Sept. 11 Leak Probe Focuses on Sen. Shelby, Paper Reports

Reuters | 01.22.04 | Unknown

[kcvl]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Justice Department probe of the leak of classified information about intercepted messages prior to the Sept. 11 attacks is focusing on Sen. Richard Shelby, former chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, The Washington Post reported on Thursday.

The newspaper cited a law enforcement official and congressional sources as saying that the probe has focused on the Alabama Republican who was head of the intelligence panel at the time of the disclosure.

The FBI is trying to determine the source of the leaked information that the super secret National Security Agency (NSA) had intercepted two messages hinting at an impending action on the eve of Sept. 11, 2001, but did not translate them until Sept. 12.

The information was first disclosed publicly on CNN after a 2002 classified hearing in which the director of the NSA spoke to lawmakers behind closed doors.

Citing unnamed sources, The Washington Post reported that a grand jury has been hearing information and has taken testimony from at least two witnesses including Shelby's former press secretary.

Shelby, who now heads the Senate Banking Committee, told the newspaper in a statement that he had never compromised classified information.

"To my knowledge, the same can be said about my staff," the statement said. The Post quoted the statement as saying Shelby had had no contact with investigators for more than a year.

A spokesman for Shelby could not immediately be reached for comment.

The Post said it was unclear how long the 18-month investigation had focused on Shelby or how close the FBI was to concluding the probe.

The NSA, based at Fort Meade, Maryland, is one of the government's most secretive intelligence agencies. Much of its information carries a higher classification than other sorts of intelligence. It is illegal to release classified information.

[GladesGuru]

National Police tend to develop such behavior patterns whenever they are given too much budget, too many employees, and thus have too much time and money on their hands.

Because of their job description, they are, after all, first cousin to the NKVD and the Gestapo. National police forces tend to be harder to rein in when they become abusive; and sooner or later, they do become abusive because they exercise real power.

Long ago, Lord Acton accurately said "power corrupts - ansolute power corrupts absolutely."

The wasteful and abusive part of this search is that is is based on a line which has no site specific content. Nor does this statement contain and content about what is "going to occur".

Thise empty statement is being chased by empty headed agents probably sent on this useless chase by some 'Top 'Crat' with too much budget and too many employees.

Suggestion: Empty the Top 'Crat's job description and reduce the agency budget.

[OldFriend]

OOOOHHHHHHHH, tomorrow is Zero Day.

And we were take what action with that information.

We had similar 'warnings' since 9/11 that have prompted the terror warned level to rise.

Did we shut down the airlines, close the banks, stop all commerce?

This is ridiculous and seems to be nothing more than a hit piece on the administration.

[Dog]

Makes perfect sense.......Shelby is in a heap of trouble.

[Dog]

This isn't directed at Bush.....this is aimed at Shelby.

[OldFriend]

Shelby has an 'R' along side his name.....further, he used to be a demonrat but changed when he had a big time run in with slick willie.

[bankwalker]

In 1992, Impeached 42 was elected President with a whopping 43% of the popular vote. The public knew he was a draft dodging, skirt chasing, "Southern Lawyer" with no National Security experience yet he still made it into the White House.

Thank you, Ross.

[Dog]

It has nothing to do with an R behind his name......Shelby likes to run his mouth to reporters.... he needs to get called on it. This leak caused some damamge to Bush and the White House....so if Shelby leaked it.....he needs to be punished.

[expatpat]

The information was first disclosed publicly on CNN after a 2002 classified hearing

This is Reuters disinformation. If CNN got it, it almost certainly came from one of the Democrap senators or aides.

[lainde]

bttt

[GB]

I am a resident of Alabama and Shelby is my senator ... Shelby is pretty much in tune with me philosophically and ideologically ... however, he is an absolute slug-bug of a human being and I have not ever, nor will I ever, cast a vote for him. When he comes up for re-election, I either vote Libertarian or abstain.

[PhiKapMom]

I agree with you -- if CNN got this information right after the hearing, it came from a DemocRAT. Looks to me like another Reuters smear campaign. First Sen Shelby, then Republicans in the Senate, and then leads to the President as the final smear -- that's how Reuters operates. They take rumors/opinion and turn them into facts in their articles time and time again. Comparing AP and Reuters articles on the same news sometimes can make you wonder if they are writing about the same topic.

I thought Grand Jury testimony was classified.

[faithincowboys]

I think Moussaui should have been a red flag, they seemed not to connect the dots.

I think the whole culture of the intel agencies is wrong for the threats we face.

They didn't communicate, no human intel, no arabic translators.

Truth be told, the whole thing could have been avoided at Clinton and Gore pushed airlines to fortify the cockpit doors, unfortunately they took campaign money instead.

My point is 9-11 was a gross intel failure and the agencies charged with protecting the nation dropped the ball--that's not even arguable.

[faithincowboys]

Well, that was after the Cold War and we didn't think we had any enemies. Thus, the obnoxious line, "It's the economy stupid" (screw foreign policy)worked.

[petitfour]

I don't believe Shelby would tell a CNN reporter this stuff.

Do we have a suspect for the anthrax mailings yet?

[smith288]

Upon reading these 2 messages I immediately think that people are going to hijack airplanes and fly them into buildings....(scarcasm )

Democrats operate on a 20/20 hindsight principal as part of their policy regarding Republicans.

[leadpenny]

We have oversight committees in both Houses of Congress. We have Congress itself and we have the Office of the Presidency. They all represent us. Any chance we all should accept responsibility for what did or did not happen?

[b4its2late]

Something is fishy here. Shelby does not seem capable of something like this, but I guess anything is possible, but.......

Just wondering out loud - if the dems have a someone inside Shelbys office or if they broke into his information themselves? It's happened before. Something just doesn't seem right to me.

[PISANO]

"The match begins tomorrow" "Tomorrow is zero hour."

Yep that would be enough for me to shut down every airline in the nation. Issue a state of emergency for the entire country and tell everyone to stay at home and hunker down. Too bad the bad guys did NOT give us SOONER notice so that we could all have purchased our gas masks, duct tape and potassium iodate pills.

[faithincowboys]

No,that is ridiculous.

The agencies are charged with national security and Jane Q. Public in Omaha with the three kids and the SUV is not culpable for their stunning failures.

[plain talk]

Right. And I'm sure there's coding in there that describe the specific locations involved since we do have quite a few flights taking off each day. :-)