[Right Wing Professor]

Can you think of any reason why this is classified, except to protect the jobs of the people handing out visas to terrorists?

[RonDog]

The reporter, Joel Mowbray...

From http://www.townhall.com/columnists/BIOS/cbmowbray.htm:

JOEL MOWBRAY

Joel Mowbray, a former congressional staffer and entrepreneur, writes columns for Townhall that are not only interesting, but that draw from his expertise in politics, law, business, and policy.

A graduate of the University of Illinois and Georgetown Law School, Joel worked on Capitol Hill for former Rep. Mark Sanford (R-SC), where he established his reputation as a leading advocate for Social Security privatization. Earlier he spent two years working for Pioneer Strategies under now-Fox News reporter Heather Nauert.

After leaving the Hill, Joel founded PriceCompare Technologies, working for two years with the Internet software company.

In addition to writing columns for Townhall.com, Joel is a National Review Online contributor, and his work has also been published in the New York Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, National Review, Investors Business Daily, Philadelphia Inquirer, Arizona Republic, FrontPage magazine, Jewish World Review, and Washington Times. They have also been distributed nationally on the Knight-Ridder/Tribune and Scripps-Howard newswires.

Joel has appeared on CNN's "Talk Back Live" and "Special Report with Brit Hume;" ABC's "Politically Incorrect;" FOX News Channel's "FOX & Friends," "O'Reilly Factor," "The Big Story with John Gibson," "Hannity & Colmes," and "FOXwire;" MSNBC's "Hardball," "Head-to-Head," and "Alan Keyes is Making Sense;" and C-SPAN's "Washington Journal." He has also become a fixture on talk radio as a guest on many nationally syndicated programs, such as the G. Gordon Liddy show, the Jim Bohannon show, the Laura Ingraham show, "The Ken Hamblin Show," "Janet Parshall's America," "Battleline with Alan Nathan," Blanquita Cullum's "BQ View," NPR's "On Point," and Armstrong Williams' "The Right Side," as well as Washington D.C.'s premier entertainment morning drive show, "Elliot in the Morning."

Joel grew up in the south suburbs of Chicago, where he enjoyed acting and being on his high school speech team. For seven years, he was a DJ on both commercial and noncommercial radio stations. He was also a National Merit Scholar. In addition, Joel spent two summers interning with Townhall member groups Americans for Tax Reform and Linda Chavez's Center for Equal Opportunity.

In Joel's free time, he is an avid movie buff (he owns over 200 DVDs) and enjoys writing screenplays.

...He spent two years working under Heather Nauert???

[gcruse]

Here we have 'secret' war planning documents appearing in the papers daily, yet the administration goes after a reporter for exposing State's loss of control over visas. Is this a great country, or are we becoming another Zimbabwe?

[testforecho]

more visa express coverage:

Mary Ryan, head of consular affairs, forced out

National Review July 10

National Review June 25

STATE DEPT. SPIN ON SAUDI VISA SCANDAL

Mowbray interview on O'Reilly Factor July 17

Open Door for Saudi Terrorists - June 15

[YaYa123]

Joel Mowbray should be on his way to a Pulitzer for this excellent investigative work. It caused the State Dept to rid itself of the woman responsible for Visa Express, Mary A. Ryan, Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Consular Affairs.

What a disappointment it took a young whippersnapper reporter to get Colin Powell to fix a serious security problem within his department.

[healey22]

The State Department would rather the public not know what enemies they are of the United States. They suck up to Arab terrorist and give anyone a Visa for the asking or for the dollars. They are a big part of the problem and would rather not offend third world terrorist than protect American citizens from these murderous nuts. Diversity is our strength. /sarcasm

[testforecho]

Free Joel Mowbray!

[Kay]

Since when did Senator Torricelli become an "R" as in Republican?

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

Somebody tell the bureaucratic clymers that things like this should only be done in the interest of protecting our national security, not natural stupidity (in government). I know they both sound similar but Clinton has been out of office awhile, so we don't have to put up with it anymore.

[goody2shooz]

...spokesman Richard Boucher [State Department] said Mowbray had written inaccurate stories...

Liar! Liar! How pathetic, that citizens and journalists have to resort to ferreting out classified documents in order to prove our government dissembles. Someone is covering their arse.

The State Department needs a thorough cleaning.

[First_Salute]

See: Reuters: State Dept. missing two more laptops, Reuters, May 4, 2000 (posted May 5th by Thanatos).

WASHINGTON, May 5 (UPI) -- One day after she berated Foreign Service employees for security lapses, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright admitted that the State Department was missing two more laptop computers.

The Washington Post reported Friday that Albright testified Thursday before a House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence that two unclassified laptops were missing.

