Waxman Wants Truth on Plame's Role in Wilson Niger Visit

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-California), the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, fired off a letter (.pdf) to CIA Director Michael Hayden this week asking for more information about a CIA report to Congress that claimed former covert officer Valerie Plame Wilson recommended her husband, Joe Wilson, for a 2002 mission to Niger to investigate false rumors of an Iraqi uranium buy. The Bush administration used the uranium threat to sell Congress and the American people on the Iraq war.

Plame asserted under oath in testimony two weeks ago that she did not recommend her husband for the trip and that information provided to Congress by an employee at the CIA's Counter Proliferation Division was "twisted and distorted" to indicate that Plame acted out of nepotism. Here's more from Waxman's letter:

"According to Ms. Wilson, the CPD reports officer was extremely upset that his statements to the Committee had been distorted, and he wanted to correct the record. Ms. Wilson testified that the CPD reports officer drafted a memo to this effect, but he was not allowed to send it. The officer also requested that he be re-interviewed by the Committee, but this request was also denied, according to Ms. Wilson."

Waxman wants Hayden to turn over the CPD officer's memo and any other records concerning Plame's role in Wilson's Niger trip.