Posted on 08/28/2002 5:18:19 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
WASHINGTON--An FBI investigation of a classified intelligence leak--where 17 senators, including Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), have been asked for records of all contacts with reporters--will chill the congressional inquiry into the Sept. 11 attacks, Durbin said.
"They are ramping this investigation up to high levels,'' said Durbin, one of the 17 members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. "The personal interviews were not enough. Now they want my personal schedules.''
The White House, said Durbin, does not "want an open and public and independent investigation of what happened Sept. 11. ... They are trying to put a damper on our activities and I think they will be successful."
Durbin said the White House determination to prevent leaks is ironic given that "we can't get Dick Cheney to give us names of people he met with when he wrote the energy bill.'' The Bush administration is battling a lawsuit filed to force the White House to turn over the names of the members of its energy task force.
The FBI criminal division, in an Aug. 7 letter, made a sweeping request of the panel in order to determine contact with print and broadcast journalists.
The detailed letter asks for "daily schedules, planners, calendars, appointment books or notes identifying meetings or appointments'' from June 18 to June 19.
The FBI asked for phone logs, information on Palm Pilots and e-mail relating to any "communications with any member of the news media'' by the senator or the senator's press staff.
On June 18, the lawmakers learned in a classified briefing that the National Security Agency had received two messages in Arabic before Sept. 11 that suggested advance knowledge of the attacks. The messages were not translated until Sept. 12.
News of the briefing was leaked to the press, and the White House, which did not want the congressional probe of Sept. 11, put pressure on the committee to determine the source of the leak, Durbin said. The committee decided to call in the FBI, raising the question of whether the separation of powers between the legislative and executive branches was breached. The FBI is an executive branch agency.
The FBI demand follows personal interviews with the senators and a request for them to take lie detector tests.
Durbin said his office was complying with the FBI requests, turning over records of Durbin's contacts with reporters. Durbin, who said he was not the source of the leak, said he would not take a lie detector test because lie detectors were not reliable.
Durbin said he was there at the "key moment'' and he remembers CIA Director George Tenet warning the group about the need for secrecy. "I made a point of counting,'' Durbin said and he tallied 80 staffers and 17 members of the House and Senate in the room.
Except for the press staff, the FBI has not asked staffers for the extensive disclosures requested of the senators.
Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, objected to the investigation.
"The goal of this whole thing is to put a freeze on Congress talking to the media,'' she said.
He made a point of counting? I just can't picture a [democrat] Senator counting to 97, unless he was anticipating a needle in the haystack cover.
The committee decided to call in the FBI,
So why is this an attempt by the Bush people to silence Congress? If the committee decided to call the FBI, have them tell it to go away. This is more of what happened during the Whitewater investigation - politically they have to appear to be cooperating, but they want to do everything they can to undermine the investigation. Clinton has trained his Demoncrat minions well.
isn't that one of those diaper thingies that some people wear on their heads?
Durbin is a tool.
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