US Treasury seeks probe into papers taken by O'Neill

[RamboLiberal]

http://channels.netscape.com/ns/news/story.jsp?id=200401121550000281155&dt=20040112155000&w=RTR&coview=

WASHINGTON, Jan 12 (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury has asked the U.S. inspector general's office to investigate how a possibly classified document appeared on Sunday in a televised interview of ex-Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, a department spokesman said on Monday.

"It's based on the (CBS program) '60 Minutes' segment, and I'll be even more clear -- the document as shown on '60 Minutes' that said 'secret,"' Treasury spokesman Rob Nichols told reporters at a weekly briefing.

In a new book about his term as Treasury chief, O'Neill, who left the job in December 2002 in a shake-up of President George W. Bush's economic team, criticized White House policies and provided author Ron Suskind with thousands of administration documents.

While Nichols said it is customary for departing officials to take documents when they leave, this probe will focus on how possibly classified information appeared on a television interview as one of O'Neill's papers.