Justice Dept. Tightens Security in C.I.A. Leak Case(Wilson-Plame-Novak)

WASHINGTON, Oct. 28 — Justice Department and F.B.I. officials have imposed tighter secrecy restrictions over the inquiry into the leak of the identity of a C.I.A. operative, government officials said on Tuesday. In an unusual step, they have removed the director of the F.B.I's Washington office from the list of officials with access to the case.

The official, Michael A. Mason, one of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's most senior managers, was taken off the list in an effort to restrict information about the case, the officials said.

"Is Mason a Clinton appointee, by any chance?"

No, he was in FBI before X42 and Mueller appointed him to the current position. I heard about the restriction on 'Special Report', so looked for the story. There seemed to be high regard for Mason by the panel.

The source is the NYT, so there may be motive in reporting. May be another leak, fiction or maybe Justice Department and FBI are sending a message.

A quick Google:

http://www.noblenatl.org/news/publish/article_618.shtml

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A19591-2003Sep29&notFound=true

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27844-2003Oct15.html

http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel03/mueller071503.htm

Mueller appointed Michael A. Mason, Assistant Director in Charge of the Washington Field Office on July 22, 2003.

Mason's background, per the FBI press release:

Mr. Mason was sworn in as a Special Agent of the FBI in 1985. He has served in the New Haven, Washington, DC, Albany, Buffalo, and Sacramento Divisions, and he has investigated a wide variety of crimes throughout his career, to include narcotics violations, violent crimes, white-collar crimes and public corruption. He has also acted in an undercover capacity and on SWAT teams, and he has headed up large operations at FBI Headquarters. In the aftermath of the 9/11/2001 terrorist attacks, he served as special assistant to Director Mueller. Most recently, Mr. Mason has served as Special Agent in Charge of the Sacramento Division. He brings wide experience in investigations and in administrative operations to the top FBI field position in the Nation's capital.

From a complimentary article by Washington Post, 9/28/03:

"While terrorism is the top priority, Mason said he will not ignore other crimes.

"As evil and as bad and vile as terrorism is, in 2002 we had over 18,000 homicides in this country, and not one was committed by al Qaeda," he said. "So we have other concerns. We also have public corruption, we have government fraud."

Not very reassuring, considering that he's now in charge of the anthrax case...

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.