Free Republic

WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline)-A group of 13 Republican state attorneys general are urging Republican U.S. senators to back legislation that would limit the federal government's ability to force reporters to reveal their confidential sources. The Free Flow of Information Act, already approved by House and awaiting a vote in the Senate, would bring federal law in line with state laws in 49 states that protect reporters' confidential sources in most cases. The letter seeks to allay concern that if enacted the law could fetter the government's pursuit of terrorists.

Judge Withdraws Threat as Reporter Pleads the 5th In Spy Leak Probe By JOSH GERSTEIN, Staff Reporter of the Sun | July 24, 2008 SANTA ANA, Calif. — A federal judge withdrew his threat to order a prominent reporter on the national security beat to identify his confidential sources after the journalist took the Fifth Amendment in a surprise-filled hearing here this morning. Judge Cormac Carney excused William Gertz of the Washington Times from further proceedings here after he repeatedly invoked his constitutional right against self-incrimination in response to questions from the judge and a defense attorney. Mr. Gertz's refusal...

The recent spate of leaks and reports from Washington about whether Israel will, or should, take military action against Iran, and what that would mean for the US, is a reflection of deep divisions on the matter inside the Bush administration, Israeli diplomatic and defense officials said Sunday. The officials said that the two sides of the argument, the "hawkish camp," led by US Vice President Dick Cheney, and the "dovish camp," led by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, are leaking assessments about Israeli intent to further their own agendas, and in this regard using Israel as a "pawn" in their...

Israeli military intelligence officials have accused President George W Bush’s administration of undermining their attempts to infiltrate Al-Qaeda’s operations in Iraq by revealing the contents of a secret letter written by Osama Bin Laden’s second-in-command. Israel passed the letter — in which Ayman al-Zawahiri outlined his Middle East strategy to Abu Musab al- Zarqawi, the Al-Qaeda leader in Iraq — to Washington last October on condition of strict anonymity. Israeli officials were dismayed, however, when John Negroponte, the US director of national intelligence, made it available in both English and its original Arabic on his office web site. Israeli intelligence...

Anthrax: Source of Fishy, Shaggy Dog Stories Pleads Fifth December 20th, 2007 by Ross E. Getman In October 2007, the former Criminal Chief of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, Daniel Seikaly, was deposed in the civil rights action by Steve Hatfill about whether he was the source of leaks relating to Steve Hatfill in connection with Newsweek and Washington Post stories about the use of bloodhounds and the draining of ponds in Frederick, Maryland. Attorney Seikaly pled the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination in connection with most substantive questions. Attorney Seikaly has had a very distinguished career....

Chairman of the Experts Assembly Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said on Wednesday that the "important" report issued by 16 US intelligence agencies is neither against Tehran nor benefits Washington. The report released on December 3 by the US National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), said, they did not "assume that Iran intends to acquire nuclear weapons." Addressing the 4th congress of Moderation and Development, he commented on reasons for issuing the report, stressing: "My primary speculation is that the report has been issued either by the Democrats or independent groups. The report might have been issued by experts since their investigation has...

Israel obtained detailed photographs from inside an alleged Syrian nuclear facility prior to carrying out an air strike on September 6, ABC News reported over the weekend. An unnamed senior source in the US told the news network that the Mossad had discovered in the summer that Syria was constructing a nuclear facility and proceeded to either place a mole inside the plant or convince one of the workers to supply Israel with intelligence. Through the mole, the source said, Israel received pictures from the ground that showed a large cylindrical structure, trucks, and a pumping station - all of...

National Security: U.S. spy agencies are supposed to gather information so that they might save lives. Whoever in the intelligence community leaked a preview of an al-Qaida video to the media has endangered lives. SITE Intelligence Group is a small Washington-based firm that has, remarkably, devised ways of monitoring some of the major communications among Islamist terrorists. It sells the information to clients in the private sector, government and the media. SITE, founded in 2002 by an Iraqi-born Israeli, Rita Katz, whose father was executed by Saddam Hussein in the 1960s, naturally keeps much of its methodology confidential. Having infiltrated...

