Posted on 06/20/2002 10:15:56 PM PDT by JohnHuang2
ASHINGTON, June 20 — The leaders of a joint Congressional inquiry into the Sept. 11 attacks asked the Justice Department today to investigate their panel, after Vice President Dick Cheney complained that sensitive information had been improperly disclosed.
The four lawmakers also said that the panel would delay the start of its public hearings, which had been set to begin next week, until next month at the earliest.
"We are very concerned about leaks at any time," said Representative Porter J. Goss, the Florida Republican who is chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and a co-chairman of the joint panel. "We carry a very heavy responsibility to handle all classified information properly, especially when we're at war."
Flanked by the other leaders of the two Congressional intelligence committees, he said the group had asked Attorney General John Ashcroft to see if Congressional sources were improperly releasing classified information. Mr. Goss added that the joint committee would cooperate with the Federal Bureau of Investigation "in any way possible."
The request means that the F.B.I. is to investigate a committee looking into possible intelligence lapses by the bureau.
The request for an investigation was prompted by news accounts that the National Security Agency had intercepted two cryptic communications on Sept. 10 referring to a major event to take place the next day.
The intercepted discussions were not translated and reviewed by agency analysts until Sept. 12. One Sept. 10 conversation said "the big match" was scheduled for the next day; a second message referred to Sept. 11 as "zero hour."
The disclosures were the latest sign that though United States intelligence agencies had acquired an array of clues about the Sept. 11 plot, they were unable to assemble them.
The information about the Sept. 10 intercepts was disclosed after Lt. Gen. Michael Hayden, the director of the National Security Agency, and other intelligence officials testified before the joint committee this week in hearings closed to the public.
Ari Fleischer, the White House press secretary, said President Bush had told Mr. Cheney to relay his concerns about unauthorized disclosures to the committee.
"The president does have very deep concerns about anything that would be inappropriately leaked that could in any way endanger America's ability to gather intelligence information," Mr. Fleischer said.
He said that in 1998, an unauthorized disclosure of intelligence information led Osama bin Laden to stop using a satellite phone that the United States had been able to monitor. "We never again heard from that satellite phone," Mr. Fleischer said.
Mr. Fleischer said he was confident the disclosures had not come from the administration.
This afternoon, Senator Bob Graham, the Florida Democrat who is chairman of the Senate intelligence panel and the joint committee's other co-chairman, said he had spoken with Mr. Cheney. "The vice president was not a happy man," he said.
In a statement tonight, the Justice Department said it would "expeditiously review this matter and take any appropriate action."
The White House has fended off Democratic calls for an independent inquiry into intelligence and policy failures leading to Sept. 11. Instead, it has chosen to work with the Congressional intelligence committees, arguing that they have long experience handling sensitive information.
The leak investigation is another setback for the joint committee, which has had internal differences about the pace of the inquiry, about how to conduct public hearings and about the preparedness of its staff.
The lawmakers said that Mr. Cheney had not sought an F.B.I. investigation, and that the committee's leaders had decided themselves to turn to Mr. Ashcroft.
Asked if lawmakers would be open to interviews and polygraph tests conducted by the bureau, Mr. Goss said, "We will cooperate with the F.B.I. in every way possible."
Asked if journalists should be questioned about sources, he said, "It is useful for reporters to cooperate with people who are conducting bona fide investigations, if they do truly affect national security."
The lawmakers said the leak or investigation had not caused the delay in public hearings. Staff members, they said, needed more time to review material and testimony that the committee gathered this week.
Some members of the joint committee have expressed concern that they were moving too fast and risked opening public hearings before they knew exactly what information they ought to seek from top intelligence officials.
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