WASHINGTON (AP) - Valerie Plame, the CIA operative whose outing triggered a federal investigation, appeared before a congressional committee Friday and said administration officials "should have been diligent" in protecting her identity.
"The harm that is done when a CIA cover is blown is great," she said.
The chairman of the committee said that even though prosecutors brought no charges for the 2003 leak of a CIA operative's identity, questions remain about whether policies were followed.
"It's not our job to determine criminal culpability, but it is out job to determine what went wrong and insist on accountability," Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said as he opened hearings before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
Democrats are eager make political fodder out of the 2003 leak scandal but it's unlikely the hearing will offer any new information about the leak itself.
Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia, the ranking Republican on the committee, said that since Fitzgerald didn't charge anyone with the leak, the hearings were unlikely to add any insight.
"No process can be adopted to protect classified information that no one knows is classified," Davis said. "This looks to me more like a CIA problem than a White House problem."
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