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Here's Waxman's committee hearing page.  Here are the witnesses:

  • Ms. Valerie Plame Wilson, former employee, Central Intelligence Agency (already testified)

First Panel:

  • Dr. James Knodell, Director, Office of Security, The White House
  • Mr. Bill Leonard, Director, Information Security Oversight Office, National Archives and Records Administration

    • Second Panel:

    • Mr. Mark Zaid, Attorney
    • Ms. Victoria Toensing, diGenova & Toensing, LLP

    Feed the comments with updates, gang, and we'll try to send in some hearing room color for the main page post on fifteen minute intervals.  Go, Henry!

    ____________________________

    12:18 pm ET:

    James Knodell — WH Office of Security for the Executive Office of the President and Vice President. Testifying now.  Going over the EOP employee guidelines, and what happens should those violations be violated.  (Speaking in very concise government-ese.)    Procedures for handling classified information will be topic for discussion with him.

    Bill Leonard — National Archives, Information Security Oversight Office/Director:  Supervises classified information archives through the President's national security classification authority.  Discussing how original classification authority has to meet certain parameters with regard to information classification and what does and does not fall within these restrictions.  Also discusses what happens when national security matters are disclosed — including procedures for ascertaining damage to national security from undue breaches of classified information being disclosed improperly.  Also discusses three means of declassification, including "automatically, without means of review" per Executive Order.

    12:25 pm ET:

    Do federal officials have an obligation to report a security violation to the security officer at the WH? Um…yes, any individual has the requirement to report that to an authorized officer. Waxman now going through the list of potential officials and did they report the disclosure of classified information to you? Fleischer? Mr. Chairman — I thought that I would not be discussing specific investigations. Waxman says his understanding is that he would not be asking about the Libby case — we're trying to see whether the rules are working, and one way to find that out is to ask you whether the requirements were followed? Mr. Knodell doesn't know anything about what may or may not have happened with any of this because he only started in his job in August. (CHS says: how convenient.)

    Now Rep. Davis is asking questions pointing to whose responsibility it is to disclose/protect/state classified and/or covert status. (In other words, trying to shift blame to the CIA for Rove and company not protecting Valerie's status when they were calling reporters about her.)

    12:41 pm ET (update from the committee room from Pach):

    Much less crowded, and almost no photographers, now that Valerie is gone. Knodell and Leonard are not so photogenic, but the nuts and bolts coming out through Waxman's questions really shine a light on the White House cover up. Yep: cover up. Davi$ playing defense, still pointing a finger at the CIA.

    12:45 pm ET:

    Rep. Cummings and Rep. Waxman are trying to clarify the fact that the Fitzgerald investigation did not look into this particular leak until months after the leak.  As the testimony is being given today, there was no — I repeat NO — investigation begun by the WH at all with regard to an unauthorized disclosure.  Mr. Leonard says that there is an affirmative responsibility to immediately begin an investigation so that corrective action may be taken — and yet, according to Mr. Knodell, there is no record of that being done.  Still.

    Fresh thread for this panel.

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