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.
---
Associated Press Writer Pete Yost contributed to this report.
By JOHN J. LUMPKIN Associated Press Writer
Now that they have been kept abreast of the situation, we are finding leaks springing everywhere. If one U.S. serviceman comes home in a body bag due to a leak, the source of that leak should stand trial for his murder.
Do we need to say it? "Loose Lips Sinks Ships."
Democrats
Bob Graham, Florida, (Chairman)
Carl Levin, Michigan
John D. Rockefeller, West Virginia
Dianne Feinstein, California
Ron Wyden, Oregon
Richard J. Durbin, Illinois
Evan Bayh, Indiana
John Edwards, North Carolina
Barbara Mikulski, Maryland
Republicans
Richard C. Shelby, Alabama (Vice Chairman)
Jon Kyl, Arizona
James M. Inhofe, Oklahoma
Orrin Hatch, Utah
Pat Roberts, Kansas
Mike DeWine, Ohio
Fred Thompson, Tennessee
Richard Lugar, Indiana
Porter J. Goss, R - Florida, Chairman
Fox just broke in and said the FBI is launching a full investigation after an ANGRY call from Cheney to the committee chairmen....
Big Time is on the hunt....:-)
Anyone or all of these loose cannons could be guilty.
Democrats are so stupid they would not expect information given to them to be tracable.
Now that's a great idea and very clever....I could only hope that that is true. And I bet it's traceable back to Dems. Even better if to Gephart, Condit, and Feinstein.
Watch the sudden rush to a microphone to announce they weren't the leaker....
Someone is in some serious hot water here....this is war time....watch one of these pillars of Congress to give up a staff member.......:-)
Cool. This ain't just politics. This is bordering on criminal, if not treasonous, behaviour for political gain....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.