Posted on 06/20/2002 1:33:20 PM PDT by grimalkin
WASHINGTON, Jun 20, 2002 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- The chairmen of a joint congressional committee investigating pre-Sept. 11 intelligence failures said Thursday they have asked the attorney general to investigate possible leaks of classified information by the panel.
"We will cooperate with the FBI in any way possible," while the Justice Department and the FBI investigate if or how such leaks occurred, said Rep. Porter Goss, R-Fla., chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
Vice President Dick Cheney had complained to the two chairmen earlier Thursday about leaks that he believed led to the disclosure of the National Security Agency's Sept. 10 intercepts of at least two messages in Arabic. The messages suggested a major event was to take place the next day.
At President Bush's direction, Cheney called Goss and Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, "to express the president's concerns about this inappropriate disclosure," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.
Fleischer called the disclosure of the language of the NSA intercepts "alarmingly specific."
Goss said the Justice Department investigation was necessary because committee members are entrusted to keep classified information secret, and undercover operatives or U.S. officials could be endangered by such leaks.
"We've got people out in harm's way who are conducting a lot of serious business," Goss said.
Fleischer called the information that the CIA, FBI and National Security Agency are providing to the committee "extraordinarily sensitive."
"The selective, inappropriate leaking of snippets of information risks undermining national security, and it risks undermining the promises made to protect this sensitive information," the White House spokesman said.
Fleischer said "we do not know who did it," but Cheney's phone call seemed to point a finger at the committees.
Concern about possible leaks has been a key reason the White House has opposed setting up an independent commission to investigate the attacks. The commission has been sought by some lawmakers and relatives of the victims.
Bush has said the intelligence panels were better positioned to avoid leak. They "understand the obligations of upholding our secrets and our sources and methods of collecting intelligence," he said last month.
But Bush has clashed with Congress before over leaks. On Oct. 5, he issued a memo limiting sensitive congressional briefings to the top leaders of the House and Senate and their intelligence committees. He dropped the restrictions a week later after getting assurances from Graham and Goss that they would rein in their members.
Fleischer did not address questions from reporters about the NSA's intercepts themselves. But he said that a 1998 leak - that American intelligence agencies were eavesdropping on Osama bin Laden's satellite phone conversations - led bin Laden to stop using that phone.
"We are in the middle of a war, and one of the ways to prevent attacks on the United States and to win the war is to be able to obtain information from our enemies," Fleischer said. If the enemy learns of U.S. capabilities, "they're going to change their methods."
The Sept. 10 intercepts were not translated until Sept. 12. Intelligence agencies aren't sure if it they were actually a warning of the attacks at the World Trade Center and Pentagon, an intelligence source said Wednesday.
Even if they were, they provided no information that authorities could have acted on, the intelligence source said. The mere mention of a time was insufficient to provide clues of what was to come, the source said.
The messages, recorded in two separate conversations, contained the phrases, "Tomorrow is zero hour," and "The match is about to begin," the intelligence source said.
The messages were believed to be recorded from telephone conversations.
A U.S. intelligence official, while declining to comment on the NSA intercepts, said a piece of raw intelligence that contains only a date provides little useful information.
The official said that both before and after Sept. 11, U.S. intelligence frequently has received threat information that consists of only a date and a vague notion something will happen - and then, nothing happens.
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Associated Press Writer Pete Yost contributed to this report.
By JOHN J. LUMPKIN Associated Press Writer
READ CAREFULLY
Excuse me? Is this something that we did not know before hand? This has been widely reported. Maybe not the exact wording, but still reported. I understand the classified is classified. But nothing stated so far reveales sources and methods or exposes any of our officers. NSA just hates that "I" word. If NSA does not think people understand that it intercepts 1 to 2 million pieces of data per hour, then I think they need to do a simple Internet search by themselves. BTW, NSA is the only agency with no oversight. That could be a good thing and or a bad thing.
I think the American Public has a right to know some of these things. No they do not need to know sources and methods. No they do not need specifics that can danger our officers in the field. But some 4500 Americans are either dead or missing. To place the "Classified" stamp on everything is very suspect to me.
This release of information is laughable as a threat to national security. This chest pounding has more to do with politics than national security. Hell if this was Clinton this would be called a cover-up.
The american Public has a right to know what happened here. with some details. Not what anyone Intelligence Agency, or Politician wants them to know. How many times does this have to happen before we learn.
Going to be interesting since Graham promised the President there would be no leaks. Right out of the starting gates -- leaks.
I really don't understand this. Why are they not prosecuted?
Isn't it against the law?
Why can Congressmen or Senate tell secrets that would have us in jail and we knew it and told it?
Never mind, we need to move ahead, like Bush said. Nevermind what they do.
One of these primadonas trying to impress the cocktail party set needs to see the inside of Leavenworth because of this leak....
Then why were the leakers not found and prosecuted?
Just move on?
Have they forgotten just why it was UBL stopped using his cell/satellite phone (I forget which it was).
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