Posted on 11/08/2005 11:19:01 AM PST by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and House Speaker Dennis Hastert are circulating a draft letter calling for a congressional leak investigation into the disclosure of secret U.S. interrogation centers abroad.
The Washington Post reported Nov. 2 on the existence of secret U.S. prisons in Eastern Europe for terrorism suspects. The Bush administration has neither confirmed nor denied that report.
"If accurate, such an egregious disclosure could have long-term and far-reaching damaging and dangerous consequences, and will imperil our efforts to protect the American people and our homeland from terrorist attacks," stated the draft.
The Associated Press obtained a copy of the draft request to Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts of Kansas and his House counterpart, Intelligence Committee Chairman Peter Hoekstra of Michigan.
Hoekstra's spokesman, Jamal Ware, declined to comment because the office had not yet received the letter.
Frist and Hastert said the joint probe by the House and Senate intelligence committees should determine who leaked the information and under what authority.
"What is the actual and potential damage done to the national security of the United States and our partners in the global war on terror?" the draft letter asked. "We will consider other changes to this mandate based on your recommendations."
Frist's and Hastert's offices declined immediate comment.
The letter says the leaking of classified information by employees of the U.S. government appears to have increased in recent years, "establishing a dangerous trend that, if not addressed swiftly and firmly, likely will worsen."
"We are hopeful that you will be able to accomplish this task in a bipartisan manner given general agreement that intelligence matters should not be politicized," it added.
The Post story of a week ago said that the CIA has been hiding and interrogating some of its most important al-Qaida captives at a Soviet-era compound in Eastern Europe, as part of a covert prison system set up by the agency four years ago that at various times has included sites in eight countries. The eight, said the story, include several democracies in eastern Europe.
Wow, I'm really glad they kept their powder dry on Sandy Berger and are ready to go full tilt at a journalist.
The Washington Post should have been shut down the moment that this story was published, and the article author and the entire chain of command up to the publisher arrested on reasonable suspicion of sedition and/or treason.
Hi Julie! Yes, I'm tired of the libs and media bashing our President. I just emailed Frist.
As long as the investigation is searching for leakers its fine by me. You can rest assured its not anyone in the administration.
Right on brotha!
Upon his return from Poland, Wilson will write that all he did "was sit around the pool eating pierogies."
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They reported on CNN that Sen. Lott believes it was a Republican senator who leaked this information...
Frist's 'GET EVEN' with Reid. Two can play this game.
Gee, who said they had this information already and who has a political axe to grind?
Why none other than Senator Rockefeller.
I have been on this since it came out last week, and according to some friends of mine in the press corps, they believe that this leak came directly from J. Rockefeller.
If this is true, then it's about time to take him into custody, seize his family's assets, and start the trial. If he's guilty of leaking this confidential information then it appears he's a traitor to his country, and deserves a traitor's fate.
BTW, my friends have been trying to promote the fact that John Kerry really did out a covert operative when he questioned Republicans during the Abu Graib fiasco. They point out that John Kerry did knowingly reveal the identity of this operative during the Senate hearings. It's a fact. So why has he not been arrested for this crime?
It's right that the House and Senate take up the issue.
Put a skeer in'em boys, put a skeer in'em. N.B. Forrest.
Nothing like a little skeer being put into the LMSM.
Who knows? Maybe still upset that he's no longer majority leader?
But if VPW was not covert, maybe these prisons don't exist. I sincerely hope at this point when the Republicans are in a position to undo the effects of decades of Dem government, they are going to start to splinter over petty infighting and political manuevering.
Is this true that Lott said this?
Hopefully
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