Posted on 03/07/2011 5:49:36 PM PST by NoLibZone
Thursday, Nov. 29, 2001 11:28 a.m. EST
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Pat Leahy, D-Vt., has once again taken the lead in opposition to Attorney General John Ashcroft, this time doing everything he can to throw a monkey wrench into the Ashcroft Justice Department's plans to fight the war on terrorism.
In a Senate hearing on Wednesday, Leahy said the Bush administration hadn't consulted his committee before announcing its plan, including an option to use secret military tribunals to try terrorists and other tactics - and complained that the announcement failed to "respect the checks and balances that make up our constitutional framework."
Of course, no one present had the nerve to mention one reason why some might be reluctant to consult Leahy about anything secret.
Allow us.
Could it have something to do with the Vermont Democrat's penchant for partisan grandstanding and publicity stunts?
On Sunday he virtually bragged that a suspicious letter addressed to him contained enough anthrax to kill "over 100,000 people." The next day, in a development covered only by NewsMax, Homeland Security Czar Tom Ridge revealed that Leahy had no idea what he was talking about.
"I talked to the folks at the FBI today and they haven't opened it," Ridge told radioman Don Imus. "I'm not sure that we've got the scientific evidence that can corroborate that at this point."
But there are other, more troubling aspects to having Sen. Leahy sit in judgment of President Bush's domestic plans for the war on terrorism - such as Leahy's own tortured history when it comes to dealing with secret information about terrorists.
NewsMax first brought these details to the public's attention in January, back when Leahy was raking Ashcroft over the coals during the confirmation process. Now that he's determined to repeat the process in the midst of an ongoing national security emergency, it's worth reviewing a few developments that the media would rather not discuss.
In his home state of Vermont, more than a few of his constituents remember him best as "Leaky Leahy," the one-time vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who had to resign the post in disgrace 14 years ago after acknowledging he divulged secret information to a reporter.
"Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, inadvertantly disclosed a top secret communications intercept during a [1985] television interview," reported the San Diego Union-Tribune in a 1987 editorial criticizing Congress' penchant for partisan leaks.
"The intercept, apparently of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's telephone conversations, made possible the capture of the Arab terrorists who had hijacked the cruise ship Achille Lauro and murdered American citizens," the paper said, adding, "The reports cost the life of at least one Egyptian operative involved in the operation."
In July 1987, the Washington Times reported that Leahy leaked secret information about a 1986 covert operation planned by the Reagan administration to topple Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi.
"I thought [the operation] was probably the most ridiculous thing I had seen, and also the most irresponsible," the then-leading Intelligence Committee Democrat allegedly said of the secret plan.
Unidentified U.S. intelligence officials told the Times that Leahy, along with Republican panel chairman Sen. Dave Durenberger, communicated a written threat to expose the operation directly to then-CIA Director William Casey.
Weeks later, news of the secret plan turned up in the Washington Post, causing it to be aborted.
Leahy vehemently denied he talked to the press about any of the Reagan administration's covert operations, saying, "I never have, and I'm not going to start now."
But just a year later, as the Senate was preparing to hold hearings on the Iran-Contra scandal, the Vermont senator had to resign his Intelligence Committee post after he was caught leaking secret information to a reporter.
The ranking Intelligence Committee Democrat decided to let an NBC reporter comb through the committee's confidential draft report on the scandal. The network aired a report based on the inside information on Jan. 11, 1987.
After a six-month internal investigation, Leahy "voluntarily" stepped down from his committee post, releasing a statement calling his resignation "a suitable way to express ... anger and regret" over his lapse.
Leahy's anger, he said, was at himself, "for carelessly allowing the press person to examine the unclassified draft and to be alone with it."
The Vermont Democrat's Iran-Contra leak was considered to be one of the most serious breaches of secrecy in the committee's 10-year history.
After Leahy's resignation, the Senate Intelligence Committee decided to restrict access to committee documents to a security-enhanced meeting room.
Somehow the elite media consider none of the above relevant, even as Sen. Leahy once again assumes the role of guardian of America's national interests.
Needless to say, we think the nation needs to be reminded of the Vermont Democrat's tortured relationship with national security issues - before he damages America's war on terrorism even more than he did in the 1980s.
POS tool.
This SOB has compromised others as well in his “career”.
And he is still around causing problems, for over 30 years.
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