Rep. Tom Davis Asks for Committee's Yellowcake Investigation to Be Expanded

It seems like there are still a few "loose ends" to tie up about the Niger yellowcake, CIA officer Valerie Plame Wilson, and journalist Robert Novak. Today (7-17-08), the office of Rep. Tom Davis (shown above) released this statement:

Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, wrote to Chairman Henry Waxman today to ask him to expand the committee’s investigation into yellowcake from Niger to include the government’s mishandling of secure information.

Here is the letter.
Ranking Member Davis' Letter to Chairman Waxman

As they say, "The Devil is in the details." A careful reading of Rep. Davis' letter reveals some pretty curious facts:

As the Committee continues to consider how to obtain copies of reports compiled by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the interview of the Vice President conducted as part of Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's "investigation into the leak of the covert identity of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer Valerie Plame Wilson," I ask that you also consider joining me in initiating an inquiry on several other important matters broadly related to pre-war
intelligence on Iraq's nuclear program.

I know of your abiding interest in this issue, and I hope you agree that in order to help complete the historical record it would be beneficial to explore the additional investigatory avenues discussed below.

Ensuring that there are effective govemment-wide procedures guiding the classification and protection of classified material is essential if the United States is to confront the global security challenges it faces. Only by fully understanding past missteps can we be certain that problems will not recur. These subjects I suggest offer the prospect of significantly expanding public knowledge of the events and individuals involved.

.The CIA's erroneous expression of doubt in September and October 2002 to the White House, the British, and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence about lraq's interest in uranium yellowcake, when analysts at the CIA, in fact, had no such doubts.

.Valerie Plame Wilson's role in dispatching her husband to Niger in February 2002. Varying accounts of Ms. Wilson's role, including one she gave under oath to the Committee on March 16, 2007, differ from a February 12, 2002 e-mail authored by Ms. Wilson, upon which findings of the bipartisan report of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence were based.

.The circumstances and background of Robert Novak's encounter on July 8,2003, with an individual on a Washington, D.C., street corner, a few blocks from the Department of State, minutes after departing from a meeting with Deputy Secretary Richard Armitage in which Mr. Armitage mentioned Ms.Wilson's place of employment. [Full text of letter]