Plame: My cover recklessly abused

Valerie Plame, the CIA operative at the heart of a political scandal over the Bush administration8217;s lies on Iraq...

Valerie Plame, the CIA operative at the heart of a political scandal over the Bush administration8217;s lies on Iraq, told Congress on Friday that senior officials at the White House and State Department 8220;carelessly and recklessly8221; blew her cover to discredit her diplomat-husband.

Plame, whose 2003 outing triggered a federal investigation, said she always knew her identity could be discovered by foreign governments.

8220;It was a terrible irony that administration officials were the ones who destroyed my cover,8221; she told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

8220;If our government cannot even protect my identity, future foreign agents who might consider working with the Central Intelligence Agency and providing needed intelligence would think twice,8221; Plame said in response to a question.

Her appearance was a moment of gripping political theater as Democrats questioned whether the Bush administration mishandled classified information by leaking her identity to reporters. No one has been charged with leaking her identity.

8220;It8217;s not our job to determine criminal culpability, but it is our job to determine what went wrong and insist on accountability,8221; Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, Democrat, said at the outset of the hearing.

The man who led the criminal investigation, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, was not on the witness list. Nobody from the White House involved in the leak was scheduled to testify. Neither were officials from the State Department.

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Plame sat alone at a witness table and fielded questions about her CIA career and the disclosure of her name in July 2003 in a syndicated newspaper column. She says she was outed as retaliation against her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who criticised the administration8217;s prewar intelligence on Iraq.

8220;My name and identity were carelessly and recklessly abused by senior officials in the White House and State Department,8221; Plame testified. 8220;I could no longer perform the work for which I had been highly trained.8221;

Plame said she had no role in sending her husband on a CIA fact-finding trip to Niger.

8211;MATT APUZZO