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Jihadis and Wiretaps and Moonbats! Oh, My! -- Part 4 (Updated)
(Click here for some earlier related posts.)
It's about damned time:
Justice Dept. Probing "Domestic Spying" Leak
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Justice Department has opened another investigation into leaks of classified information, this time to determine who divulged the existence of President Bush's secret domestic spying program.
The inquiry focuses on disclosures to The New York Times about warrantless surveillance conducted by the National Security Agency since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, officials said.
The newspaper recently revealed the existence of the program in a front-page story that also acknowledged that the news had been withheld from publication for a year, partly at the request of the administration and partly because the newspaper wanted more time to confirm various aspects of the program.
White House spokesman Trent Duffy said Justice undertook the action on its own, and Bush was informed of it Friday.
"The leaking of classified information is a serious issue. The fact is that al-Qaida's playbook is not printed on Page One and when America's is, it has serious ramifications," Duffy told reporters in Crawford, Texas, where Bush was spending the holidays.
[...]
Two years ago, a special counsel was named to investigate who inside the White House gave reporters the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame, an effort that led to perjury and obstruction of justice charges against Vice President Dick Cheney's top aide, Lewis I. "Scooter" Libby.
More recently, the Justice Department has begun examining whether classified information was illegally disclosed to The Washington Post about a network of secret CIA prisons in Eastern Europe and elsewhere.
The NSA leak probe was launched after the Justice Department received a request from the spy agency.
[I'm leaving out a bunch of left-wing B.S. here about Bush being the one that broke the law. Whether what Bush had the NSA do is legal or not, which I'm satisfied it is, divulging classified information is still a serious crime and the people who did it deserve major jail time at a minimum.]
Douglas Kmiec, a Pepperdine University law professor, said the Justice probe is the next logical step because the NSA is alleging a violation of a law that prohibits disclosure of classified information.
"The Department of Justice has the general obligation to investigate suspected violations of the law," Kmiec said. "It would be extraordinary for the department not to take up this matter."
The NSA probe likely will result in a repeat of last summer's events in Washington, where reporters were subpoenaed to testify about who in the administration told them about Plame's work at the CIA. New York Times reporter Judith Miller spent 85 days in jail for refusing to reveal her sources.
[I'm skipping over some more left-wing BS here. Click here if you want to read the whole article, but I've already told you the important part.]
Fox News has more here.
It's past time to lock up Eric Lichtblau and James Risen till they divulge the sources of the classified information they've been printing, then arrest, try, and hang anyone with a security clearance who passed on classified info to anyone without one. We're at war, people, and as far as I'm concerned Lichtblau, Risen, and their sources are enemy agents who deserve to be treated as such.
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I know I'm late to the party on this one, folks. Too many extra people around here due to school holidays and a ten day winter shutdown at the local auto-parts plant. Some other people's posts you should read: Michelle Malkin: Finally: Justice Dept. Opens NSA Leak Probe
A J Strata: DOJ Investigating NSA Leaks
Stop the ACLU: Justice Department Opens NSA Leak Probe
MacRanger: Calling Mr. Fitzgerald?
Stop the ACLU: ACLU Slams DOJ Investigation of NSA Whistleblower, Asks For Investigation To Be Called Off [Un-freakin'-believable! They do want the bad guys to win.]
Flopping Aces: Justice Dept. Finally Investigating The Leak
If I died right now it'd take 'em a week to get the big grin off my face. I'll fetch a rope, you go find a tree! Happy New Year, people!
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Dafydd ab Hugh:
Expect Many Sudden New "Foreign Correspondents"
[...]
The Left's attempt to gin up a Watergate-style scandal out of the NSA issue has been exploding in their faces since the very first day of it; at what point do they just stop, take a stress pill, and ask if this is really in their best interests?
In any event, the media has made such a stink about this and rubbed the leaking into the administration's face so blatantly that now they've drawn yet another federal investigation (added to the one already in place to find out who leaked the classified information about the CIA's secret prisons in Eastern Europe, as Power Line reminds us). So at least it's had some minor good effect to slightly counterbalance the huge blow to American national security: maybe these blatantly illegal leaks will result, after a few prosecutions and lengthy prison terms, in the White House finally gaining control of the CIA and NSA.
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Uncle Jimbo at Blackfive has two excellent related posts here and here.
Click here to see Baldilocks's latest thoughts on the matter.
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Andrew Cochran: DOJ Should Appoint Patrick Fitzgerald to Investigate Two Leaks of Classified Information
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A J Strata: ACLU Claimed FISA Was Unconstitutional (And now they want Bush impeached for violating FISA?)
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