Posted on 07/23/2005 10:34:08 AM PDT by wagglebee
The Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation into whether Democratic Senators Dick Durbin, Jay Rockefeller and Ron Wyden leaked details about a secret "black ops" CIA satellite program last December in a move that may have seriously compromised national security, former Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Jed Babbin said on Saturday.
"The CIA made a request to the Justice Department to investigate and possibly bring criminal charges against these three [senators]," Babbin told WABC Radio host Monica Crowley. "My information is that investigation is ongoing."
Mr. Rockefeller is the Vice Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and Mr. Durbin is the number two ranking Democrat in the Senate.
Media reports on the satellite leak last December indicated that the Bush administration was concerned about public comments by Durbin, Rockefeller and Wyden and that the CIA had requested a Justice Department probe.
"The formal request for a leaks investigation would target people who described sensitive details about a new generation of spy satellites to The Washington Post, which published a page-one story about the espionage program Saturday [Dec. 11, 2004]," a Justice Department official told the Associated Press at the time.
But the same official told the AP that Justice "has not decided whether to investigate."
Former Deputy Undersecretary Babbin's comments on Saturday were the first indication that such a probe was actually launched and is ongoing.
"The fact of the matter is that [Durbin, Rockefeller and Wyden] divulged something that was above and beyond top secret and frankly, they probably blew the strategy and the hundreds of millions of dollars that were being spent to pursue it," he told Crowley.
"The acknowledgement of [the "black ops" program's] existence is not even proper and the acknowledgement of them and the details of them can very well damage national security," Babbin added.
Asked if he thought the three Senate Democrats should have their security clearances revoked for the duration of the leak probe, the former Defense Department official said, "Absolutely and forthwith. I mean, they should have been revoked at the time of the leak."
"There's really not much doubt about the leak having occurred," Babbin told Crowley. "It's in the press records, it's in the Congressional record. We know what they did."
"The only question," he explained, "is how much damage was done by the leak. And that's part of the criminal investigation right now - to do a damage assessment, to figure out how much this is going to cost us strategically and militarily."
bookmark ping
bookmark
bttt
Bump
this is too rich!
(and LONG overdue)
How true.
Is it possible that the DOJ is so full of dimz, that the only thing that they will do is investigate it to death? Plus the supposed Rs at the top have no b****.
ping
It would be great to see the RATs get some of their own well-deserved medicine. However, seeing the banner on Fox&Friends this morning that said "Possible Perjury" and was kept up during the entire several minute segment they did on Rove, with plenty of Rove footage and pictures, I'm not gonna hold my breath.
BTW, you know I was without internet if I was watching Fox&Friends, especially with the weekend ditzes.
Hah!
Bob Beckel, Democratic strategist, said the DNC is saving money on the Roberts nomination and focusing that cash on Rove.
I remember a few weeks ago when a lot of people thought the Rove story was over. It clearly was not and in fact, it's intensifying.
The DNC will let it's unofficial wing try to take down Roberts. Moveon & NOW will man the front lines for this attack, while the party occasionally throws them a bit of red meat.
Meanwhile, the DNC (with the MSM) concentrates it's energy on dirtying up the administration. They think their best bet to get there goes through Rove. They know they may lose the battle of pulling the administration down, but the hope is to muddy the water enough to pull out some wins in 2006 & 2008. Watch the DNC discover "character" & "clean government".
The legislative bodies can place members outside of those protections, as Rostenkowski & Traficant discovered.
And all this is saying is that they cannot be arrexted while Congress is in session, it says nothing about afterward. And in any case, that is irrelevant, leaking classified information is a felony and they can be arrested for this at any time.
As far as not being questioned in "any other Place," that only applies if the offense occurs during a speech or debate in Congress, this offense didn't.
bump
Well said. I too am not always sure why the GOP doesn't fight back a little more which is disappointing sometimes, though I do like the idea that they don't often lower themselves to such childish antics like the rats. But your right, the Rats will ALWAYS take the low road, of that we can be sure.
I can't ever remember a Senator being arrested. Do you?
Maybe Ted Kennedy?
I remember some Congressmen being arrested, but no Senators come to mind.
Only valid if countersigned by Clarabelle ;-)
Yep, but there is new leadership for the state Rep. party. We're hoping Andy McKenna can pull off a miracle....
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.