WP: Investigators Concluded Shelby Leaked (CLASSIFIED) Message

[RobertSeattle]

I love how WP kept "classified" out of the headline.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40886-2004Aug4.html

Federal investigators concluded that Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.) divulged classified intercepted messages to the media when he was on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, according to sources familiar with the probe.

Specifically, Fox News chief political correspondent Carl Cameron confirmed to FBI investigators that Shelby verbally divulged the information to him during a June 19, 2002, interview, minutes after Shelby's committee had been given the information in a classified briefing, according to the sources, who declined to be identified because of the sensitive nature of the case.

Cameron did not air the material. Moments after Shelby spoke with Cameron, he met with CNN reporter Dana Bash, and about half an hour after that, CNN broadcast the material, the sources said. CNN cited "two congressional sources" in its repor

[THUNDER HANDS]

1. and the penalty for this is what?

[Ouabache]

3. penalty what penalty?

He is a republican.

[Frodo]

11. Removal from the Senate Intelligence Committee

It's happened before.

[shockingelk]

13. Why's Hatch still on it?

see post #12

Oh yeah. He's a Republican too.

[NewJerseyDem]

15. He's not on it anymore

Shelby was term limited off the committee after the 2002 elections.

[Kool Kitty]

14. Penalty? Oh, my dear, surely you jest!

The man is a REPUBLICAN. ;-)

[Justice]

2. Dana's sources were Carl and Richard....

[thebigidea]

4. good to see FOX protect their sources like they do their reputation

oh... wait.

[KoKo]

5. Amazing! When will Novak reveal who leaked Valerie Plame's CIA

connection to him. Doesn't this make Cameron a "squeeler?" What will his fellow journalists think....WooWee! Might set a precident.

A little more from the WaPo, article:

"Yes, the FBI and the Justice Department came to me to ask me all that information," he said. "I will confirm to you that I was asked all those questions."

But he said he told investigators, "What doesn't go on the air I don't discuss, and we don't disclose our sources."

He said, "When they continued to press me, that's when I got it kicked up to the lawyers."

Cameron, in an interview yesterday, said FBI agents told him they had asked the Justice Department to subpoena him before the grand jury. There was "a lot of talk about getting" a grand jury subpoena, he said, but one was never issued.

Bash, who declined to be interviewed by the FBI, said yesterday: "I cannot comment on it." FBI spokesman Ed Cogswell also declined to comment.

The Shelby probe was one of several ongoing leak investigations, including one trying to determine who leaked the name of an undercover CIA officer, Valerie Plame, to columnist Robert Novak.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

17. Given the comparative harm caused by each leak

this is a non-story compared to the Plame leak.
Is the WaPo a Bush tool?

[bluestateguy]

6. Glad to see the adults are in charge in Warshington

Suddenly Shelby may be vulnerable this November. had a Democratic senator done this, all we would hear about was how the Democrats are not serious about national security. But I guess it's more dangerous to the nation when some shaggy haired college kid burns an American flag.

Having said that, Carl Cameron has revealed that he is not a serious journalist at all. It is not the job of journalists to be trustys for the feds.

[quaoar]

9. Shelby is not in danger

His Democratic opponent this year is Wayne Sowell, a political nobody with a platform that includes repealing marijuana laws. That, plus being black, dooms him here in Alabama.

Shelby could be caught in bed with three hookers and he'd still beat Sowell.

And even if Shelby is forced to resign, his replacement would be appointed by Gov. Bob Riley, a Republican. And Riley might just be tempted to appoint Roy Moore (of 10 Commandments fame) to prevent Moore from running against him in the GOP primary for governor in two years.

So, y'all might want to start pulling for Shelby to survive.

[AlCzervik]

7. Heres what i dont understand

what was the point of him leaking that fox? Was it to give them an exclusive because thats how the gop pays them? I dont think that memo helped anyone look good or bad. Someone please tell me what i'm missing, i understand Shelby should face legal action for what he did but am i missing in terms of the memo itself?

[Rose Siding]

8. This is interesting. Apparently, Wilson was at a signing last week

and commented on the Berger investigation- it's hard not to associate the Shelby deal with that as the stories broke so close together. Here's an account of the way he answered a loosely related question:

In response to a question along the lines of "How do you think the Fitzgerald probe will turn out?" from the man in front of me in the book-signing line, Ambassador Wilson gave the following interesting analysis tying the success of the Fitzgerald probe to the accusations against Berger:

The long-running FBI investigation into whether Sandy Berger had criminally mishandled classified documents was publicized in order to send the message that if the Fitzgerald grand jury indicts White House officials for blowing my wife's cover, then there will be retaliation by levelling criminal charges against Berger.

