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 I mean, they should have been revoked at the time of the leak."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."
Lookie here bump !
I can't wait to hear this discussed on the Sunday talk shows tomorrow./extreme sarcasm off
"about as serious as the allegations against Karl Rove."
Are you kidding me!!!
This is a million times worse. Actually it can't be expressed mathematically, since Rove did NOTHING wrong! You must've forgotten your sarcasm attachment.
Forget this. What about Karl Rove?
It's about time the RATS are held accountable for sedition and treason.
She was doing a story about ALL the CIA leaks and has something on Durbin and Kerry. She sure wouldn't stay in jail for Rove.
By jove, I think you've got something there! I think Tenet is mixed up in this leaking mess, too.
bump!
'Course his job was with computers & programming so he's a different case.
I'm not holding my breath!
bttt
bttt
Friggin no good, lowlife, commie bastards!!
I may be wrong, but it seems that I heard a few weeks ago that some Senators might be in trouble for also identifying a plane that was used to fly into Afghanistan....
It was a covert CIA plane, but it seems like I heard that some dems "outed" it as a CIA plane, instead of a "normal" troop plane...
Do you remember anything about that?
Vaguely, but I'm not sure. I'll see if I can find anything.
DING DING DING... We have a winner!
I Love the smell of frog-marching in the morning!
I did a cursory look at the FR archives, and I saw one article from March about "plane spotters" posting pics of CIA undercover planes, supposedly not knowing that, but pics on the internet endanger mission...
THIS was close, but I seem to remember that like this case, a Senator or someone was discussing this in public...
Oh, well, the old brain cells are wearing out...
Dickie Durbin is supposed to be a guest on Meet The Press on Sunday...
Betcha ole Fat Timmy asks him ALL about Rove, but doesn't mention this little investigation....
Nope, as far as the media is concerned, THIS DOES NOT EVEN EXIST.
Gonna send this one to the Chicago Sun-Times. Maybe they'll pick up this ball and run with it.
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