In Washington, it has been revealed that the White House never ordered a probe who outed covert CIA operative Valerie Plame. James Knodell, the director of the Office of Security at the White House, made the admission on Friday during a hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. The committee chair, Democrat Henry Waxman, has written to the White House to demand why no investigation was ordered. At the same hearing, Valerie Plame testified in public for the first time.

Valerie Plame: “My name and identity were carelessly and recklessly abused by senior government officials in both the White House and the State Department. All of them understood that I worked for the CIA, and having signed oaths to protect national security secrets, they should have been diligent in protecting me and every CIA officer.”

Valerie Plame also described how she learned that columnist Robert Novak had publicly identified her as a CIA agent.

Valerie Plame: “I found out very early in the morning when my husband came in and dropped the newspaper on the bed and said he did it. And I quickly turned and read the article, and I felt like I had been hit in the gut. It was over in an instant, and I immediately thought of my family’s safety, the agents, the networks that I had worked with, and everything goes through your mind in an instant.”