| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Harry Hope" |
| Date: |
26 Jul 2005 05:59:04 PM |
| Object: |
Justice Department Probing Durbin, Rockefeller CIA Leak |
This is big news folks
Report: Justice Department Probing Durbin, Rockefeller CIA Leak
The Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation into whether
Democratic Senators ***** 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."
Rockefeller is the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and
Durbin is the No. 2-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," Babbin 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have been revoked at the time of the leak."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."
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