Pat Roberts Leaks Pre-War Intel

[shraby]

Is There A Double Standard On Leak Probes? by Murray Waas

(snip)

But three years ago on the eve of the invasion of Iraq, Roberts himself was involved in disclosing sensitive intelligence information that, according to four former senior intelligence officers, impaired efforts to capture Saddam Hussein and potentially threatened the lives of Iraqis who were spying for the United States.

On March 20, 2003, at the onset of military hostilities between U.S. and Iraqi forces, Roberts said in a speech to the National Newspaper Association that he had "been in touch with our intelligence community" and that the CIA had informed President Bush and the National Security Council "of intelligence information from what we call human intelligence that indicated the location of Saddam Hussein and his leadership in a bunker in the suburbs of Baghdad."

The former intelligence officials said in interviews that Roberts was never held accountable for his comments, which bore directly on the issue of intelligence-gathering sources and methods, and revealed that Iraqis close to Hussein were probably talking to the United States. These former officials contrasted the Roberts case with last week's firing of CIA officer Mary O. McCarthy, as examples of how rank and file intelligence professionals now have much to fear from legitimate and even inadvertent contacts with journalists, while senior executive branch officials and members of Congress are almost never held accountable when they seriously breach national security through leaks of information.

"On a scale of one to ten, if Mary McCarthy did what she is accused of doing, it would be at best a six or seven," said one former senior intelligence official, whose position required involvement in numerous leak investigations. "What Pat Roberts did, from a legal and national security point of view, was an eleven."

<http://news.nationaljournal.com/articles/0425nj1.htm>

[lvx35]

1. Chairman of the Senate intelligence commitee doesn't count. ;)

Its not like HE has access to any potentially damaging info, its those low level working guys you have to watch out for! :sarcasm:

Yeah, its seriously ridiculous. But Bush's role in the Plame affair remains the most ridiculous of all!

[Justice Is Comin]

2. What is absolutely

stunning to me is that apparently she is NOT the one who told the information to the Post.

And they have it splattered worldwide that she was the one who did and CONFESSED!!

Do you know how mindblowing that is going to be when the general public hears this? Her lawyer is serve them up like Champagne grade liars.

[shraby]

3. This is the same guy who is withholding the

part II of the pre-war intel. This needs to go widely public.

[Kansas Wyatt]

5. Senator Pat "Caterpillar" Roberts

Creeping along, burying BushCo's crimes. From the Great State of Kansas, where he obtained his heavy equipment operator's license, and hopes to follow in Bob Dole's footsteps of becoming a millionaire as a public servant.

Our other senator, Senator Sam "Brokeback" Brownback is just plain Nuts and hopped up on Jesus Juice.

[stevedeshazer]

12. I absolutely love your summary of Kansas Senatorial politics

I called Roberts "track shoes" but your "Caterpillar" reference is even better. :)

I anxiously await the results of "Part Deupe: The Investigation He Promised To Wrap Up Last October."

Edited to add link to Big Ag contributions for Senator Caterpillar:

http://www.crp.org/politicians/detail.asp?CID=N00005285&cycle=2000

[rodeodance]

4. ----Roberts was never held accountable ---

[Disturbed]

6. "the location of Saddam Hussein and his leadership

in a bunker in the suburbs..." If I recall correctly, a missle was sent there that killed several innocent men, women and children. Just some collateral damage. So what! The Bush Regime have killed thousands of innocent Iraqis.

[Jane Austin]

7. I also remember that there was a leak from the Senate Intelligence

Committee that was investigated and traced straight to Sen. Shelby of Alabama.

He apparently walked out of the committee room and called a reporter right from the capitol steps.

Nothing was done to him.

[bleever]

8. I bet we could compile a long list of such "sanctioned" leaks.

"Sources and methods" has been a mantra with these folks, while they use intelligence for political purposes.

Rec'd.

[Peace Patriot]

9. I think the news here is not so much that Pat Roberts leaked security

information that endangered U.S. spies--it IS news, but it's par for the course, for treasonous Bushites--nor that the Bush junta has a double-standard for anything (jeez...), but the real news is this new indication that "former intelligence officials" are at war with the Bush junta--and I think it's a no-brainer that these "former intelligence officials," like the "retired generals," are speaking FOR many who are still actively employed within these establishments. Kids, things are going on here that we know not of. We SHOULD know, since this IS our government, supposedly, and we pay all of these peoples' salaries. But we don't know--for whatever reasons (some might be good ones, or understandable)--and we can only surmise. It appears that there is a serious revolt going on, within the military and intelligence communities, against actions of the Bush junta, some of which we know about and some of which we don't. Such a revolt is without precedent in the history of the United States. It is a gravely serious matter.

The torture, the secret prisons and the renditions are just one of the things this may be about--and is likely just the tip of the iceberg. Why the junta would fire a very senior CIA official, and lie so blatantly about why they did so, is one of the stranger puzzles we need to address. It could be an attempted swift-boating, prior to HER potential revelations about THEM. Or it could have something to do with who really did leak the secret prisons/rendition story. Could it be that the junta is torturing, secretly imprisoning, rendering and perhaps killing people who are actually GOOD people--potential whistleblowers or witnesses to Bush junta crimes, and even our own people? Could they be assaulting our own people, or trusted covert contacts, in this way? (I mean, who believes that they are torturing and rendering and killing actual terrorists? I don't.) Maybe the person who did the leak is in some kind of trouble--has been outed and put in danger--and McCarthy challenged the junta on it? Has she challenged them on harassment and purging of good people in the intelligence community?

What are these Pentagon (Rumsfeld) "special ops" teams doing in Iran--that is illegal or heinous--that professionals in the CIA might object to? Is that it? Or is it some deeper crimes that we don't even know about yet? Personally, my mind goes to, a) 9/11; b) Cheney illicit arms dealings, and c) the supposed suicide of the Brits chief WMD expert, David Kelly, three days after CIA counter-proliferation agent Valerie Plame was outed (which was followed, four days later, by the outing of Plame's entire counter-proliferation network, Brewster-Jennings; what happened in between was a search of Kelly's office and computers).

Is something brewing--in this unprecedented revolt within the military and intelligence communities--that is going to rock the nation? Or, is this just individuals reaching their personal limits of Bush junta criminality, and doing what they can to object or blow the whistle? It's looking more like a widespread revolt every day--a widespread revolt of good and honest people in government, people with standards of integrity and loyalty to the Constitution and to the country, who have had it with this junta. I can only cheer them on. And I wish we knew more of what is going on, and I think we have a right to know.

[stevedeshazer]

10. So Mister Senator "I've Got My Track Shoes On" Pat Roberts is at the heart

...of this leaky ship?

Oh, the irony. :eyes:

[FrenchieCat]

11. Using GOP venacular.....I say,

Put his sorry ass under the jail! Just like the rest of those petty GOP hypocrites, he's a threat to our National Security!