(NB: Not an exact quote of Wilson's response, but rather a close paraphrase.)

http://williamkaminsky.typepad.com/too_many_worlds/2004/07/meeting_joe_wil.html

I'm not familiar with this blogger- he was linked at Needlenose.

[alfredo]

10. Talking to a congressman yesterday, he said

that the Whitehouse is trying to "inhibit" the Plame investigation.

[shockingelk]

12. Orrin Hatch leaked it right after the attacks ...

Capitol Hill also is a sieve for secrets. Administration members reportedly have been vague in their post-massacre legislative briefings for fear that some members of Congress cannot keep secrets.

Senate Intelligence Committee member Orrin Hatch (R., Utah) heightened these apprehensions when he told reporters shortly after the September 11 slaughter: "Everything is pointing in the direction of Osama bin Laden." Hatch added: "They have an intercept of some information that includes people associated with bin Laden who acknowledged a couple of targets were hit." http://www.nationalreview.com/murdock/murdock092001.shtml

Is he being investigated to? I don't get this ...

[Snazzy]

16. cool cool cool. Cameron's the guy in Outfoxed

Who interviews Whistleass. His wife being a campaign worker. Chatting it up like the ol' boy he is.

Now, did he invoke the fairly legit 1st amendment protection of sources? Show integrity? No, he showed no spine whatsoever, totally caved, and gave 'em right the f up.

(Had he gone to j-school, or attended classes had he gone to j-school, he might have heard about the Bill of Rights re: journalism).

Wow, I'm diggin' this. It was the "Tomorrow is zero hour" message Shelby leaked. The cornerstone of mihop/lihop thinking.

This is going to explode. Toxic nuclear 'splode. Big!

:toast:

(And this, just my initial reaction!)

[trof]

18. Shelby refused lie detector test.

According to this website.
I don't know how credible the INN World Report is.

http://inn.globalfreepress.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=216

"Shelby said in a prepared statement that "at no time during my service on have I ever knowingly compromised classified information." Moreover, added the senator, "to my knowledge, the same can be said of my staff."

Ironically, Shelby was one of the four members of Congress who urged the probe in the first place. When it began to focus on him, he refused to take a lie detector test and began questioning whether the investigation violated the constitutional separation of powers."

I would submit that "knowingly" and "to my knowledge" are legal "weasel words".

[kentuck]

19. And here is what he leaked...

"The disclosure involved two messages that were intercepted by the National Security Agency on the eve of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks but were not translated until Sept. 12. The Arabic-language messages said "The match is about to begin" and "Tomorrow is zero hour." The Washington Post, citing senior U.S. intelligence officials, reported the same messages in its June 20, 2002, editions."

[Rose Siding]

20. I'm torn about this

Of course busting repubs is swell, but I don't trust the admin to only classify actual nat'l security stuff- they want to classify everything. We need leakers- HUGE leakers if we are to learn anything at all about what goes on.

The fact that there was a warning, pseudo-cryptic though it was, is something I'd want everyone to know. As part of a number of missed signals, it is relevant.

Also, in Shelby's case, two "reporters"- Cameron and Bash- revealed their sources. Does this mean no one in WA will ever talk to a reporter again? Maybe this is just one more admin assault on any kind of transparency in govt.

See? I'm torn. I don't trust Shelby any further than I can throw him but this isn't a pretty picture.

[KoKo]

22. I would wonder about backlash to Cameron and Bash. If we had any

decent cable news they would be censored by journalist peers who refuse to give up their sources.

[KoKo]

21. When I read that I thought ....Sibol Edmunds testimony which is locked up

by the Senate Intelligence Committee and Asscroft. This is what she was trying to get out.

I wonder if something is going on here. Will Shelby leak more? Is something going on with the Senate Intelligence Committee behind the scenes? Or is it the typical Bush warning across the bow to Shelby that he's a "marked man" and he better shut the hell up along with the rest of the "leakers" on that Committee.

If only we had press who would follow up and connect the dots on these stories. Sheby/Edmonds/Berger/Plame.....There's something there that's waiting to come out. Who will put it together?

[William Bloode]

23. I think i agree....

I do believe they are somewhat connected, if nothing else but to show how the Bush admin uses these kinda of tactics to try and silence people. Dirty, very dirty indeed.

[givemebackmycountry]

24. Let's see

They killed Sandy Berger for about a week and a half.
This better break BIG at LEAST as big as the Berger thing or I'm going to be pissed.

I hate these bastards.