Posted on 07/23/2005 10:34:08 AM PDT by wagglebee
The Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation into whether Democratic Senators Dick Durbin, Jay Rockefeller and Ron Wyden leaked details about a secret "black ops" CIA satellite program last December in a move that may have seriously compromised national security, former Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Jed Babbin said on Saturday.
"The CIA made a request to the Justice Department to investigate and possibly bring criminal charges against these three [senators]," Babbin told WABC Radio host Monica Crowley. "My information is that investigation is ongoing."
Mr. Rockefeller is the Vice Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and Mr. Durbin is the number two ranking Democrat in the Senate.
Media reports on the satellite leak last December indicated that the Bush administration was concerned about public comments by Durbin, Rockefeller and Wyden and that the CIA had requested a Justice Department probe.
"The formal request for a leaks investigation would target people who described sensitive details about a new generation of spy satellites to The Washington Post, which published a page-one story about the espionage program Saturday [Dec. 11, 2004]," a Justice Department official told the Associated Press at the time.
But the same official told the AP that Justice "has not decided whether to investigate."
Former Deputy Undersecretary Babbin's comments on Saturday were the first indication that such a probe was actually launched and is ongoing.
"The fact of the matter is that [Durbin, Rockefeller and Wyden] divulged something that was above and beyond top secret and frankly, they probably blew the strategy and the hundreds of millions of dollars that were being spent to pursue it," he told Crowley.
"The acknowledgement of [the "black ops" program's] existence is not even proper and the acknowledgement of them and the details of them can very well damage national security," Babbin added.
Asked if he thought the three Senate Democrats should have their security clearances revoked for the duration of the leak probe, the former Defense Department official said, "Absolutely and forthwith. I mean, they should have been revoked at the time of the leak."
"There's really not much doubt about the leak having occurred," Babbin told Crowley. "It's in the press records, it's in the Congressional record. We know what they did."
"The only question," he explained, "is how much damage was done by the leak. And that's part of the criminal investigation right now - to do a damage assessment, to figure out how much this is going to cost us strategically and militarily."
Illinois folks, now is the time:
http://durbin.senate.gov/contact.cfm
Too bad we don't have a real razor in the senate. Instead, we have Wimp Frist.
(it gets even right away).
My parents vote Republican but believe everything the MSM says too, and a fair amount of what the Democrats say. They are in their early 70's and I don't bother to correct them anymore either.
Media not making much of that news either.
There is probably more truth to what you said than you know. Kerry, and now these schmucks are out there leaking all over the place. With their Plame gig in full gear, they can use the old Clinton, "everybody does it" excuse.
I agree with your post. 100%. We don't have to be ugly or nutty sounding when we defend ourselves, but it's important that we do so.
For instance, the Republicans have let it stand for years the lie told by the Democrats and MSM that Republicans were opposed to the Civil Rights Act. The truth is that more Republicans voted for it than Democrats.
I heard some of that on C-SPAN radio. Don't tell your dad but he can watch it again via RealPlayer. It's 2:14 long.
Conyers did something like that a couple of weeks ago. I don't understand why Hastert let's them get away with it. From what I understand he controls the C-SPAN cameras for that kind of stuff. I could be wrong.
http://www.c-span.org/
Hard Time! Not Gitmo.
The seriousness of the charges alone demand as much!
Yeah, signed as Howdy-Doody®
In most police departments, an officer accused of doing anything wrong, is put on leave until the investigation is over. I guess Senators are above all this.
about as serious as the allegations against Karl Rove.
I meant absolutely nothing by using Howdy Doody except that the thing was phoney from beginning to end.
That Rove is sooo powerful.
In an interview the other day, I think I remember Bubba referring to Rove as "very clever".
Same here. I emailed Monica and asked for her reaction to the story. If she replies I'll post it here.
So I guess they will be having a hearing on THIS subject soon, hmmmm?
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