Secrecy News: Inquiry Into CIA Leak; Inconsistent Investigations
Secrecy News: Inquiry Into
CIA Leak; Inconsistent Investigations
About
Secrecy News
SECRECY NEWS is an email publication of
the Federation of American Scientists (FAS)
Project on Government Secrecy. It provides
informal coverage of new developments in secrecy,
security and intelligence policies, as well
as links to new acquisitions on the Federation
of American Scientists web site. It
is published 2 to 3 times a week, or as events
warrant. Secrecy
News Article Index
Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ) and several colleagues introduced a
"resolution of inquiry" to request that the Bush
Administration provide Congress with "all documents...
relating to the disclosure of the identity of Ms. Valerie
Plame as an employee of the Central Intelligence Agency during
the period beginning on May 6, 2003, and ending on July 31,
2000."
Ms. Plame's formerly clandestine status was leaked to columnist
Robert Novak last summer, in what some alleged to be an act of
retaliation directed at her husband, Amb. Joseph Wilson, a
Bush Administration critic.
See the introduction of House Resolution 499 on January 21
here:
According to a report on the Time
Magazine web site, a grand jury has been convened to pursue the
Plame leak investigation.
WAXMAN ON INCONSISTENCIES IN LEAK INVESTIGATIONS
The Bush Administration has responded to public disclosures of
classified information in markedly different ways depending on
whether or not the disclosures served the political interests
of the White House, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) recently argued.
An investigation into whether former Treasury Secretary Paul
O'Neill improperly disclosed a "secret" document was commenced
within a day. In contrast, the Plame leak investigation took
months to get off the ground, he said. Meanwhile, journalist
Bob Woodward's flattering presentation of classified
information in his book "Bush at War" apparently prompted no
investigation at all.
"Please explain the process by which the Administration
determines whether it is appropriate to provide journalists
with access to classified information," Rep. Waxman wrote
provocatively to national security adviser Condoleezza Rice.
See his January
14 letter (flagged by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the
Press at www.rcfp.org).
