BUSH SCOLDS CONGRESS: 'IT IS UNACCEPTABLE BEHAVIOR TO LEAK CLASSIFIED INFORMATION'
Tue Oct 09 2001 16:15:09 ET
Washington
QUESTION: Mr. President, when you meet with the congressional leadership tomorrow, will you be specific about what they can and cannot relay back up to the Hill, or do you just expect them not to relay anything?
BUSH: Well, I'm going to talk to the leaders about this. I have talked to them about it. I mean, when the classified information first seeped into the public, I called them on the phone and said, ``This can't stand.'' We can't have leaks of classified information. It's not in our nation's interest. We're now in extraordinary times.
And I was in the--when those leaks occurred, by the way, it was right before we committed troops. And I knew full well what was about to happen. And yet, I see in the media that somebody or somebodies feel that they should be able to talk about classified information. And that's just wrong. The leadership understands that.
And if there are concerns, we'll work it out.
I mean, obviously, I understand there needs to be some briefings. I want Don Rumsfeld to feel comfortable briefing members of the Armed Services Committee. But I want Congress to hear loud and clear it is unacceptable behavior to leak classified information when we have troops at risk. And I'm looking forward to reiterating that message.
And we will work together. We've got a great relationship. Listen, the four leaders with whom I have breakfast on a weekly basis fully understand the stakes. They fully understand the decision I made. And they will have gotten feedback from their members and we will discuss it. But one thing is for certain: I have made clear what I expect from Capitol Hill when it comes to classified information.
ENDNewsMax.com
Bush Right to Tighten Loose Lips -- Remember 'Leaky Leahy'
Wednesday, Oct. 10. 2001 11:15 a.m. EDT
Some in Congress are squealing like stuck pigs after President Bush, prompted by leaks of classified information to the press about the U.S.'s war on terrorism, decided to limit top secret briefings to just eight House and Senate leaders.
"The defense bill is not moving until we are included," Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, threatened in a private lunch with colleagues, reports Wednesday's Washington Times.
Bush ordered the new secrecy rules after information from a classified congressional briefing last week was leaked to reporters. On Friday the Washington Post revealed that part of the briefing included the prediction that a new round of terrorist attacks was a "100 percent" certainty after the U.S. began air strikes on Afghanistan.
While some in Congress said the administration was being too sensitive, Bush has good reason to set new ground rules for the U.S.'s war on terrorism, a fight that will take years and may try the patience of political opponents in Congress.
Witness the example of Vermont Senator Pat Leahy, now the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, who lost patience with the Reagan administration's war on terrorism in the 1980s when he was vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Back then "Leaky Leahy," as he's known to some in his home state, allegedly threatened to sabotage classified strategies he didn't agree with`1 and, according to some reports, may have actually cost a U.S. intelligence asset his life.
"Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, inadvertantly disclosed a top secret communications intercept during a [1985] television interview," reported the San Diego Union-Tribune in a 1987 editorial criticizing Congress' penchant for partisan leaks.
"The intercept, apparently of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's telephone conversations, made possible the capture of the Arab terrorists who had hijacked the cruise ship Achille Lauro and murdered American citizens," the paper said, adding, "The reports cost the life of at least one Egyptian operative involved in the operation."
In July 1987, the Washington Times reported that Leahy leaked secret information about a 1986 covert operation planned by the Reagan administration to topple Libyan strongman Moammar Gaddhafi.
"I thought [the operation] was probably the most ridiculous thing I had seen, and also the most irresponsible," the leading Intelligence Committee Democrat allegedly said of the secret plan.
Unidentified U.S. intelligence officials told the Times that Leahy, along with Republican panel chairman Sen. Dave Durenberger, communicated a written threat to expose the operation directly to then-CIA Director William Casey.
Weeks later, news of the secret plan turned up in the Washington Post, causing it to be aborted.
Leahy vehemently denied he talked to the press about any of the administration's covert operations, saying, "I never have, and I'm not going to start now."
But just a year later, as the Senate was preparing to hold hearings on the Iran-Contra scandal, the Vermont senator had to resign his Intelligence Committee post after he was caught leaking secret information to a reporter.
The ranking Intelligence Committee Democrat decided to let an NBC reporter comb through the committee's confidential draft report on the scandal. The network aired a report based on the inside information on Jan. 11, 1987.
After a six-month internal investigation, Leahy "voluntarily" stepped down from his committee post, releasing a statement calling his resignation "a suitable way to express ... anger and regret" over his lapse.
Leahy's anger, he said, was at himself, "for carelessly allowing the press person to examine the unclassified draft and to be alone with it."
The Vermont Democrat's Iran-Contra leak was considered to be one of the most serious breaches of secrecy in the Intelligence Committee's 10-year history. After Leahy's resignation, the committee decided to restrict access to committee documents to a security-enhanced meeting room.
The terrorist threat now facing America is far greater than anything that confronted Congress back then.
Given "Leaky Leahy's" sorry performance at the time -- and the penchant of some of his colleagues for the same kind of partisan grandstanding -- President Bush would do well to keep America's cards close to his vest.
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Bush Administration
War on Terrorism
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