One of the missing machines was assigned to Morton Halperin, assistant secretary of state for policy and planning. Although Halperin said he had not used the computer, others in his office may have used it for tracking expenses and routine memos, the newspaper reported ...

See: House Chair Rips State Dept. Over Missing Laptops, AP, May 5, 2000, by Barry Schweid (posted May 6th by Native American Female Vet); excerpted.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Some of the computers at the State Department used for classified material are not equipped with passwords and other security features, a senior U.S. official said Friday.

Describing the computers as of the ''off-the-shelf'' variety, the official said he did not know whether a laptop computer discovered missing in February from the department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research had the devices.

The department confirmed Friday that two other laptop computers had disappeared, but only the one that vanished in February is known to have contained secret information.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the areas in which computers containing classified information are used are themselves secure and the computers are not supposed to be removed. The problem, he said, is that someone got into the secure area of the bureau who should have not been there. And, he said, it is the way the area is secured, not what is on the computers, that provide security.

Entry into secure areas are carefully logged, the official said.

Disclosure that some computers are not equipped with protective devices was the latest twist in the State Department's security situation and tensions between Congress and the department ...

But State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the job was in the competent hands of the Bureau of Diplomatic Security. ''It's comprised not only of special agents who conduct investigation and provide dignitary protection, but also of very seasoned information and computer security specialists with many years of experience,'' he said.

Thus far, three laptop computers have been reported missing. Of the two newly announced computers, one had been signed out to a senior official, Morton H. Halperin, the assistant secretary of state for policy planning.

Boucher said the computers were found to be missing during an inventory ordered after the unexplained disappearance in February of a laptop computer containing highly classified information. That is the only one of the three laptops known to contain classified material, he said.

Suggesting other equipment may be missing as well, Boucher said: ''I don't want to mislead anybody into thinking that we're saying there's only two others -- two unclassified machines missing. We're still in the middle of this inventory" ...

Officials have said the first missing laptop contained large quantities of documents about arms proliferation issues and highly sensitive information about sources and methods of U.S. intelligence collection.

Earlier, a bugging device was found in a conference room.

See: More State Department Laptops Lost, NewsMax.com, May 18, 2000 (posted by kattracks).

A total of 15 State Department laptop computers have vanished over the last year and a half, the Washington Post reported today, adding that the matter has now resulted in a security crackdown.

The missing laptops, all identified as "unclassified" or not containing classified information, are part of the State Departments inventory of some 1,913 portable computers. And a security check of the department's 60 laptops that could contain secret information revealed that only one was missing ...

[Oldeconomybuyer]

I am not a fan of most in the press, but in this case I have more heartburn for the State Department employee who leaked the information than the reporter. Granted, Pentagon leaks are worse that stories about visa applications but it seems there is an epidemic of leaks among "civil servants".

[jimtorr]

Don't care what y'all think about any "visa express for terrorists". I even agree.

However, a reporter without a security clearance should never have classified material in his possesion. Who in the State Department gave it to him? What else has that "source" been giving him?

Remember, this is substantially the same State Department that we were all saying such bad things about just two years ago for leaking classified info like a sieve. Remember the classified laptop stolen from the same building as this latest incident? Remember the briefcase stolen from an office down the hall from Mad Maddie, while two secretaries watched? Remember the bug in the conference room?

Was this reporter actually naive enough to think he could just walk away after telling everybody that he had a classified document with him?

He says that "some" of his reporting was "based" on classified material. Everyone just assumes, then, that everything he wrote must be total gospel. Why would you think that without more information?

[Diplomat]

Last year, the Justice Department obtained the personal phone records of Associated Press reporter John Solomon after he had written about a federal wiretap of Sen. Robert G. Torricelli, R-N.J.

Just an honest mistake by AP or Nando?, totally inadventent, nothing inmplied here.

[JohnPaulJones]

Can you say the beginning of a POLICE STATE! Wake up folks!

[AnalogReigns]

Here's the inside story:

Nat. Review protests journalist detention
UPI National Editor
From the International Desk
Published 7/15/2002 1:23 PM


WASHINGTON, July 15 (UPI) -- The following is the text of a letter written by National Review Editor Richard Lowry to protest the detention of its correspondent Joel Mowbray on July 12, 2002, as published in the National Review under the headline "Let Mowbray Report" on July 15, 2002:


July 15, 2002

Richard Boucher

Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Public Affairs

U.S. Department of State

2201 C Street NW

Washington, DC 20520

Dear Mr. Boucher,

I am writing to protest the State Department's treatment of National Review Online contributor Joel Mowbray last Friday.

