from the Justice Department to a letter he had written requesting an update on the investigation. His resolution was proposed simultaneously with a letter addressed to the Speaker and signed by 10 former intelligence officials pressing Congressional leaders to open an inquiry of their own.

In a closed meeting on Jan. 28, the majority of the House Intelligence Committee chose not to support Holt's resolution of inquiry. Holt said he is hopeful, however, that members of the Judiciary, International Relations and Armed Services committees will give support where it is needed.

"I think Congress has a role to play even if there is a justice department inquiry or even if sometime in the future there is criminal prosecution," said Holt, who cited the potential of criminal action as the principle argument advanced against Congressional involvement.

Another argument posed by experts including John Dean, a FindLaw columnist and former counsel to the president, is that congressional probes should not occur during a trial because Congress could grant immunity in return for testimony, and no convictions could then be sought.

"I picked up from some members of Congress that this is seen to be a politically partisan case of 'gotcha,' " said Holt. "In fact, it should be seen as Congress performing its oversight role to look after the interests of the men and women who risk their lives and the lives of others to collect intelligence."

If the resolution is "smothered" by the majority merely because it might be seen as politically sensitive, Congress will be doing a disservice, he said.

The 10 former intelligence officers who wrote to the Speaker to encourage a Congressional inquiry, including Ray Close '51, once a CIA analyst in the agency's Near East division, are retired, so they no longer have to worry about damage to their careers through a political fallout.

This matter is considered fundamental to U.S. national security, as the disclosure of Plame's identity also exposed the CIA front company Brewster-Jennings & Associates, and by extension the other CIA officers under the same nonofficial cover.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, in a statement released after Holt introduced his resolution, said the leak "damaged US national security, specifically the effectiveness of US intelligence gathering using human sources." She later expressed her support for the resolution.

The Justice Department investigation, which for so many months appeared stalled, is showing progress with prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's decision two weeks ago to call a grand jury trial – a step normally taken when political fallouts seem imminent.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

However, the concern that the Justice Department investigation will never identify who leaked Plame's identity to the press is contributing to the unrest already present within the intelligence services due to the criticism they have received in recent months for overestimating the threat to the U.S. posed by Iraq's alleged WMDs.

"It is manifestly clear that everyone is putting a lot of weight on the shoulders of intelligence, and it's unsure to me whether they can bear that weight," said Fred Hitz '61, a professor in the Wilson School whose former post as inspector general of the CIA was created by Congress in the wake of the agency's alleged internal misconduct during the Iran-Contra affair. The 1980s scandal involved an investigation similar to the one Holt is requesting. "There are a lot of things that go into a decision to go to war, and intelligence is only one of them," he said.