Posted on 02/11/2006 10:02:38 AM PST by 68skylark
WASHINGTON, Feb. 11 — Federal agents have interviewed officials at several of the country's law enforcement and national security agencies in a rapidly expanding criminal investigation into the circumstances surrounding a New York Times article published in December that disclosed the existence of a highly classified domestic eavesdropping program, according to government officials.
The investigation, which appears to cover the case from 2004, when the newspaper began reporting the story, is being closely coordinated with criminal prosecutors at the Justice Department, the officials said. People who have been interviewed and others in the government who have been briefed on the interviews said the investigation seems to lay the groundwork for a grand jury inquiry that could lead to criminal charges.
The inquiry is progressing as a debate about the eavesdropping rages in Congress and elsewhere. President Bush has condemned the leak as a "shameful act." Others, like Porter J. Goss, the C.I.A. director, have expressed the hope that reporters would be summoned before a grand jury and asked to reveal the identities of those who provided them classified information.
Mr. Goss, speaking at a Senate intelligence committee hearing on Feb. 2, said, "It is my aim, and it is my hope that we will witness a grand jury investigation with reporters present being asked to reveal who is leaking this information. I believe the safety of this nation and the people this country deserve nothing less." The case is viewed in as potentially far reaching because it places on a collision course constitutional principles that each side regards as paramount. For the government, the investigation represents an effort to punish those responsible for a serious security breach....For news organizations, the inquiry threatens its ability to protect sources and report on controversial national security issues free of government interference....
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I like the sound of that.
Will soon see if it's true, or just hysteria from the Times and other parts of the MSM.
I don't think the elites at the New York Times will enjoy jail. Oh, well.
If the NYT is hoping for a public outcry I believe they're sadly mistaken. All it will take is one breach in security and the NYT and all those liberal whiners will be looking like complete idiots. And their road back to credibility with the public, (the NYT and the whiny liberals)will take longer than recovering from the Vietnam mindset.
What a sanctimonious bunch of jerks.
They think they know more about national security than the experts. They think they know more about the law than the experts.
And, as one of my favorite bloggers wrote, what if they're wrong? What if their reporting gets people killed? Are they prepared to apologize? Are they prepared to make amends?
the motto of today's lib-MSM: don't get it right...don't get it complete...just get it first!
I think the obsession with getting Bush won out over the American People's safety.
:-)
"Interesting" is cute, but I would rather see the results reviving the concept of "treason", and the appropriate punishment for it.
After all, treason endangers hundreds of thousands, if not millions!
I think you're right. They might think that they can stir up a groundswell of anger and outrage at the administration, and that will make the investigators back off.
Well the left wing is good at making lots of shrill noise -- we may hear a lot of it in the coming days and weeks. But it doesn't represent the majority opinion in this case, and I hope the investigators don't flinch.
Good. If the "reporters" don't reveal their sources, put them in a general prison cell with a bunch of black and mexican gangs for a weekend.
Anything "rapid" in Washington I am in favor of.
Yeah, the Times flogged the phony Plame scandal harder than anyone. And now it makes the perfect precedent to go after them.
Nothing will happen. This will be buried with the Travel Office and the Rose Law Firm billing records.
tick .. tick .. tick
There were allegedly multiple sources for the Dec 16 story.
How these sources were located, convinced to speak to the NY Slimes, and to break their oaths and security clearances will be interesting to see unveiled.
And why they didn't just take their "concerns" to their NSA security officers and legal counsels will be even more interesting.
Cleared TS/SCI NSA employees (conspiracy) discussing confidential and operational national security information with the Slimes will, I hope, produce many life sentence in Leavenworth. People have been skewered, demoted, and prosecuted for much, much less.
LOL ! I was just about to ping you! :-)
Yeah, that's one of the possibilities.
One of the Clinton-era scandals that's closest to this one is the matter of the hundreds of FBI files on Republicans that the White House was hoarding. The Democrats never worried much about privacy violations in those days.
No one was punished in that matter, if I recall correctly, although at least one Nixon-era White House staffer went to prison for a single FBI file.
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