Plame to testify to Congress on leak

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Valerie Plame, the former covert CIA agent whose cover was blown after her husband accused the White House of manipulating prewar intelligence, will testify before a congressional committee next week, the committee chairman said on Thursday.

Plame will testify about the disclosure and how the White House handled it in an appearance before the House of Representatives Committee on Government Reform, Chairman Henry Waxman said in a statement.

Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, was found guilty on Tuesday of lying and obstructing the investigation into who blew Plame's cover.

Waxman's panel is looking into whether White House officials followed appropriate procedures for safeguarding Plame's identity, the statement said.

It did not say whether any White House officials had been asked to testify at the hearing scheduled for Friday, March 16.

Plame's identity was divulged publicly in 2003 after her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, accused the Bush administration in a New York Times column of manipulating intelligence on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction to build its case for war.

No charges were brought for the leaking of Plame's name. Federal law makes it a crime to knowingly reveal the identity of a covert agent.

Waxman, a California Democrat, also sent a letter to the special prosecutor in the CIA leak investigation, Patrick Fitzgerald, asking for a meeting to discuss the possibility of Fitzgerald testifying before the House committee.

Waxman wrote that Libby's trial had raised questions about whether senior White House officials complied with rules for the handling of classified information.