Posted on 08/21/2009 8:40:48 AM PDT by mockingbyrd
WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department is investigating whether Guantanamo Bay detainees charged with roles in the Sept. 11 attacks were improperly given photos of CIA officers or contractors, according to a person familiar with the investigation.
The investigation, headed by the Justice Department's counterespionage chief, John Dion, is trying to determine if military lawyers defending the detainees divulged classified information or compromised covert CIA officers, according to the person, who was not authorized to discuss the investigation and spoke only on condition of anonymity.
It is a violation of federal law to identify CIA covert personnel, and it is a violation of military commission rules to disclose classified information, even if only to the defendants.
The person who spoke to The Associated Press said the photos at issue were provided by the John Adams Project, a combined effort of the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers to assist in the defense of the detainees.
The investigation was first reported by The Washington Post on its Web site Thursday night. The ACLU told the Post the organization was confident no laws or regulations had been broken.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
At least they didnt show the terrorists a picture of VALERIE PLAME. That would have been treason
sarc
Well, thats that. Nothing to see here. The ACLU says no laws were broken. Now onto the Michelle Obama shorts controversy...
Anyone surprised?
They're doing their little part for the same cause to which Obama, Emanuel, Axelrod, Soros, etc, etc, have devoted themselves.
Media Schadenfreude and Media Shenanigans PING
This is HUGE.
This won’t get nearly the attention that Plamegate got.
And wouldn’t be the first time that lawyers aided international terrorists.
Recall the lawyer who smuggled out messages from incarcerated terrorists to permit them to continue plotting further attacks.
Did I miss something? When is the Special Prosecutor being announced to investigate and charge the people responsible for compromising “covert operatives”?
The only reason Justice is pissed is it would impede prosecutions of the CIA grunts.
I’m sure “it’s Bush’s fault!”
“The investigation, headed by the Justice Department’s counterespionage chief, John Dion,”
(no link)
CIA leak spotlight falls on prosecutor - John Dion is accustomed to staying out of the public eye on even the biggest cases
Telegraph Herald (Dubuque, IA) - Friday, October 10, 2003
Author: ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON (AP) - The investigation into who leaked the identity of an undercover CIA officer is shining a spotlight on a 30-year Justice Department prosecutor more accustomed to staying out of the public eye on even the biggest cases.
John Dion , 57, is chief of the agency’s counterespionage section, a group of a dozen career public servants who specialize in the government’s most sensitive national security investi- gations.
In recent years, these have included FBI spy Robert Hanssen, CIA spy Aldrich Ames and accused al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui.
(snip)
He came to the Justice Department in 1973 as part of its honors program, shortly after graduating from George Washington University law school and Notre Dame University. He joined what then was called the internal security section in 1980, gradually rising through the ranks until he became acting chief in 1997 and chief in 2002.
Dion has twice received the John Marshall Award for Outstanding Achievement, one of the highest Justice Department awards: first in 1987 for work on the Walker family spy ring case and again in 1997 for espionage prosecutions of FBI agent Earl Pitts and CIA officer Harold Nicholson.
The Walker case involved a former Navy officer, John A. Walker Jr., and several family members who were convicted of spying for the Soviet Union. Pitts is serving a 27-year sentence for selling secrets to the Soviet Union and Russia; Nicholson was sentenced to 23 years in prison in 1997 for providing Russia with names of CIA officers and other classified documents.
Dion’s challenge in the CIA leak was underscored Thursday when four senior Democratic senators, including Minority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota, wrote in a letter to Bush that Ashcroft’s close ties to the White House will raise questions about the outcome of any investigation.
“We are at risk of seeing this investigation so compromised that those responsible for this national security breach will never be identified and prosecuted,” said the letter, also signed by Sens. Charles Schumer of New York, Carl Levin of Michigan and Joseph Biden of Delaware.
Victoria Toensing, the Justice Department’s top counterterrorism prosecutor in the mid-1980s, said Dion’s reputation for integrity is key for Bush and Ashcroft to avoid charges of political meddling in the CIA leak case.