A small private intelligence company that monitors Islamic terrorist groups obtained a new Osama bin Laden video ahead of its official release last month, and around 10 a.m. on Sept. 7, it notified the Bush administration of its secret acquisition. It gave two senior officials access on the condition that the officials not reveal they had it until the al-Qaeda release. Within 20 minutes, a range of intelligence agencies had begun downloading it from the company's Web site. By midafternoon that day, the video and a transcript of its audio track had been leaked from within the Bush administration to...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The White House on Tuesday denied being the source of a leak involving an Osama bin Laden video that a private intelligence firm said had sabotaged its secret ability to intercept Al-Qaeda messages. Asked if the White House was the source of the leak, spokeswoman Dana Perino said: "No, we were not ... We were very concerned to learn about it." The SITE Intelligence Group said it lost access that it had covertly acquired to Al-Qaeda's communications network when the administration of President George W. Bush let out that the company had obtained a bin Laden video...

On Wednesday, I received a proof copy of Kenneth Timmerman's new book, Shadow Warriors: The Untold Story of Traitors, Saboteurs, and the Party of Surrender, which tells the tale of the alleged war against the Bush administration within the CIA and State Department. Timmerman is always a fascinating read, but I just haven't had the chance to get to the book yet. Yesterday's leak by the New York Times on confidential memos on interrogation techniques reminds me that I have to get to it, as does their follow-up today: The disclosure of secret Justice Department legal opinions on interrogation on...

This might just be another BS moment at the Kos - they’ve had so many of them I’ve lost count. But if this is legit we just had a serious breach of national security.“I have a friend who is an LSO on a carrier attack group that is planning and staging a strike group deployment into the Gulf of Hormuz. (LSO: Landing Signal Officer- she directs carrier aircraft while landing) She told me we are going to attack Iran. She said that all the Air Operation Planning and Asset Tasking are finished. That means that all the targets have been...

Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.) handed out a schedule of proposed floor votes on Iraq-related bills to a standing-room-only meeting in his office Thursday, then rounded up copies so that none could leave the room. “We can’t have bits and pieces leaking out,” Larson said, according to one attendee. Those in attendance said Larson was not critical of leaks, but cautionary. There were recent reports that House leaders were irritated that Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) had left a meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and told a reporter that the Iraq supplemental spending bill would be delayed until January. Leaders...

<p>".....my message is this: Your tactics only aid terrorists, for they erode our national unity and diminish our resolve. They give ammunition to America's enemies and pause to America's friends."</p> <p>WASHINGTON - Attorney General John Ashcroft vigorously defended the administration's anti-terrorism policies Thursday and suggested that critics of the Justice Department's actions were aiding the terrorists.</p>

Newsweek is reporting an interesting development in the FISA leak investigation: Aug. 13, 2007 issue - The controversy over President Bush's warrantless surveillance program took another surprise turn last week when a team of FBI agents, armed with a classified search warrant, raided the suburban Washington home of a former Justice Department lawyer. The lawyer, Thomas M. Tamm, previously worked in Justice's Office of Intelligence Policy and Review (OIPR)-the supersecret unit that oversees surveillance of terrorist and espionage targets. The agents seized Tamm's desktop computer, two of his children's laptops and a cache of personal files. Tamm and his lawyer,...

The Department of Justice has concluded that, while its emphasis is on prosecuting leakers of classified information, the Espionage Act does permit the prosecution of journalists who publish such information without authorization: The espionage statutes concerning classified information could be employed against journalists who publish such information without authorization, a Justice Department official told Congress recently, elaborating on remarks made last year by Attorney General Gonzales. Those statutes, "on their face, do not provide an exemption for any particular profession or class of persons, including journalists," wrote Matthew W. Friedrich, DoJ Criminal Division Chief of Staff, in a March 2007...

Mohammed Warsame seen in an undated photograph. (The photograph's background has been obscured to protect the source. ABCNEWS independently confirmed that the photograph shows Warsame.) U.S. Attempt to Turn Al Qaeda Suspect Into U.S. Informant Soured by Press Leak By Pierre Thomas Feb. 13 — When a Somali-born computer student was arrested in Minneapolis last December on suspicion of helping al Qaeda, federal counterterrorism officials thought they might finally have found what they desperately need — a way of getting inside Osama bin Laden's shadowy network. The counterterrorism officials developed a plan to turn the man, Mohammed Warsame, into a...

Brian Ross of ABC News ABC News is coming under heavy criticism for its exclusive report revealing a purported CIA covert operation designed to destabilize the government of Iran. Brian Ross of ABC reported last night: The CIA has received secret presidential approval to mount a covert "black" operation to destabilize the Iranian government, current and former officials in the intelligence community tell the Blotter on ABCNews.com. The sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the subject, say President Bush has signed a "nonlethal presidential finding" that puts into motion a CIA...

