Text 23951, 80 rader
Skriven 2006-10-20 18:38:00 av Jeff Binkley (1:226/600)
Ärende: Dems
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http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/10/20/D8KSCVN01.html

House Intel Chair Suspends Staff Member
Oct 20 9:31 AM US/Eastern
   
By KATHERINE SHRADER
Associated Press Writer


Democrats say the Republican head of the House Intelligence Committee 
had no grounds to suspend a staff member who's come under scrutiny for 
the leak of a secret intelligence assessment. 
The unidentified staff member, a Democrat, was suspended this week by 
Chairman Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., and is being denied access to 
classified information pending the outcome of a review, Hoekstra's 
spokesman, Jamal Ware, said Thursday. 

The Intelligence Committee's top Democrat, Jane Harman of California, 
wrote to Hoekstra that she was "appalled" by his action, which was 
"without basis." 

The leak to The New York Times of a National Intelligence Estimate on 
global terror trends caused a political uproar last month. In the 
assessment, completed in April, analysts from the government's 16 spy 
agencies concluded that the Iraq war has become a "cause celebre" for 
Islamic extremists, breeding deep resentment of the U.S. that probably 
will get worse before it gets better. 

President Bush, who suggested the document was leaked for "political 
purposes" weeks before the midterm elections, later made public four 
pages of the estimate's key findings. 

In a letter to Hoekstra dated Sept. 29, Rep. Ray LaHood, R-Ill., a 
committee member, said the Democratic staffer requested the document 
from National Intelligence Director John Negroponte three days before a 
Sept. 23 story by the Times on its conclusions. 

"I have no credible information to say any classified information was 
leaked from the committee's minority staff, but the implications of such 
would be dramatic," LaHood said in the letter, a copy of which was 
obtained by The Associated Press. "This may, in fact, be only 
coincidence, and simply 'look bad.' But coincidence, in this town, is 
rare." 

In her letter, Harman demanded that Hoekstra "immediately reinstate the 
staffer's access to classified information." 

A conference call to the committee's nine Democrats on Wednesday to 
inform them of the aide's suspension prompted outrage, said two 
congressional officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because 
they were not authorized to speak publicly about internal committee 
business. 

The officials said that the National Intelligence Estimate was marked 
"secret," rather than "top secret" or another more restrictive 
classification. As a result, thousands of people across government would 
have had access to it, including the intelligence, armed services and 
international relations committees of the House. 

The officials said the staff member acted appropriately in requesting 
the document on behalf of a committee member. 

Relations between Democrats and Republicans on the House Intelligence 
Committee have soured in recent weeks. 

On Tuesday, Harman unilaterally released the executive summary of an 
independent investigator's review into the actions of a jailed former 
congressman, Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-Calif. The report found 
that he abused his position on the committee to help ensure lucrative 
contracts went to associates, in exchange for bribes. 

Hoekstra called Harman's decision to release the document "disturbing 
and beyond the pale." 

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