The CIA has sent a report to the U.S. Justice Department indicating classified information may have been leaked to The Washington Post for its recent story about secret prisons run by the spy agency, according to U.S. officials.
The newspaper reported last week that the CIA was holding top suspected al Qaeda terrorists at undisclosed prisons in eastern Europe and other locations.
Earlier Tuesday, Republican congressional leaders asked for an investigation into the matter, and Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi suggested his own GOP colleagues could be to blame for the possible leak.
Sen. Bill Frist of Tennessee, the Senate majority leader, and Rep. Dennis Hastert of Illinois, the House speaker, asked the chairmen of the House and Senate intelligence committees to look into the report, saying the disclosure could damage national security.
Lott told reporters the information in the Post story was the same as that given to Republican senators in a closed-door briefing by Vice President Dick Cheney last week.
“Every word that was said in there went right to the newspaper,” he said. “We can’t keep our mouths shut.”
The ripple effect around the world could also be significant. The EU Constitution bans torture and complicity and the EU Commission asked all members if they were helping the US and the CIA torture prisoners. They all said “No”. Including Romania and Poland who were named in other articles.
Just goes to show Washington is just one big circus.
They don’t care about national security … just damage to their reputations. Politicians make me sick.
The Right is falling apart. Remember that story from last week, where the Right wants to keep teens from getting the cervical cancer vaccine because it might lead to more sex. In other words, they’d rather girls come down with cancer as punishment for their lack of abstinence.
That story is important because it shows just how out of touch the far Right is. They’re about as out of touch with the mainstream as the Left was in the 70s. So we’ve finally reached the point where the country will swing back to the Left. It won’t happen any time soon, but it’s nice to know the pendulum is at least swinging the other way.
>They don’t care about national security … just damage to their reputations.
If they don’t care, then why are they investigating it?
I’d start with Orrin Hatch and Richard Shelby, who were leaking after 9/11.
The far right is as out of touch as the far left is. Extremes on either side is bad.
“Every word that was said in there went right to the newspaper,” he said. “We can’t keep our mouths shut.”
So, he has just publically confirmed that the entire “leak” is accurate.
If it is truly sensitive material, and “the disclosure could damage national security.” – why is he vetting the reports???
Is a security clearance only a restraint until someone else blabs – then everyone can freely discuss the issue? 🙁
Although I am happy to see Cheney’s closed-door schenanigans exposed, I wonder what Lott has to gain by under-cutting the VP?
gquaglia, I realize that. But as of now the Right is in control. There are thousands of fringe groups that are out of touch with the mainstream. What differentiates those groups from the Right is that the Right is in control.
Dana Priest’s story in the WaPo was excellent and very important.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/01/AR2005110101644_pf.html
Whoever leaked it cares about the US reputation in the world, and is trying to expose the secret torture jails that the CIA is running. The only way the American people would find out about such a thing is through a leak.
How to reconcile that with very important national security concerns, I don’t know. This may put some CIA people overseas in jeapardy, but I hope they are evacuating those sites now, until this dies down.
This is exactly why we need a Shield law for journalists. To protect reporters that are protecting sources who have exposed a heinous government policy.
T.C. Moore
Well said, my feelings exactly.
The difference between this “leak” and the outing of Valerie Plame is that Plame was the cover-up of an illegal act while this is the exposure of an illegal act. When we talk about “Freedom of the Press”, this distinction should be kept in mind.
I applaud Lott’s statement, because it takes the steam out of any “leak” investigation to have a Senator publically confirm the factual basis of the story. How can they procecute the leaker(s) for divulging “classified material” without also procecuting Lott?
How to reconcile that with very important national security concerns, I don’t know.
Being no fan ot Lott, I must admit he appears to be walking that fine line – camplaining “We can’t keep our mouths shut”, while in the same sentence confirming the facts of the story – and pointing the finger directly at Cheney as the source. No special prosecutor required. 🙂
I’m just curious how much is Lott’s personal disproval of the idea of turture-sites, and how much is an attempt to show this is a Cheney thing, not a Republican thing.
Mike,
After reading your comment, it suddenly occurred to me. Lott is paying back Dick and Dubya for removing him as Majority Leader. Gee, paybacks can be a bitch sometimes. So can Washington politics.
If Cheney’s talking to Republican Senators was the source, how did this reporter get the story ready for publication in 8 hours?