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
This is an investigation to correct our mistakes. Right now the fox is watching the hen house. I have somewhat a problem with this. Again, protect sources and methods, protect our folk in the field. However Americans still have a right to know some of the details. I do not trust government that much.
Its people like you who are dangerous. Blindly follow! I have been there done that, try (CCS - Kien Giang Province SVN (1969 - 1971). Now you figure it out. Next time inslut someone else.
In WWII Churchill knew that Coventry was going to be bombed by the Germans but was unable to overtly warn the populace because compromising sources and methods at that point would likeley have LOST THE WAR. Intelligence was the only thing allowing Britain to used limited resources effectively.
The president would be justified in shutting down all access by the committees at this point. Even a well placed sting could be used to get the jerk who is leaking.
The exact words could be traced to a specific conversation and could reveal the method of communication or the person being spoken to. Either way you lose the source and possibly the life of a friend. This is not a trivial matter.
They are reporters they dont have to .....:-)
If you could have heard some of the reporters when this broke....I swear you would have thought it was them who were being investigated...
Good grief, use your head. You might not be able to figure it out, but the person MAKING the calls can. As to it being widely reported, that's exactly what the problem is, this should never have been released, never printed, and never repeated.
Maybe and maybe not, then again, we do not know if these are really the exact words or not. I assume nothing. Then again it is widely known throughout the world that we listen to everything we can. There was no specifics here. This was more than likely something very simple. So the bad guys know we are listening. I have shocking news for you. They have known for a long time.
I will agree that we need to be extremely careful here. To much information can be a very bad thing. But that does not mean that the American people do not have a right to know what really happened on 911. Becareful yes, blindly follow? NO! It can be just as dangerous.
There really needs to be some way to get limited information out in the public domain. Otherwise its going to get out anyway and more than likely a lot more than one wanted. Control the output, not close it down.
Why should they? Giving up sources doesn't exactly engender sources' trust.
Good grief yourself. The person making the call did not care. Besides there are so many ways this is accomplished its mind boggling. Sorry we disagree, but not enough data was released.
That does not mean we don't need to be careful.
Excuse me, but you're well off base. The specificity that was being objected to was not that it was an "intercept" nor that it came from the NSA. Nor, probably, even the gist of their meaning.
Instead, it was the leaking of the actual verbatim translations. Consequently, the people who were intercepted now know they were intercepted, along with where and how.
And that, my friend, is a flagrant breach of secrecy. A busted source...
What makes you think the people making it don't care? What if they were making the comment to an American agent? Or doesn't that matter to you either?
He heard it on CNN...
Says the White House!Mmaybe it was the ISI's version of CNN! Or Maybe the Saudi version of CNN. Try again.... I will make book on this one....
Shocking! There isn't much that isn't Classified in DC! Both sides have released information. Hell it was just a few months ago when Republicans made TV appearences and released classified data. It happens on both sides.
However this is a minor leak. The VP is trying to head this off before it gets out of control. That is what this is all about. In my humble opinion.
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