Secrets: Classified Info: Springing a Leak

[seemslikeadream]

Were they spying? Bush addresses AIPAC in May


By Mark Hosenball and Michael Isikoff
NewsweekSept 13 issue - One measure of how seriously the Feds are pursuing an investigation into whether a Pentagon analyst leaked secret information to a pro-Israel lobbying group is the fact that FBI agents showed up unannounced at the offices of the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee in Washington late on the morning of Aug. 27 armed with a search warrant. The bureau could only have obtained the warrant by demonstrating probable cause that AIPAC's offices contained evidence of a crime. Investigators searched the office, took away documents and downloaded data from the computer of Steve Rosen, AIPAC's top foreign-policy expert; they questioned Rosen until he asked to consult a lawyer. AIPAC said it was cooperating with the investigation. But the group said none of its employees received or passed along information they "believed" to be classified.


.........

Intelligence and law-enforcement sources said the investigation was the latest in a series of inquiries going back several years into officials associated with the Pentagon policy bureaucracy headed by Defense Undersecretary Douglas Feith. One recently departed Pentagon official, Michael Maloof, whom Feith assigned after 9/11 to set up a two-man team to look for evidence the CIA and other intelligence agencies overlooked connections between Al Qaeda and various states, including Iraq, was investigated for years for security leaks, and eventually lost his top-secret security clearance. Officials in Feith's office also supported the politician Ahmad Chalabi in his machinations to succeed Saddam Hussein; Chalabi's ambitions hit the wall last spring after White House and senior Pentagon officials were briefed on intelligence suggesting that Chalabi had leaked highly confidential info to the Iranian government on U.S. electronic eavesdropping, causing Iranian intelligence to change its secret codes. Chalabi denied the charges. He and other friends of the neocons who staff Feith's office say the AIPAC raids are more evidence of a long vendetta by the CIA and other agencies against Bush loyalists who have questioned the agencies' judgments.

more
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5916041/site/newsweek/

[grasswire]

1. one more time

The prosecutor on this case is a Bush Family Fixer!!!!

Look what has happened. The FBI was about to make arrests on Friday. Ashcroft tossed the matter to Paul J. McNulty, in Bushco's rocket docket in Alexandria. Paul J. McNulty is a FIXER. A FIXER. Waco investigation, Clinton impeachment, Florida recount, Ashcroft nomination, John Walker LIndh --- a FIXER. This whole matter is going down the rabbit hole.

http://www.nysun.com/article/1212

>>>>>According to sources familiar with the investigation, the U.S. district attorney in charge of the probe, Paul McNulty, has ordered the FBI not to move forward with arrests that they were prepared to make last Friday when the story broke on CNN and CBS. "He put the brakes on it in order to look at it," a source familiar with the investigation told the Sun. "To see what was there. Basically the FBI wanted to start making arrests and McNulty said 'Woa, based on what? Let's look at this before you do anything.'"

Mr. Franklin's security clearances were revoked in June, according to administration officials, and the FBI has tailed two staff members of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee for at least a year. Early press reports alleged Mr. Franklin passed the draft policy paper to those Aipac officials. The two Aipac Iran analysts, Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman, have retained a well known criminal defense attorney, Abbe Lowell, for counsel.

Mr. McNulty was only assigned the case by Attorney General Ashcroft last Friday when federal agents came to Aipac's offices in Washington to request files and hard drives. "Ashcroft wanted to make sure this case was being handled properly," the source familiar with the probe said. "I would not expect any action on this for at least three weeks." This source added that a grand jury is now being selected, but it was likely the charges, initially reported as espionage, would be scaled back to the mishandling of classified information.<<<<<

Paul J. McNulty:

"McNulty is accustomed to high-profile, high-pressure situations. He was chief counsel to the House subcommittee on crime during hearings into the disastrous 1993 federal raid on the Branch Davidian compound outside Waco, Texas.And he served as chief counsel and spokesman for House Judiciary Committee Republicans during impeachment proceedings against President Bill Clinton.During a nighttime jog on Washington's National Mall, McNulty conceived then-House Judiciary Chairman Henry Hyde's opening statement for the Senate trial. McNulty contemplated the oath that the 100 senators would take at the trial's outset, the oath of office that the president took to uphold the Constitution and the oath that Clinton took when he testified.McNulty realized that the concept of the oath unified his thoughts."The oath," Hyde, R-Ill., would say later on the Senate floor. "In many ways the case you will consider in the coming days is about those two words: 'I do.'"McNulty later served as chief counsel to House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas. McNulty returned to the Justice Department, where he served as chief spokesman under President George H.W. Bush. A year ago, McNulty headed the younger Bush's transition team and prepared Attorney General nominee John Ashcroft for his Senate confirmation hearings.Knowing that Ashcroft's hearings would be contentious, McNulty assembled top GOP lawyers to brainstorm questions that the former Missouri senator would face. By the time the hearing began, McNulty had prepared a weighty briefing book with appropriate answers.As Democrats grilled Ashcroft about his support for civil rights, McNulty sat just behind his elbow, straining forward as he balanced the book on his lap."
http://www.post-gazette.com/regionstate/20020128newsmakerreg4p4.asp

[seemslikeadream]

2. THE FIXER

[redstateblues]

3. Who Dat?

[seemslikeadream]

4. U.S. Attorney Paul "THE FIXER" McNulty

[grasswire]

5. I keyed in on this guy...

...when he was appointed U.S. Attorney in that Alexandria rocket docket. I saw his pic, and remembered seeing him in the Florida recount. That's how I followed the google trail and found out his involvement in all these matters where he was a FIXER. I knew that this rocket docket would eventually be used to hide some crimes. And here we go.

[Snellius]

7. Jeez, these pod people Republibans all look alike

.

[Tansy_Gold]

8. This guy, like Norm Coleman on the Daily Show,

smiles just like "Bob" in the Enzyte commercials.

I swear, ALL these jerks are on some kind of wacko drugs.

[sadiesworld]

10. YIKES!

I think they only have about 2 or 3 molds for these guys. :scared:

[leftchick]

6. Where is Michael Maloof?

I am betting he is out of the country right now....

[illiteratepresident]

9. <<<<<<<<<<FUCK AIPAC>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

NO SINGLE ORGANIZATION IS MORE RESPONSIBLE FOR INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM

[Snellius]

12. Interesting that AIPAC's website is down all of a sudden

Just tried to find out more at http://www.aipac.org/ but their site is down. I wonder if anything will be missing when and if it gets back up.

[The Zanti Regent]

13. Gee, it's still down

and I wonder why the whore press who pissed all over Al Gore and lied about a cretain Buddhist temple are strangely silent about a foreign entity called AIPAC buying off politicians...

[xchrom]

11. well when you are the bush family

your ties run deep -- and the media does what they are told.