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'Leaky' Leahy Leads Push for Spy Probe
Sen. Pat "Leaky" Leahy is leading the push by Senate Democrats to investigate the Bush administration's terrorist surveillance operation, saying over the weekend that the probe should be expanded to include allegations that the National Security Agency gained access to some of the country's main telephone arteries. "As far as Congressional investigations are concerned," Leahy told the New York Times on Christmas Day, "these new revelations can only multiply and intensify the growing list of questions and concerns about the warrantless surveillance of Americans." The Vermont Democrat's aggressive posture comes despite his own sorry record on intelligence matters. In 1987, for instance, Leahy he had to resign his post as vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee after repeatedly leaking information to the press that compromised U.S. counterterrorism operations and may have killed a key U.S. intelligence asset. The episode earned him the moniker "Leaky" Leahy with home state critics.
Story Continues Below Now serving as the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Leahy isn't shy about saying where he'd like to see spy probe lead, telling the Voice of America on Wednesday: "The president is not above the law, members of the Senate are not above the law, nobody is." He rejects comparisons with surveillance operations conducted by past administrations, insisting to reporters last week: "If you go back to Clinton and Carter, those are searches under a FISA provision into embassies, foreign embassies and things of that nature, [and were an] entirely different situation." What's more, Leahy has even threatened to raise questions about the Bush spy program during upcoming confirmation hearings into Bush Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito. In a letter to Alito last week, the Vermont Democrat warned: "Recent revelations that the president authorized domestic eavesdropping without following the statute that requires approval of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court is but one of several areas where the court's role as a check on overreaching by the executive may soon prove crucial." Despite Leahy's plans for a full court press on the spy issue, Republicans have been reluctant to make an issue of his past handling of intelligence matters. According to a 1987 editorial in the San Diego Union Tribune, however, Leahy "disclosed a top secret communications intercept during a [1985] television interview." "The intercept, apparently of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's telephone conversations, made possible the capture of the Arab terrorists who had hijacked the cruise ship Achille Lauro and murdered American citizens," the paper said, adding, "The reports cost the life of at least one Egyptian operative involved in the operation." In July 1987, the Washington Times reported that Leahy leaked secret information about a 1986 covert operation planned by the Reagan administration to topple Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi. "I thought [the operation] was probably the most ridiculous thing I had seen, and also the most irresponsible," the then-leading Intelligence Committee Democrat allegedly said of the secret plan. Unidentified U.S. intelligence officials told the Times that Leahy, along with Republican panel chairman Sen. Dave Durenberger, communicated 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. Leahy vehemently denied he talked to the press about any of the Reagan administration's covert operations, saying, "I never have, and I'm not going to start now." But just a year later, as the Senate was preparing to hold hearings on the Iran-Contra scandal, the Vermont senator had to resign his Intelligence Committee post after he was caught leaking secret information to a reporter. The ranking Intelligence Committee Democrat decided to let an NBC reporter comb through the committee's confidential draft report on its investigation. The network aired a report based on the inside information on Jan. 11, 1987. After a six-month internal investigation, Leahy "voluntarily" stepped down from his committee post, releasing a statement calling his resignation "a suitable way to express ... anger and regret" over his lapse. Leahy's anger, he said, was at himself, "for carelessly allowing the press person to examine the unclassified draft and to be alone with it." 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. Editor's note:
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