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
You are certain of that...????"
NO direct national security damage was done with this leak! The future I will not comment on. It depends on the leak, If sources and methods are endangered then someone will need to be sent to jail. Remember now it was only five years ago that Senator Torricelli then a Congressman leaked real bad stuff causing two of our CIA Officers to be killed. His punishment? He was removed from house select and then ran and won the NJ Senate race. So much for justice! BTW the two CIA Officers are still dead. Republicans have done the same thing including Saxby Chambliss.
The politics of national security. All Americans should be alarmed! But they are grazing!
I am in complete agreement with your second sentence. And with your overall concern for the politicization of wartime intelligence matters. By any party...
But how can you be so absolutely certain that this leak did not "endanger...sources and methods"? And skip the hooey about "everybody knows NSA, etc.". Of course they do.
But how do you know that no source or method has been compromised by releasing the specific time & date of specifically worded conversations? And that no enemy has not been made more alert to our eavesdropping abilities? And, thus, more difficult to eavesdrop upon.
And if this one does not, how will you determine whether the next leak does, or does not, endanger sources and methods?
Seems to me that a basic security principle has been violated in this case.
Lets just say I understand the system and leave it at that. But in case you have doubts, just wait and see for yourself. If this was a breach that endangered the national security of the United States its sources and methods I would ne going bonkers. So would many other people. If anything comes of this its going to be some low level staffer who will be hung out to dry. Thats if anything comes from it. The message has been delivered by the administration.
If you say so. We've beat it to a bloody pulp, anyway.
See ya around...
No, you're wrong! Cameron said again today that Fox broke this story last week but did not state the exact words that were used for national security considerations.
We can tell that he is not lying because if Cameron had used the exact words, Cheney would have been livid a week ago. Avoid leaping to the keyboard until you have thought things through, man. Emotional responses are useless!!!
Please don’t feed me this emotional babble either. Cameron broke the Israeli Spy Story, which was fine with me. It was news. What was NOT FINE was that Cameron leaked a 50 or 60 page CLASSIFIED INTELLIGENCE DOCUMENT! Lets talk about protecting SOURCES AND METHODS! This is much worse than what ever CNN just did. This is a double standard with the press.
This is nothing more than political hog wash! If everyone is going to be serious about leaks, then first let's be real. Forget if it's a Republican or Democrat! Let's get serious, this is Washington D.C.
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