Just Breaking

A civil servant and an MP's researcher have been found guilty of leaking a secret memo about talks between George Bush and Tony Blair. David Keogh, 50, from Northampton, has been found guilty of two offences under the Official Secrets Act. MP's researcher Leo O'Connor was found guilty of one Official Secrets offence. It recorded Oval Office talks between Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair about Iraq in 2004, the Old Bailey was told. Sentencing was adjourned for reports........

The U. S. District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, ruling en banc, delivered another in a long series of verdicts that have found Representative Jim McDermott, serving his 9th term representing Washington's 9th district, violated the rights of Rep. John Boehner when McDermott leaked an illegally taped conversation. The Court also ruled that Mr. McDermott broke House Ethics rules.

A civil servant who leaked a secret memo about George W. Bush wanted it to be seen by US presidential candidate John Kerry, the Old Bailey heard. David Keogh, 50, from Northampton, is said to have passed a highly sensitive document detailing talks between Mr. Bush and Tony Blair to Leo O'Connor. Mr. Keogh told jurors the contents of the memo had preyed on his mind. Mr. Keogh and Mr. O'Connor, 44, also of Northampton, deny three charges under the Official Secrets Act. Mr. Keogh had been asked to copy out the memo for distribution to high-ranking UK officials. The...

Terrorists Spoke of Attack More Devastating Than September 11 A series of intercepted telephone conversations between suspected members of Osama bin Laden's al-Qa'ida network prompted George Bush's decision to order a general terror alert for the United States on Monday, reports said yesterday. The calls indicated an attack against America that would be even more devastating than the 11 September assaults. The CIA and the FBI presented the information to President Bush and his national security team on Monday morning. While the intelligence from the telephone calls was chilling, officials wrangled for hours over whether the public should hear about ...

A British government official and a former political researcher went on trial Wednesday for allegedly leaking a classified memo in which President Bush reportedly referred to bombing the Arab television station Al-Jazeera. David Keogh, 50, a cipher expert, and Leo O'Connor, 44, a lawmaker's aide, are accused of violating secrecy laws by disclosing a document relating to 2004 talks between Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair. Both defendants deny violating the Official Secrets Act. Prosecutors allege Keogh passed the memo to O'Connor in May 2004, who in turn placed it in a file he handed to his boss, Tony Clarke,...

Tuesday Sept. 30, 2003; 1:09 p.m. EDT Dems Stayed Silent on Illegal Clinton Leaks After watching without complaint as the Clinton administration attempted to destroy one political opponent after another by illegally leaking damaging material to the media, Democrats are now outraged that an avowed enemy of the Bush administration claims he received the same treatment. Dems are howling for the appointment of an independent prosecutor to investigate the dubious charge that by publicly identifying the wife of former ambassador Joe Wilson as a CIA analyst, somebody in the White House broke the law. While it's nice to see that...

A doctor removed two moles from President Bush’s left temple. Speculation is that these moles may have been the source of leaks of the classified information that has been showing up in the pages of the New York Times. President Bush said he is kicking himself for not paying more attention to the moles and expressed hope that their removal would put an end to the leaks.

Source: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Date: February 15, 2007 NASA Study Reveals Leaks In Antarctic 'Plumbing System' Science Daily — Scientists using NASA satellites have discovered an extensive network of waterways beneath a fast-moving Antarctic ice stream that provide clues as to how "leaks" in the system impact sea level and the world's largest ice sheet. Antarctica holds about 90 percent of the world's ice and 70 percent of the world's reservoir of fresh water. From December 2003 to December 2005, MODIS captured these two images showing a draw down of water in a subglacial lake (left)and the rise of...

There is no holier icon in the church of the First Amendment than the anonymous leak. Ever since columnist Robert Novak published the identity of a CIA officer nearly four years ago, voices of journalism have delivered sermon after sermon about the centrality of leaks not just to journalism but to democracy itself: We need leaks to keep the government honest. In order to encourage leaks, it follows, reporters must be able to guarantee anonymity to their sources. And in order to protect that anonymity, journalists must be excused from the ordinary duties of citizenship, such as testifying in a...

A lawyer for suspected al-Qaida operative Jose Padilla violated a court order by leaking his wiretapped phone conversations, a judge found Wednesday while not imposing a penalty. Instead, U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke ordered all defense lawyers in the case to sign papers indicating they understood and would follow rules barring disclosure of certain evidence. Cooke also said she might hold in contempt anyone who receives such prohibited material, and she specifically mentioned several reporters attending Wednesday's hearing. "The lash is about to fall on all," Cooke said. "We're going to have a trial, as much as possible as we...

