- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The
FBI has stepped up a probe of a Sept. 11-related classified intelligence
leak, asking 17 senators to turn over phone records, appointment calendars
and schedules that might reveal contact with reporters, The Washington
Post reported on Saturday.
-
- In an Aug. 7 memo sent through the Senate general counsel's
office, the FBI asked all members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
to hand over records from June 18 and 19, 2002, the Post said.
-
- Those dates are the day of and the day after a classified
hearing in which the director of the National Security Agency, Lt. Gen.
Michael Hayden, spoke to lawmakers about two highly sensitive messages
hinting at an impending action that the agency intercepted on the eve of
Sept. 11 but did not translate until Sept. 12.
-
- The request suggests that the FBI is now focusing on
the handful of senior senators who are members of a Senate-House panel
investigating Sept. 11 and who attend most classified meetings and read
all the most sensitive intelligence agency communications, the Post said.
A similar request did not go to House intelligence committee members, it
added.
-
- The request comes at a time when some legal experts and
members of Congress are already disgruntled that an executive branch agency,
such as the FBI -- headed by a political appointee -- is probing the actions
of legislators whose job it is to oversee FBI and intelligence agencies.
-
- An FBI spokeswoman, Debbie Weireman, declined comment.
Sen. Bob Graham, the Florida Democrat who heads the Senate intelligence
committee, told the Post through a spokesman that he was cooperating with
the investigation and had asked staff members to gather the requested records.
-
- In recent weeks, FBI agents finished questioning nearly
100 people, including all 37 members of separate House and Senate intelligence
committees and some 60 staff members. At the conclusion of their interviews
with members and staff, FBI agents typically asked them if they would be
willing to take polygraph tests. Most declined, the Post said.
-
- On June 19, CNN reported the contents of two messages
based on National Security Agency intercepts. The Arabic-language messages
said, ''The match is about to begin,'' and ''Tomorrow is zero hour.'' Other
news outlets, including The Washington Post, also reported on the intercepts.
-
- The NSA, based at Fort Meade, Maryland, is one of the
government's most secretive intelligence agencies. Much of its information
carries a higher classification than other sorts of intelligence. It is
illegal to release classified information.
-
- Neither congressional historians nor legal experts could
recall any situation in which the FBI was probing a leak of classified
information in this way, the Post said.
-
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