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House to Probe CIA Prisons
Leak
Yahoo News/AP
By KATHERINE SHRADER, Associated Press Writer
Thu Nov 10, 9:44 PM ET
WASHINGTON - The House Intelligence Committee will look into a possible leak
of classified information about secret CIA prisons but will not reopen its 2003
inquiry into prewar intelligence on Iraq.
As calls for intelligence-related reviews grow on Capitol Hill, Rep. Peter
Hoekstra (news, bio, voting record), R-Mich., said Thursday his committee will
study several specific leaks of classified information, including a Nov. 2
Washington Post story that discussed the existence of secret CIA prisons
overseas.
The story said the "black sites" were in eight countries, including
democracies in Eastern Europe. Hoekstra would not confirm the story's accuracy
or whether the prisons exist.
"The depth of the leaks that we have seen in the intelligence community over
the last 12 to 18 months have done irreparable harm to our ability to
effectively conduct the war on terror," Hoekstra said.
When classified activities overseas are disclosed, he said, foreign
intelligence agencies see their involvement leaked to the American press,
hurting crucial relationships.
California Rep. Jane Harman (news, bio, voting record), the committee's top
Democrat, said the committee should return to its work on the prewar
intelligence on Iraq. She was echoing efforts of Senate Democrats to draw
attention to the administration's mistakes on the war.
The House committee, then led by current CIA Director Porter Goss, produced
an interim report on Iraq in September 2003 that found the U.S. went to war in
Iraq on the basis of outdated and vague intelligence.
"The point of it is to understand fully how we collected, analyzed and
presented intelligence ... and what responsibility the intelligence community
had to correct misinformation by policy-makers," Harman said in an
interview.
Hoekstra said work on the flawed prewar estimates will stay with the Senate
Intelligence Committee, which is in the second phase of its own
investigation.
"We do not see it as being necessary for us to do a redundant effort," he
said.
The Senate committee produced a 511-page report in July and is now studying
five remaining lines of inquiry, including divisive questions about whether
policy-makers misstated the intelligence to make the case for war.
President Bush's national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, took issue with
"the notion that somehow the administration manipulated prewar intelligence
about Iraq."
"Some of the critics today believed themselves in 2002 that Saddam Hussein
had weapons of mass destruction, they stated that belief and they voted to
authorize the use of force in Iraq because they believed Saddam Hussein posed a
dangerous threat to the American people," Hadley said.
"For those critics to ignore their own past statements exposes the
hollowness of their current attacks," he said.
Hadley said the intelligence on Saddam's alleged weapons of mass
destruction, which were never found, was "based on the aggregation of
intelligence from a number of sources and represented the collective view of
the intelligence community."
The House committee's leaks investigation comes at the request of Senate
Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., and House Speaker Dennis Hastert,
R-Ill.
Hoekstra said he had yet to determine the scope of the inquiry, but would
devise a plan with Harman. He said he has not yet decided whether the Post
reporter, Dana Priest, would be asked to disclose her confidential sources.
Messages left Thursday with a spokesman for the paper were not immediately
returned.
In a two-year federal investigation, New York Times reporter Judith Miller
went to jail for 85 days to protect a source, I. Lewis Libby, the vice
president's former chief of staff. Both were caught up in a probe over who
leaked the identity of CIA covert operative Valerie Plame.
Libby was charged with five-counts of perjury and other charges.
Hoekstra said he is interested in reviewing that case and the disclosure of
the total U.S. intelligence budget, which may have been a mistake. At a
conference in San Antonio last week, the top U.S. official for intelligence
collection, Mary Margaret Graham, said the figure is $44 billion.
Congress has engaged in rigorous debate about whether the number can be made
public and decided against it.
When asked if there is ever a good leak, Hoekstra said "maybe" that could be
argued in some cases. "But it is not appropriate for a person who is entrusted
with a security clearance to make that decision on their own."
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