Daily Archives: December 30, 2005

Justice Department To Finally Look Into NSA Leaks

Update: Via Stop the ACLU:

The ACLU is calling for the investigation to be called off. They say that since the wiretaps were illegal, that is what should be investigated, not who leaked the wiretapping.

———–
All the outrage and coverage by the left over the “outing” of a desk jockey at the CIA. Special Investigations. Indictment of a man, not for doing the outing, but for perjury and obstruction of justice over the investigation into said outing.

Now this is worth investigating. Who did the leaking? When was it leaked? Remember that the Gray Lady said that they sat on this for “a year” before finally printing it just in time to affect the Patriot Act and their writer’s impending book release.

64% of Americans are okay with this type of surveillance including 51% that identify as democrats.

The BBC:

US investigates Bush spying leak

Bush says monitoring is part of his so called war on terror
The US justice department has opened an inquiry into how information about President George Bush’s secret spying programme was leaked, officials say.
The investigation is expected to focus on how the New York Times newspaper obtained the information.

Earlier this month, the paper reported that the National Security Agency had been conducting surveillance in the US without warrants.

Mr Bush later admitted he authorised the programme after the 9/11 attacks.

The AP:

Justice Dept. probing domestic spying leak

The Justice Department has opened an investigation into the leak of classified information about President Bush’s secret domestic spying program, Justice officials said Friday.

The officials, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the probe, said the inquiry will focus on disclosures to The New York Times about warrantless surveillance conducted by the National Security Agency since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The Times revealed the existence of the program two weeks ago in a front-page story that acknowledged the news had been withheld from publication for a year, partly at the request of the administration and partly because the newspaper wanted more time to confirm various aspects of the program.

Catherine Mathis, a spokeswoman for The Times, said the paper will not comment on the investigation.

Reuters:

US probes eavesdropping leak

The U.S. Justice Department has launched an investigation to determine who disclosed a secret NSA eavesdropping operation approved by President George W. Bush after the September 11 attacks, officials said on Friday.
“We are opening an investigation into the unauthorized disclosure of classified materials related to the NSA,” one official said.

Earlier this month Bush acknowledged the program and called its disclosure to The New York Times () “a shameful act.” He said he presumed a Justice Department leak investigation into who disclosed the National Security Agency eavesdropping operation would get under way.

Justice Department officials would give no details of who requested the probe or how it would be conducted.

The disclosure of the covert domestic spying program has triggered concerns among both Democrats and Republicans, with many lawmakers questioning whether it violates the U.S. Constitution.

Note the AP headline “Domestic Spying”. Note also that the Gray Lady says that they have no comment on the investigation.

I wonder how the Gray Lady is going to [not] cover this.

Other coverage:
Michelle Malkin – FINALLY: JUSTICE DEPT. OPENS NSA LEAK PROBE
Stop The ACLU – Justice Department Opens NSA Leak Probe
Blogs For Bush – Justice Department Opens Investigation Into NSA Program Leak
Curt at Flopping Aces has a lot at – Justice Dept. Finally Investigating The Leak

Farris Hassan's Day Off

Farris Hassan, a 16-year-old from Fort Lauderdale, Florida decided to take a [few] day[s] off and go to Baghdad.

Hassan, a junior at Pine Crest School, a prep academy of about 700 students in Fort Lauderdale, recently studied immersion journalism – a writer who lives the life of his subject in order to better understand it.

The teenager, whose parents were born in Iraq but have lived in the United States for about 35 years, says he wanted to travel to Baghdad to better understand what Iraqis are living through.

“I thought I’d go the extra mile for that, or rather, a few thousand miles,” he told The Associated Press.

Skipping a week of school, he left the country on Dec. 11, telling only two high school friends of his plans. His travels took him to Kuwait and Lebanon before he arrived in Iraq on Christmas Day.

(source)

His brother said that he speaks no Arabic and would have to have had a translator to even try his immersion journalism. The AP office in Baghdad that he went to called the US Embassy. Farris is now on his way home.

mm-5