These Dems are determined to make that tar baby talk.
Posted on 06/05/2009 5:45:21 PM PDT by jazusamo
Democrats are considering punishing Republican members on the Intelligence Committee who openly discussed information that was given to them at a classified briefing on interrogations.
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), the chairwoman of the House Intelligence Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, acknowledged on MSNBC that panel members received a classified briefing on Thursday. And she said Republican members who spoke to the The Hill after the briefing could be sanctioned.
“Certainly I think there needs to be accountability,” Schakowsky said during a Friday appearance on MSNBC’s The Ed Show. “I don’t exactly know if sanctions ought to be given or what they ought to be.”
“That’s going to be a discussion that I think we’ll have,” she said.
Schakowsky made it clear that Republicans who spoke about the hearing were in direct violation of committee rules forbidding the discussion of anything that happened behind closed doors.
“Everybody understands what that means, that we are dealing with classified materials, and that the content of the briefing, all the facts surrounding the content of that briefing, are not to be disclosed,” Schakowsky said. “And so I think this is a very serious breach of our obligation as members of the committee. At the very least I would say it’s a violation of the rules.”
Following Schakowsky’s Thursday hearing, Rep. John Kline (R-Minn.), a member of the subcommittee, said he left the hearings further believing that controversial interrogation methods have been effective.
“The hearing did address the enhanced interrogation techniques that have been much in the news lately,” Kline told The Hill. “Based on what I heard and the documents I have seen, I came away with a very clear impression that we did gather information that did disrupt terrorist plots.”
The top Republican on the Intelligence Committee, Rep. Pete Hoekstra (Mich.), said his conversations with members on the subcommittee led him to draw the same conclusion.
Republicans have maintained that nothing they said violated any committee rules regarding the dissemination of classified material, or rules governing the disclosure of information discussed in a closed hearing.
Schakowsky, however, said that members who attended the hearing knew it was classified .
“We can have a debate about classification, and what shouldn’t be, but clearly the congressmen knew that we were dealing with a classified documents – documents – a classified briefing, and it was a closed hearing,” Schakowsky said.
The Central Intelligence Agency declined to comment on Thursday’s hearing or Democratic claims that Republicans may have revealed classified information.
TRANSLATION: back off bela pelosi
This whole thing is nothing more than the ‘rats trying to divert attention and pin the blame on anyone but themselves.
Exactly...The GOP better keep pressing it.
"who openly discussed information that was given to them at a classified briefing on interrogations."
Don't these Republicans know that the way proper way to disseminate information from a classified briefing is to anonymously and selectively leak it to friends in the media, the way the Dems have been doing for years?
Oh, bring it, librat bastards.
Shed even more light into your deception.
Me too.
You throw Traitor Nancy out on her butt, and then we'll talk about the relatively minor stuff.
These Dems are determined to make that tar baby talk.
Anyone remember the long list of CIA secrets that were published regularly on page one of the New York Times? Just as a reminder, Bin Ladin’s sat phone, Al Qaeda money transfers, Al Qaeda cell phone traffic, CIA safe houses, CIA secret flights, and I could go on.
Dems had no problem blowing ongoing classified operations if it would hurt the president or undercut the war.
But now that one of their own is in the White House, you can’t talk about anything if it might put the O in a bad light. Contradicting the O is a crime quite possibly punishable by law.
The Dems and the O are the ones who insisted on betraying details of classified interrogations in the press. The classified secrets they are screeching about were already betrayed and by themselves. Clearly exposing classified operations is not a concern of theirs if it can be spun to their political advantage, but answering back is going to be illegal.
Yep, and what the Repubs discussed was not classified info, they only said interrogation techniques brought results and that has been discussed for months.
They really don’t want to go down THIS road...
“Dems mulling sanctions against GOP Intel members”
ROFLMAO!
Frakin’ pathetic.
Senator Patrick Leahy leaked classified information so many times that he was nicknamed “Leaky Leahy.” But there was never any sanction against him, except removal from the Senate Intelligence Committee.
I wonder whether anyone in the mainstream news media will remember this series of events and draw a comparison in print. ... No, of course not. What was I thinking? They’ll never mention it. They’ll just focus on the bad Republicans.
Bad, BAD Republicans. Go to your room.
You need to answer for Pelosi, Jan .....
Heh Heh!
And all the stuff Leaky Leahy leaked was really classified. :)
The more the Dems bray about leaks the more the Repubs should reveal about how much Pelosi knew and when.
“They really don’t want to go down THIS road...”
Agree, they will not win if the debate is about national security.
and I would sure like to know how our nuclear stockpile info was "accidentally" releases or how those Clintoon documents were "lost" .......
Oh yeah.
Not to mention the leaking of top secret information to the NY Times such as our ability to track the terrorists through the use of their cell phones, renditions, tracking the flow of terror money, and other things.
What the democrats are doing now is the same bait, switch, and pin blame elsewhere game they always play.
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.