Posted on 12/30/2005 7:26:42 AM PST by Pukin Dog
Just announced on Fox News, the Justice Department is going to investigate leaks pertaining to Goverment Wiretapping and Security programs.
You are correct, classified info is not handled by those without a clearance in the normal course of events. However there are occasions where non-cleared people come into contact with it, usually by accident. Our company policy, designed to comply with the security regulations imposed on us by the government, must take into account situations where a breach of security occurs and therefore we must train non-cleared employees how to properly react.
Part of that training includes spelling out the consequences of knowingly disclosing classified materials, irregardless of how they were obtained, as dictated by the Espionage Act.
Unfortunately, as Sandy Berger has so aptly demonstrated, the Act has little real power. Most just get a slap on the wrist and a stern admonishment not to let it happen again. But this may be different since the NYT has circulation in the millions...now that is mass dissemination.
If it's Rocky, he needs to be made a public spectacle at the very least, and yes thrown off the committee, if they can't touch him otherwise.
He seems to think he's above the law at this point, along with quite a few of our other pompous princes of the Potomac.
a Starry-Eyed one, at that!
it means you're in big trouble
This is damn serious.
"The original Slimes story cited NSA employees, IIRC."
What we have here is a conspiracy which will shake the bowels of Government. Folks with more loyalty to the Dems than to the country have been leaking info to support the DNC political script.
Hillary leaking about the Cheney Iraq trip, the rendition leaks and the comprimise of NSA collection capability have been orchestrated by moles within the agencies and political handlers.
It was all laid out in the Rockefeller memo back in 2003. The Dems have stepped in it big time.
fox reporting that it will be an off-camera briefing?
LOL! Blast 'em again, Darth!!
I'm not sure they can take it!
There is going to be a few senators and staffers who are going to be indicted, charged and tried. W is now going after our domestic enemies like our foreign ones. Their leaks are getting people killed and endangering the population. W has enough support in the media and the public to make this stick too. The Dems have crossed the line one to many times. You may be suprised but you will see some Democrats turn on their own on this one.
WASHINGTON - The Justice Department has opened an investigation into the leak of classified information about President Bush's secret domestic spying program, Justice officials said Friday.
The officials, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the probe, said the inquiry will focus on disclosures to The New York Times about warrantless surveillance conducted by the National Security Agency since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The Times revealed the existence of the program two weeks ago in a front-page story that acknowledged the news had been withheld from publication for a year, partly at the request of the administration and partly because the newspaper wanted more time to confirm various aspects of the program.
Catherine Mathis, a spokeswoman for The Times, said the paper will not comment on the investigation.
Revelation of the secret spying program unleashed a firestorm of criticism of the administration. Some critics accused the president of breaking the law by authorizing intercepts of conversations — without prior court approval or oversight — of people inside the United States and abroad who had suspected ties to al-Qaida or its affiliates.
The surveillance program, which Bush acknowledged authorizing, bypassed a nearly 30-year-old secret court established to oversee highly sensitive investigations involving espionage and terrorism.
Administration officials insisted that Bush has the power to conduct the warrantless surveillance under the Constitution's war powers provision. They also argued that Congress gave Bush the power to conduct such a secret program when it authorized the use of military force against terrorism in a resolution adopted within days of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The Justice Department's investigation was being initiated after the agency received a request for the probe from the NSA.
Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has been conducting a separate leak investigation to determine who in the administration leaked CIA operative Valerie Plame's name to the media in 2003.
Several reporters have been called to testify before a grand jury or to give depositions. New York Times reporter Judith Miller spent 85 days in jail, refusing to reveal her source, before testifying in the probe.
The administration's legal interpretation of the president's powers allowed the government to avoid requirements under the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in conducting the warrantless surveillance.
The act established procedures that an 11-member court used in 2004 to oversee nearly 1,800 government applications for secret surveillance or searches of foreigners and U.S. citizens suspected of terrorism or espionage.
Congressional leaders have said they were not briefed four years ago, when the secret program began, as thoroughly as the administration has since contended.
Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle said in an article printed last week on the op-ed page of The Washington Post that Congress explicitly denied a White House request for war-making authority in the United States.
"This last-minute change would have given the president broad authority to exercise expansive powers not just overseas ... but right here in the United States, potentially against American citizens," Daschle wrote.
Daschle was Senate Democratic leader at the time of the 2001 terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington. He is now a fellow at the Center for American Progress, a liberal Washington think tank.
The administration formally defended its domestic spying program in a letter to Congress last week, saying the nation's security outweighs privacy concerns of individuals who are monitored.
In a letter to the chairs of the House and Senate intelligence committees, the Justice Department said Bush authorized conducting electronic surveillance without first obtaining a warrant in an effort to thwart terrorist acts against the United States.
Assistant Attorney General William E. Moschella acknowledged "legitimate" privacy interests. But he said those interests "must be balanced" against national security. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051230/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/domestic_spying_probe
They're just now realizing it.
That was the Clinton DOJ. Not this one. Stop living in those times they are 5 years past.
Big time!!
I want to see some CIA/State Department scumbags FROG MARCHED!
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