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In reply to the discussion: Members of Congress Denied Access to Basic Information About NSA [View all]Lugal Zaggesi
(366 posts)When Bob Graham said he "couldn't" tell his colleagues what he had learned as Chairman of the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (and also as co-Chairman of The Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities before and after the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001) because of all the trouble he would get in for revealing classified information, I think, now, he meant it would end his career with extreme prejudice - not result in prison time. I wish someone like Paul Wellstone had been in a position to test the Law - but he never was.
I amended my comment down-thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=556978
I don't think ANYBODY has broken the "classification rules" in sharing "top secret" information they have learned as Chairmen or Ranking Members on key Committees to their colleagues to influence their voting - it would pretty much get them kicked off their Committee, get investigated for "ethics" violations, enrage their Party, and possibly ruin any businesses they owned. Could they be re-elected without party help ? Lieberman was - but it wasn't for exposing classified information that he lost the backing of his Party.
But it probably wouldn't get them tossed in prison like Bradley Manning.
Would classified information on the Iraq "sexed up intelligence" and other things, verbally revealed to colleagues (the documents were carefully controlled), have affected the vote of ambitious Democratic Senators (meaning, eyeing a run for the Presidency) like Lieberman, Biden, Bayh, Kerry, Clinton, and Edwards? Probably not - even if THEY were convinced that the "WMD" evidence was bogus, they could read the political winds in October 2002, and knew what their constituents *thought* about Iraq. And heck, they thought if the "War" was quick and successful and few/none American casualties, they would look "weak" if they voted against it.