The CIA has referred the leak to the justice department - yes, just as they did the Plame outing. The Justice Department will decide whether to initiate a criminal investigation.
The Washington Post had no comment on the matter. Wow! Could this be the beginning of another 1st Amendment case for the press? Will Dana Priest be asked to give up her source.
Additionally Harry Reid said the House and Senate committees with normal jurisdiction should conduct any hearings, not a bicameral committee as suggested in the letter of the two Republican leaders.
Nancy Pelosi said any such joint investigation should also investigate possible manipulation of prewar intelligence on Iraq.
"If Speaker Hastert and Majority Leader Frist are finally ready to join Democrats' demands for an investigation of possible abuses of classified information, they must direct the House and Senate Intelligence Committees to investigate all aspects of that issue," said Pelosi.
So the Dems are piling on this one too to our advantage. Way to go!!!
Read on...
From The Article:
WASHINGTON - The CIA took the first step toward a criminal investigation of a leak of possibly classified information on secret prisons to The Washington Post, a U.S. official said Tuesday.
The agency's general counsel sent a report to the Justice Department about the Post story, which reported the existence of secret U.S. detention centers for suspected terrorists in Eastern Europe.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the issue deals with classified information, said the referral was made shortly after the Nov. 2 story. The leak investigation into the disclosure of covert CIA officer Valerie Plame's identity came about through the same referral procedure. The Justice Department will decide whether to initiate a criminal investigation.
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"If the leadership determines that we should investigate the leak, it would be much like the 9/11" commission, said Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., who did not dispute a reporter's suggestion that a probe would raise First Amendment press-freedom issues.
Such an investigation would become "very difficult when you're getting into matters like this," said the senator.
Roberts also said he would support hearings into the importance of maintaining a covert agent's cover, a topic triggered by the leak of Plame's identity, eight days after her husband accused the Bush administration of manipulating prewar intelligence to exaggerate the Iraq threat.
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Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, said Republicans "should be focused on the illegality of these prisons, not the revelation of the illegality."
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