Mr. Mowbray was detained by diplomatic security service officers in what I can only conclude was an attempt to intimidate a reporter whose work had proven highly inconvenient to the department.

When Mr. Mowbray reported in the July 1 National Review on the "Visa Express" program designed to give Saudi nationals easy access to the United States, the department's response was to attack Mr. Mowbray personally as a liar.

A press officer at the department's Consular Affairs office went on Fox News to say that "every word he writes is a lie, including 'the' and `and.'"

Fortunately, Congress wasn't distracted by such personal attacks on Mr. Mowbray, and instead followed up with hearings that vindicated his reporting: the State Department had indeed been running a "Visa Express" program that often allowed Saudis into the country with barely a second glance (as you know, three of the Sept. 11th hijackers got U.S. visas without an interview, thanks to this program).

The State Department responded to all the attention with a campaign of extraordinary mendacity, maintaining that the "Visa Express" program had been eliminated even though only its name was changed and all the other lax procedures were left in place.

This appeared to be a calculated attempt by the Consular Affairs and press offices to deceive Congress, and the public, about the program.

During this time, Mr. Mowbray was writing almost-daily pieces on National Review Online rebutting the State Department spin.

Things reached a head last week when, within 12 hours of one of your denunciations of Mr. Mowbray's reporting as a collection of "myths," the department did an abrupt about-face and fired the official responsible for visa-issuance, Mary Ryan, the longest-serving career diplomat at the department.

Also, that same day the American ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Robert Jordan, wrote a cable to Washington requesting that the "Visa Express" program, with its bias toward not interviewing Saudi visa applicants, be canceled.

"I am deeply troubled," he wrote, "about the prevailing perception in the media and within Congress and possibly the American public at large that our current practices represent a shameful and inadequate effort on our part."

This classified cable was highly embarrassing to the department, and to you personally, since it contradicted what you had been trying to pretend: that the "Visa Express" program had already been canceled.

The cable was classified, but contained nothing sensitive to national security, just a politically embarrassing policy recommendation. A whistleblower leaked the cable to Mr. Mowbray. He reported on the memo on National Review Online on Wednesday morning.

The Washington Post followed up with a report the next day that also quoted the cable.

On Friday, Mr. Mowbray brought a copy of the cable --- which you already knew was in his possession, from his prior reporting --- to your press briefing because he strongly suspected that you would try to distort its contents. Unfortunately, he was correct.

You said the cable was only a plea for more resources and not an end to the program (even though the subject line of the memo was "Request for Guidance on Termination of Visa Express").

As you might well have anticipated, Mr. Mowbray contradicted you, pointing out that he had evidence to the contrary in black and white, in his hands, in the form of the cable.

After an acrimonious exchange during which you misrepresented his work, Mr. Mowbray attempted to leave the briefing and the building. He was stopped by a State Department official with four armed security guards, who began to ask him for his source for the document.

Mr. Mowbray appropriately refused to identify the whistle-blower who had given him the document in the interest of having the public fully informed on the disposition of the "Visa Express" program (since, frankly, you weren't doing a very good job of it).

When Mowbray began to get the feeling that he couldn't leave even if he wanted to, he asked, "Am I being detained?"

When a diplomatic security official told him "no," Mowbray announced that he was leaving.

At which point, the guard stepped in front of Mowbray and said, "Now, you're being detained." He was physically kept from leaving the building, and repeatedly pushed to reveal his source, until, for whatever reason, he was allowed to go.

Now, let me assure you, Mr. Boucher, that few publications take security as seriously as National Review. We would fully support an effort by the State Department, for instance, to keep a reporter from grabbing classified material off someone's desk and exiting the building with it.

But that was far from the case here. The cable in question had already been reported on in National Review Online and the Washington Post. If the State Department considered the cable so sensitive it should have rushed officials to the offices of Mr. Mowbray and the Washington Post's Susan Schmidt and Glenn Kessler on Wednesday or Thursday to question them about it.

The fact is that Mr. Mowbray was trying to leave the building with the cable, only because he had entered the building with it in the first place. So, his detention could have had no security purpose, and you knew this, since you obviously followed Mr. Mowbray's reporting (several recent briefings were devoted to rebutting it), and presumably read the Washington Post.

The only reason, then, to hold Mr. Mowbray against his will in the building must have been to intimidate a young reporter who had made your life difficult.

I regret to say that I have found your conduct in this entire visa controversy, slipshod, deceptive, and, now, even thuggish.

I ask for a personal assurance from you that Mr. Mowbray will be allowed to continue his reporting at the State Department with no risk of similar incidents in the future, and indeed without any harassment at all.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this request.

Sincerely,

Richard Lowry

Editor

National Review