The FBI is missing nearly a quarter of its files relating to investigations of recent leaks of classified information, according to a court filing the bureau made last week....

Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that she will create a new congressional panel to examine the administration's intelligence budget and to make sure the money is being spent properly. Creating the panel, Pelosi said at a news conference, "makes oversight stronger and makes the American people safer." Democrats have been highly critical of the conduct of intelligence agencies in the days before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the lead- up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Pelosi, D-Calif., also said that one of the first tasks of the Democratic-controlled House she will lead beginning in January will be...

Internal data such as information concerning U.S. military operations in Iraq have recently been leaked to the Internet from a privately owned personal computer of an Air Self-Defense Force member loaded with a file sharing software, ASDF investigations have shown. The information on transport operations and personnel deployment of the U.S. military in Iraq in June and July was given as confidential data from the U.S. military and its leak could have posed a serious threat to the safety of foreign troops operating in Iraq. The ASDF said, "The situation has changed from the time then and it will therefore...

" Bush Adviser’s Memo Cites Doubts About Iraqi Leader " WASHINGTON, Nov. 28 — " A classified memorandum .... by President Bush’s national security adviser expressed serious doubts about whether Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki had the capacity to control the sectarian violence in Iraq and recommended that the United States take new steps to strengthen the Iraqi leader’s position. The Nov. 8 memo was prepared for Mr. Bush and his top deputies by Stephen J. Hadley, the national security adviser, and senior aides on the staff of the National Security Council after a trip by Mr. Hadley to Baghdad....

The U.S. military is no longer able to defeat a bloody insurgency in western Iraq or counter al-Qaeda's rising popularity there, according to newly disclosed details from a classified Marine Corps intelligence report that set off debate in recent months about the military's mission in Anbar province.The Marines recently filed an updated version of that assessment that stood by its conclusions and stated that, as of mid-November, the problems in troubled Anbar province have not improved, a senior U.S. intelligence official said yesterday. "The fundamental questions of lack of control, growth of the insurgency and criminality" remain the same, the...

How far will Democrats go for partisan gain? Far enough to compromise national security? Looks that way.

Today, press reports indicate that it is Larry Hanauer, Rep. Jane Harman’s staffer, that Chairman Hoekstra has barred from seeing classified materials because he is suspected of having leaked the classified National Intelligence Estimate to the New York Times, in order to affect the election. This story is only beginning, and a fascinating backstory remains to be told about the Democrats in the House.

The illegal leaks of classified information dealing with ongoing operations and intelligence sources and methods put our American men and women in the military and intelligence community in danger. These leaks also cause immediate harm to our relationships with our allies in the war on terror, some of whom are asking whether the work we do together can be kept a secret. This week, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) suspended a Democrat staff member of the Committee over concerns he may have illegally leaked the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) to The New York Times last month. The Democrat...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican chairman of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee has suspended a Democratic staff member over a possible leak of a politically explosive intelligence report involving Iraq, officials said on Friday. The action, taken three weeks before the November election battle for control of Congress, brought a protest from the committee's leading Democrat who accused Republicans of political retaliation. The staff member, who was not identified, has not been accused of any wrongdoing, officials said. Rep. Peter Hoekstra (news, bio, voting record) of Michigan, the panel chairman, ordered his security clearance suspended after another Republican lawmaker...

Clearly, some of those whom we have entrusted with our most sensitive national security secrets can not be trusted with secrets. Somebody working from inside our most trusted intelligence agencies, using hand-chosen pieces of those secrets to wage a personal political war against their political opponents, is providing aid and comfort to America’s enemies in that process. Not long ago, this was a traitorous act of treason. Today, those who seek to capitalize politically on these leaks, call it patriotic dissent. The question is – what do American voters call it?

Indict the New York Times By Henry Mark Holzer FrontPageMagazine.com | September 29, 2006 It is an article of faith on the Left and among its fellow travelers that the Bush administration stole two elections, made war on Iraq for venal reasons, tortured hapless foreigners, and conducted illegal surveillance of innocent Americans. A corollary of this mindset is that the press, primarily the Washington Post and The New York Times, has a right, indeed a duty, to print whatever they want about the administration—even if the information compromises national security. Not true. The press is not exempt from laws that...

