It probably was very serious.
Even if it isn’t, it’s definitely the straw breaking the camel’s back. How many times have our clandestine services been betrayed by spineless weasels on Capitol Hill?
“It’s definitely the straw breaking the camel’s back. How many times have our clandestine services been betrayed by spineless weasels on Capitol Hill?”
I think that the straw that broke the camel’s back came on Sept 11, 2001. But I certainly agree that this is a grave matter. In the late 90’s the NYT reported that the CIA was listening to Osama’s cell phone conversations, which immediately ceased. It seems to me that this may well have enabled the success of Al Qaeda’s Sept 11 attack.
The cavalier attitude of our political class toward those who put their lives at risk for our security has been out of hand for a long time. Leahy himself divulged plans for an operation in Nicaragua in the 80’s. Then there were the leaks of the NSA’s recording of suspect foreign phone calls.
Members of Congress and their staffers have been leaking to the press just for the fun of it since the Vietnam War. Intelligence agencies must be able to operate the way they did during World War II and the early decades of the Cold War.