Posted on 10/20/2006 2:10:12 PM PDT by melt
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 raised suspicions about the staffer's handling of an April national intelligence estimate on global terrorism.
Hoekstra spokesman Jamal Ware said the staffer will not be allowed into the committee's secure areas or to view classified material until the committee completes an in-house review of the matter.
U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on Friday declined to comment on whether the Justice Department would also investigate.
The classified intelligence estimate, which said the Iraq war was helping to drive the growth of the global Islamist movement, caused an uproar after its contents were leaked to the New York Times and other media outlets late in September.
The suggestion that Bush administration policy in Iraq had increased the danger of international terrorism put Republicans on the defensive over national security, a main issue in the election campaign.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Hoekstra was just interviewed live on Foxnews....he sounds pretty steamed about this....GOOD!
Democrat staffer = Larry Hanauer, staffer of none other than Jane Harmen,(D-CA) ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
bump
"To Democrats--- America is the real enemy."
To the real enemy, the democrats are an ally.
If he wants to have any integrity at all, he'd better.
WTF does that mean? IF HE LEAKED CLASSIFIED INFO THERE WAS F#$KING WRONGDOING!
Google Search: Larry Hanauer
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Larry+Hanauer
What's national security when the the dems have momentum!
Rep. Hoekstra....Ask the Justice Dept. to open up an investigation and get these people under OATH!
What do we know about Larry Hanauer?
LoL, go take a look at CNN's front page. See what story the MSM is STILL flogging. Unbelievable.
There is some good info over at the Strata Sphere, here:
http://strata-sphere.com/blog/
He contributed $$$ to the f'n Kerry campaign
http://www.newsmeat.com/fec/bystate_detail.php?st=&zip=20008&last=Hanauer&first=Larry
I see Larry was moved out of the Pentagon in the reshuffling after 9/11.
Many of the wingnut articles use him as an example of the Bush Administration moving out the "experts, with years of experience" and replacing them with crazy neoconservatives.
The problem with that story, which has likely so circulated amongst the halfwits to be accepted as gospel, is that Larry looks to be about 35 years old and had only been at the Pentagon for perhaps 5 years. Hardly the long-time expert he was cracked up to be.
Too funny, but then again, what do you expect from a "news" organization that shows propaganda video from the terrorists, showing their snipers killing our soldiers, and calling it newsworthy? CNN has not been referred to the Caliphate News Network on several blogs, and with good reason.
CNN does not even have this story on their web site anywhere. Like the rest of the alphabets, they will bury this story....its not good for the dems, so CNN will avoid telling it. TYpical of them; bad for pubbies, headlines and front page, if its bad for the demos, it is spiked. LOL. They are so transparent.
I already had one liberal tell me that it's OK for some low level staffer decide these things for all Americans. He didn't answer when I asked if it was OK for Sandy Berger to make things disappear when he decided that the 9/11 commission didn't need to know them.
It's pretty much the reaction I expected from democrats.
From Stata-Sphere comments:
http://www.strata-sphere.com/blog/
Mr. Hanauer, 34, is a consultant on homeland security and intelligence issues at Booz Allen Hamilton, the consulting firm in McLean, Va. He graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania and received a master’s degree in international relations from Tufts. From 1995 to 2003, Mr. Hanauer was a foreign policy adviser in the office of the Secretary of Defense, working primarily on Middle Eastern and European security issues.
also,
Larry Hanauer did a stint on the staff of NY Rep Joseph Crowley, giving Hanauer a NY connection and probably press contacts with the NY Times. Crowley’s official site is here. So that establishes a path to the NY news media.
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