I need some help debunking knuckle-dragger's comments on Leahy

[mrgorth]

I've never heard of these charges before but this is what this guy is saying:

The new chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee is demanding he be kept apprised of covert technologies our intelligence agencies use to thwart terrorism. The legislation he's cosponsoring would compel the White House to provide regular reports on all current and future intelligence data-mining operations. Such a plan to trust Congress not to expose mechanisms which inherently demand obscurity would certainly be ill-advised regardless of its source. But this scheme was hatched by the Senator once voted least likely to keep a top secret -- Patrick Leahy.


As you may recall, Leahy was stripped of his Senate Intelligence Committee vice-chair during the mid 80's for making good on threats to sabotage classified strategies he didn't personally care for. During Ronald Reagan's own war on terror, the Vermont Democrat was aptly nicknamed "Leaky Leahy" for proving time and again that he would do absolutely anything to discredit the Republican President -- including revealing the most vital of national security secrets


In 1985, he was charged with disclosing a top-secret communications intercept which had led to the capture of the murderous Achille Lauro hijacking terrorists. That leak likely cost an Egyptian counterterrorist agent his life shortly thereafter. Then, in 1986, Leahy threatened to leak secret information about a covert operation to topple Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi. When the details of the operation later appeared in the Washington Post, the mission was immediately aborted.


The loose-lipped liberal was finally forced to resign his post a year later when he was caught singing like a canary to an NBC reporter about classified information on the Senate Iran-Contra hearings.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/01/pat_leahy_a_canary_in_a_data_m.html

Leahy has long opposed anti-terrorism efforts. During the mid-1980s, the heart of the Reagan administration, Leahy served as vice-chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. It was while in this position of power that he earned the nickname "Leahy the Leaker." According to a 1987 San Diego Union-Tribune report, in a 1985 television appearance Leahy disclosed classified information that one of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's telephone conversations had been intercepted. The information that Leahy revealed had been used in the operation to capture the Arab terrorists who had hijacked the Achille Lauro cruise ship and killed American citizens, and the Union-Tribune claimed that Leahy's indiscretion may have cost the life of at least one of the Egyptian operatives involved in that operation. In 1987, The Washington Times reported that Leahy had also leaked secret information about a 1986 covert operation planned by the Reagan administration to overthrow Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi. Leahy allegedly had said, "I thought was probably the most ridiculous thing I had seen, and also the most irresponsible," and had threatened to expose the operation to CIA Director William Casey. A few weeks later, details of the plan appeared in The Washington Post, and the operation was cancelled.

Another example of Leahy revealing confidential information occurred just before the Iran-Contra hearings were to begin, when he allowed an NBC reporter to look through the Senate Intelligence Committee's confidential draft report on the burgeoning scandal. After NBC used the privileged information in a January 1987 report, Leahy came under increasing fire, and after a six-month internal investigation he was forced to step down from his seat on the Senate Intelligence Committee. Leahy's leak was considered to be one of the most serious breaches of secrecy in the Intelligence Committee's then-10-year history.

http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=2038

* Senator Pat Leahy was annoyed with the Reagan administration's war on terrorism in the 1980s. At the time he was vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Therefore, "Leaky Leahy," threatened to sabotage classified strategies he didn't like.

* Leahy "inadvertently" disclosed a top-secret communications intercept during a 1985 television interview. The intercept had made possible the capture of the Arab terrorists who had hijacked the cruise ship Achille Lauro and murdered a American citizen. But Leahy's leak cost the life of at least one Egyptian "asset" involved in the operation.

* In July 1987, it was reported that Leahy leaked secret information about a 1986 covert operation planned by the Reagan administration to topple Libya's Moammar Gaddhafi. US intelligence officials stated that Leahy sent a written threat to expose the operation directly to then-CIA Director William Casey. Weeks later, news of the secret plan turned up in the Washington Post, causing it to be aborted.

* A year later, as the Senate was preparing to hold hearings on the Iran-Contra scandal, Leahy had to resign his Intelligence Committee post after he was caught leaking secret information to a reporter. The Vermont Democrat's Iran-Contra leak was considered to be one of the most serious breaches of secrecy in the committee's 28-year history. After Leahy's resignation, the Senate Intelligence Committee decided to restrict access to committee documents to a security-enhanced meeting room.

Former Green Beret officer, now columnist, Geoff Metcalf is on record saying Leahy should have been indicted, arrested and tried long ago.

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=17720

I know these are all RW sources. There is nothing on Leahy's site about this and just a blurb on wikipedia. Thanks.

[Botany]

1. Bald Faced Lies

Leahy would not still be getting briefed on secret intel if he had done those things ....

Tell the person they are lies and move on.

[Bitwit1234]

2. We know rove would start a swift boat campaign on Leahy soon

Every one is getting restless because the Oversight Committee is reving up an investigation on rove. Didn't take long did it.

[GeorgeGist]

3. Unctuous ...

Reagan supported Osama bin Laden.

[papau]

7. Reagan supported Osama / violated a law (Boland) on Contras - so who was a/ the traitor? n/t

n/t

[The_Commonist]

4. I remember the nickname Leaky Leahy...

... and I remember it had something to do with Moammar Gaddhafi.
But that's all I got.

[gratuitous]

5. The short answer, as always, is "prove it"

The slightly longer answer is that Leahy has stood for re-election several times since the 1980s, and the voters of his state continue to return him to office. The same obvioulsy can not be said for Scooter Libby, Eliot Abrams, Robert McFarlane, Oliver North, John Poindexter, John Negroponte, Colin Powell, Alberto Gonzales, Harriet Miers, or David Safavian. And when your correspondent gives you a blank uncomprehending stare for at least five of those names, invite him or her to have nice big cup of shut the fuck up, because that person clearly has no idea what he or she is talking about.

[mrgorth]

6. Just as an FYI

I met the Sen. before at the Leahy Center in Burlington. I'm a big fan.