Posted on 11/13/2005 7:44:14 AM PST by Libloather
House takes up leak review
Thursday, November 10, 2005 8:01 PM PST
WASHINGTON (AP) - The House Intelligence Committee will look into a possible leak of classified information about secret CIA prisons but will not reopen its 2003 inquiry into prewar intelligence on Iraq.
As calls for intelligence-related reviews grow on Capitol Hill, Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., said Thursday his committee will study several specific leaks of classified information, including a Nov. 2 Washington Post story that discussed the existence of secret CIA prisons overseas.
The story said the ‘‘black sites'' were in eight countries, including democracies in Eastern Europe. Hoekstra would not confirm the story's accuracy or whether the prisons exist.
‘‘The depth of the leaks that we have seen in the intelligence community over the last 12 to 18 months have done irreparable harm to our ability to effectively conduct the war on terror,'' Hoekstra said.
When classified activities overseas are disclosed, he said, foreign intelligence agencies see their involvement leaked to the American press, hurting crucial relationships.
California Rep. Jane Harman, the committee's top Democrat, said the committee should return to its work on the prewar intelligence on Iraq. She was echoing efforts of Senate Democrats to draw attention to the administration's mistakes on the war.
The House committee, then led by current CIA Director Porter Goss, produced an interim report on Iraq in September 2003 that found the U.S. went to war in Iraq on the basis of outdated and vague intelligence.
‘‘The point of it is to understand fully how we collected, analyzed and presented intelligence ... and what responsibility the intelligence community had to correct misinformation by policy-makers,'' Harman said in an interview.
Hoekstra said work on the flawed prewar estimates will stay with the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is in the second phase of its own investigation.
‘‘We do not see it as being necessary for us to do a redundant effort,'' he said.
The Senate committee produced a 511-page report in July and is now studying five remaining lines of inquiry, including divisive questions about whether policy-makers misstated the intelligence to make the case for war.
President Bush's national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, took issue with ‘‘the notion that somehow the administration manipulated prewar intelligence about Iraq.''
‘‘Some of the critics today believed themselves in 2002 that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, they stated that belief and they voted to authorize the use of force in Iraq because they believed Saddam Hussein posed a dangerous threat to the American people,'' Hadley said.
‘‘For those critics to ignore their own past statements exposes the hollowness of their current attacks,'' he said.
Hadley said the intelligence on Saddam's alleged weapons of mass destruction, which were never found, was ‘‘based on the aggregation of intelligence from a number of sources and represented the collective view of the intelligence community.''
The House committee's leaks investigation comes at the request of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., and House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill.
Hoekstra said he had yet to determine the scope of the inquiry, but would devise a plan with Harman. He said he has not yet decided whether the Post reporter, Dana Priest, would be asked to disclose her confidential sources. Messages left Thursday with a spokesman for the paper were not immediately returned.
In a two-year federal investigation, New York Times reporter Judith Miller went to jail for 85 days to protect a source, I. Lewis Libby, the vice president's former chief of staff. Both were caught up in a probe over who leaked the identity of CIA covert operative Valerie Plame.
Libby was charged with five-counts of perjury and other charges.
Hoekstra said he is interested in reviewing that case and the disclosure of the total U.S. intelligence budget, which may have been a mistake. At a conference in San Antonio last week, the top U.S. official for intelligence collection, Mary Margaret Graham, said the figure is $44 billion.
Congress has engaged in rigorous debate about whether the number can be made public and decided against it.
When asked if there is ever a good leak, Hoekstra said ‘‘maybe'' that could be argued in some cases. ‘‘But it is not appropriate for a person who is entrusted with a security clearance to make that decision on their own.''
"Excellent! You will do well in politics.
Lord knows there aren't enough delusional straw graspers left."
Even the Nazis allowed Red cross visits. It is strategically wise for us to do the same.
We can only hope that if it isn't a 'Rat, it's a RINO.
Here's a clue: Inside information has been leaked to the Radical Left:
http://chicago.indymedia.org/newswire/display/65584/index.php
Well,,,,,I suppose our side could use that tactic, but I doubt it in this case.
By the way, how the heck do you pronounce "Szczytno-Szymany?"
You're giving the "stupid" party way too much credit again.
I hope the Senate and House will get going on this investigation really soon. Did not McClain introduce a piece of legislation to protect reporters from having to testify about their sources? Hummmmmmmmm!!! Wonder who leaked the information to a Washington Post reporter about all this stuff?????? Say it ain't so, Johnny boy!!!
Nor to me. All I care about is that we investigate what WE feelis important and not what Howard Dean wants us to investigate.
If a Republican Senator leaked this, let him hang.
Good bet its McCrazy.
Good bet its McCrazy.
"...it won't be long before the media will be making comparisons with nasty regimes that we don't want mentioned in the same sentence with the U.S.A."
And why do we call "nasty regimes" nasty? Perhaps because they put people into secret prisons without benefit of trial or oversight? If that's what we do, how can we claim to be different?
"I wonder if Red Cross already knew about the prisons... I hope we have had some kind of Red Cross oversight - they are pretty good at keeping quiet and that will go a long way to allow us to claim the prisons were acceptably humanitarian."
Am I the only one who is disturbed that things that are not "acceptably humanitarian" may be going on there? When you lose the moral high ground, you have lost. Period.
How about leaky leahy?
Didn't he lose his membership in the top secret, hush-hush national security committee when he was discovered to have been "Leaky Leahy"?
He was on the Senate Intelligence Committee, but was allowed to resign before being kicked off for leaking classified material.
"And why do we call "nasty regimes" nasty? Perhaps because they put people into secret prisons without benefit of trial or oversight? If that's what we do, how can we claim to be different?"
They are called nasty regimes because they sought to conquer and enslave. We would like nothing more than to get our troops back home. They seek to pillage the countries they fight and take everything - we help rebuild them and tax ourselves to do it. They set up puppet governments that must conform their master's will - we will accept whatever democratically elected government the people choose.
It's MUCH more important to find out who is NOW leaking CIA info in the midst of war than to REOPEN an investigation that has already been investigated at least twice!
We ALL know that both Dems and Republicans thought the same thing about intelligence about Iraq since 1998....the Dems have simply "changed their minds" after the war. What we DON"T know is why the CIA is leaking info that is affecting the War against Terror now...and that takes priority!
I think i detect the stench of an Arizona RINO.
Right, and with the power of chairmanship, we control the oversight function. The only drawback is public relations, and the Dems are already doing all they can to make us look bad. Just do the right thing, and the media will be forced to cover it.
Maybe a 'dim mole', is the republican he is referring too.
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