State Accounting - Congress gets involved in the Mowbray retention saga

NRO ^ | July 16, 2002 | Dave Weldon, Charles E. Grassley

[gubamyster]

July 16, 2002, 2:45 p.m. State Accounting Congress gets involved in the Mowbray retention saga.

By Sen. Charles Grassley & Rep. Dave Weldon.

July 16, 2002

The Honorable Colin Powell
Secretary
Department of State
2201 C Street, NW
Washington, DC 20520

Dear Secretary Powell:

We are writing to express our concern about the detention and questioning of reporter Joel Mowbray at the State Department on Friday, July 12th. As a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and chairman of the House Government Reform Subcommittee on Civil Service, we have concerns that government agencies not take inappropriate actions that cast a shadow over our free press.

Mr. Mowbray recently wrote several articles that brought into question the "Visa Express" program administered in Saudi Arabia. These articles, in part, prompted us to write to you to state that the program must be ended. As members of Congress who have spent years performing oversight of government agencies, we recognize that many agencies do not cherish scrutiny from the Congress or the media. However, such oversight is critical to the checks and balances that make our government work.

It is for this reason that we are troubled that the actions of State Department security officials effectively chilled the work of the media and the whistleblowers who are so vital to exposing problems in our government.

Also, it is our understanding that the focus of the questions to Mr. Mowbray was about the source(s) of the cable in question and other information he has reported. If this is the case, it is troubling that State Department officials were more worried about finding a whistleblower than actually retrieving the cable.

We would appreciate your providing a full accounting of what took place regarding the incident with Mr. Mowbray on Friday, July 12th. Specifically, we would like to know who (name and title) made the decision to detain/question Mr. Mowbray as well as the legal basis and justification for this action. In your response, include the number of officials involved in the incident, their name and title, what role they played, and whether they were armed. Please note that if a security official did not ask any questions but was present to ensure Mr. Mowbray could not leave, we would consider that official to be involved in the incident.

The comments of State Department officials in media accounts state the action was taken against Mr. Mowbray because contents of a "classified" cable were disclosed. Assuming that your justification for the action against Mr. Mowbray is that the cable was classified, we would note that the information in the cable was reported in other publications. Were other reporters also questioned? If not, why was only one reporter singled out? Also, did security officials attempt to retrieve the cable from Mr. Mowbray, and if so, what steps were taken to do this? If not, please explain why.

In addition, we would appreciate an objective review of the justification of the classification of the cable cited in news accounts. We have seen too often that documents are routinely, and unnecessarily, classified as confidential or above — particularly in cases where the information does not involve national security but instead is embarrassing to a government agency.

Finally, please inform us what the Department of State's policy is in regards to questioning/detaining reporters regarding sources and information. In particular, who decides at the Department of State to take such actions and how often has it been done in the past five years?

As we encourage governments around the world to have a free and open press, it is important that the Department of State support those efforts with words and deeds. Thank you for your time and assistance on this matter. We would appreciate an answer within 14 days. If your staff have any questions, please contact Mr. Dean Alexis Zerbe of Sen. Grassley's staff at 224-**** and Mr. Chip Walker of Rep. Weldon's staff at 225-****.

Cordially yours,

Charles E. Grassley
Ranking Member
Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs
Senate Committee on the Judiciary

Dave Weldon
Chairman
Subcommittee on Civil Service
House Committee on Government Reform

[gubamyster]

No, he was only detained for a short period. Here is another article regarding this incident:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/716387/posts