Reply #17: White House Draws Fire From Congress, Offical Over Leak of FBI Probe

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White House Draws Fire From Congress, Officials Over Leak of FBI Probe
Wexler: Community 'Broadbrushed'
By Ori Nir
September 10, 2004

WASHINGTON — With America's pro-Israel lobby scrambling to combat media leaks from unnamed government officials, the White House is drawing criticism from congressmen and Jewish communal officials over the FBI investigation into allegations that officials of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee illegally transferred secret information to Israel.

Lawmakers and Jewish organizational leaders are questioning the motivation for the investigation and its two-year course, stressing that no indictments have emerged — only leaks from administration officials familiar with the FBI probe. In addition to expressing outrage over the media leaks, several Congressmen are also condemning the investigation itself, which they say has spawned unfair accusations of disloyalty against Aipac and represents an abuse of power on the part of Attorney General John Ashcroft.

"To think that one of the leading American Jewish organizations has been investigated for two years, and the highest people at the White House were aware of it, is extremely unsettling," said Rep. Robert Wexler, a Florida Democrat. "If there was an individual or group who broke the law, they need to be held accountable. But the broad-brushing of Aipac and the American Jewish community is extremely inflammatory and needs to be stopped."


At least one lawmaker, Representative John Conyers of Michigan, was calling for a congressional investigation regarding the substance of the allegations. Conyers, the top-ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, asked the committee's Republican chairman, James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, to open an investigation into the claim that a "rogue element of the United States government" may have worked with a foreign government in possible contravention of foreign policy
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