(snip)
//
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/21/AR2006032100806.html
Moussaoui Memo Unseen, Court Told - Ex-FBI Official Was Unaware of Agent’s Warning
Washington Post, The (DC) - Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Author: Jerry Markon and Timothy Dwyer, Washington Post Staff Writers
A former top FBI counterterrorism official testified yesterday that he never saw an urgent memo sent to his office three weeks before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks warning that Zacarias Moussaoui was a terrorist intent on hijacking an airplane.
Defense attorney Edward B. MacMahon Jr . asked the former FBI official whether he knew that agent Harry Samit had warned in an Aug. 18, 2001, memo to his office that Moussaoui was a potential terrorist.
(snip)
//
Lawyers
* Joshua L. Dratel
* Thomas Anthony Durkin
* Nina Ginsberg
* Nancy Hollander
* Amanda Lee
* Denise LeBoeuf
* Edward B. MacMahon, Jr.
* Scott McKay
* David Nevin
* Jeff Robinson
* Gary D. Sowards
In a rational world, yes. Perhaps not on Planet 0bama.
This won’t get nearly the attention that Plamegate got.
I'd be astonished if it is reported at all after the weekend. *sigh* (Unless they can blame Bush. *double sigh*)
And wouldn’t be the first time that lawyers aided international terrorists.
Sadly, no.
It sounds like John Dion has a good reputation according to Victoria Toensing(who is a solid Reaganite from everything I have seen of her over the years). Am I reading him right?
No; just continue to be sickened, however. . .
Surprised that the O cabal noticed or cared.
Where are the checks and balances for this type of thing? Can the CIA agents sue the ACLU for endangering their lives? This administration is running amok and it doesn’t seem like there’s anything anyone can do about it. Is this what the founding fathers had in mind? I don’t think so.
I admire anyone who has the guts to do what the CIA, FBI, or any other agency does when taking on terrorists. They should at least be protected. They’re saving our lives.
If they do sue the ACLU or anyone else who ‘accidentally’ showed me the pictures, put me on the jury. I want to personally congratulate the agent while sending the guilty party to the gallows. Unbelievable. And I wonder why my blood pressure goes up every time I hear stuff like this.
The investigation, headed by the Justice Department’s counterespionage chief, John Dion, is trying to determine if military lawyers defending the detainees divulged classified information or compromised covert CIA officers...
DUH!....Ya think?
A Veteran of Ferreting Out Spies Turns His Attention to the White House
New York Times, The (NY) - Tuesday, October 7, 2003
Author: ERIC LICHTBLAU
EXCERPT
Democrats charge that whatever Mr. Dion’s investigation finds, the results will be politically tainted because of the White House’s close ties to Attorney General John Ashcroft and his top aides. They have called on Mr. Ashcroft to appoint a special counsel or recuse himself, pointing out that any decisions on subpoenaing of reporters would have to be approved by the attorney general.
But Justice Department officials and Republicans in Congress say they are confident that Mr. Dion’s counterespionage unit — made up of 11 career lawyers who are not politically appointed — can conduct a fair and independent review.
Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania, said the F.B.I.’s role as the lead investigative agency should give the review an added level of political insulation.
He noted that while Robert S. Mueller III, the F.B.I. director, was appointed by President Bush, he has a 10-year term through 2011. “He’s not beholden to anyone,” Mr. Specter said. “He’s not going to favor the president.”
Mr. Specter and other lawmakers called Mr. Dion’s section on the carpet in 2000 for its lenient handling of a Southern California nuclear scientist who admitted passing classified national defense information to the Chinese. Justice Department officials said they had been unaware that the plea agreement struck by federal prosecutors with the scientist, Dr. Peter Lee, would not result in any jail time.
Mr. Specter said that despite his deep concerns about the handling of that case, “I did not have any doubt about Dion’s work.”
This story sickens me. Not only did the ACLU attorneys disclose the identities of covert CIA operatives (unlike desk-jockey Valerie Plame), but also they surveilled them. Now of course they’re used to being surveilled - BY ENEMIES of our country! And did the ACLU expose their families in the process of spying on them?
AG Holder will do nothing about this. Nothing!
That doesn’t sound good. Check out the other thread and my ping to you. One of the lawyers involved in this also represented the AQ terrorist that plotted to kill Bush 1.
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