The US Constitution defines the act of treason as follows, “Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort.” [Article III , section 3.] (snip) Modern liberal Democrats scoff at the term “treason,” used by many other Americans with increasing regularity, to describe the recent string of overt actions by “democratic progressive liberals” seeking to regain political power. They scoff because there is no such thing as treason in their minds, and all things are fair game in pursuit of power, even at the expense...

Blog | Talk Radio Online | Columnists | Your Opinion | The News | Photos | Funnies | Books & Movies | Issues | Action Center They just don't get it The left misreads the NIE and Islamic terrorism By David Strom Wednesday, September 27, 2006 Much has been made in recent days about the supposed conclusion of the latest National Intelligence Estimate that the war in Iraq has inflamed Islamic terrorists. The New York Times “broke” the story last week with a headline that screamed "Spy Agencies Say Iraq War Worsens Terrorism Threat." The NIE in question, completed last...

 Last week the press, discreet as always, published a nugget mined from the top secret National Intelligence Estimate. The banner headlines suggested that our intelligence experts believe the war in Iraq to be an impediment in the “war on terror” because it stimulates al Qaeda’s recruitment. Democrats pounced. They seemed to believe that they had finally discovered their Holy Grail. At last they had official sanction for the view that fighting in Iraq hurts our cause. Maybe now they could oppose the war without alienating an electorate that rarely votes for poltroons during a war.The excitement didn’t last long. George...

Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald, who investigated whether senior Bush administration officials illegally leaked the name of a CIA operative for political payback, has spent $1.4 million in his probe over the past three years, his office reported yesterday -- a figure that establishes him as remarkably frugal in the ranks of recent special investigators. Independent Counsel Kenneth W. Starr's investigations of President Bill Clinton's affair with Monica S. Lewinsky and his ties to the failed Whitewater land investment cost $71.5 million and took eight years. Independent Counsel David M. Barrett's examination of Clinton housing secretary Henry G. Cisneros over...

Just when the Democrats thought it was safe to launch a weekend attack,using leaked documents, the President double-crossed them by de-classifying more of it ! Oh the humanity !

As media scoops go, those based on "classified" information seem to have a special cachet. But ...we wonder if anyone would bother to read this stuff if it didn't have the word "secret" slapped on it. That's our reaction to Sunday's New York Times report claiming that a 2006 national intelligence estimate, or NIE, concludes that "the Iraq war has made the overall terrorism problem worse..." This is supposedly because the war has provoked radical Islamists to hate America even more than they already did before they hijacked airplanes and flew them into buildings. If this is the kind of...

Exclusive: New U.S. Government Videotape Simulates Terrorist Attacks September 12, 2006 7:41 PM Brian Ross and Asa Eslocker Report: ABC News has obtained videotapes of dramatic U.S. government field tests of new methods to thwart terrorist attacks against U.S. embassies abroad. In the videotape tests, government scientists stage real terror attacks -- slamming trucks at high speed into barriers and exploding bombs near buildings. Multiple camera angles capture the blasts' effects on test dummies, posing as diplomats seated at their desks. The U.S. Department of State spends $2 million a year to develop better boundary security equipment against such potential...

When we last tuned in on July 25th, Russell Tice - a disgruntled ex-NSA staffer was subpoenaed to appear before the GJ, but balked when he found out just how rigorous the DOJ is perusing the leakers. So what has been going on in the meantime? According to sources the initial focus of the GJ is towards the media involvement, with special emphasis on who in our Government, specifically within the IC, or (as many believe via their sources) from the Senate Intelligence Committee via a staffer, is leaking classified information.

Perhaps, dear reader, you are perplexed. Perhaps you remember the scandal surrounding the outing of the CIA agent Valerie Plame, a crime so heinous that her husband was forced to endure repeated magazine photo-shoots. Perhaps you remember Karl Rove's face on the covers of magazines and newspapers, along with hundreds of stories and driveway stakeouts.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The military has charged a U.S. Navy officer who worked as a lawyer at Guantanamo Bay with mailing classified information on foreign terrorism suspects there to an unauthorized person, the Navy said on Tuesday. Lt. Cmdr. Matthew Diaz, stationed from July 2004 to January 2005 at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, faced a total of eight counts of three criminal charges and could spend 36 1/2 years in prison if convicted on all, the Navy said. Diaz, 40, was not charged with espionage and remains free, working at a Navy office in Jacksonville, Florida,...