Sen. Pat Roberts’ Double Standard on Intel Leaks
Sen. Pat Roberts’ Double Standard on Intel Leaks
Today, Senate Coverup Committee chairman Pat Roberts (R-KS) attacked the media for writing about the SWIFT bank records tracking program, and he called for a “formal damage assessment†to be done by Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte. (Dan Froomkin today explained how the “existence of SWIFT itself has not exactly been a secret.”)
Roberts began his attack on the media yesterday:
If another attack occurs because of this information going out…the people who have written these stories and the people who have made their decisions should look in the mirror.
But Roberts is the one who needs to “look in the mirror†about the effects leaks have on national security. The National Journal’s Murray Waas reported in April that during the start of the Iraq war, Roberts disclosed sensitive intelligence in a speech he delivered (ironically enough) to the National Newspaper Association:
[T]hree years ago on the eve of the invasion of Iraq, Roberts himself was involved in disclosing sensitive intelligence information that, according to four former senior intelligence officers, impaired efforts to capture Saddam Hussein and potentially threatened the lives of Iraqis who were spying for the United States.
On March 20, 2003, at the onset of military hostilities between U.S. and Iraqi forces, Roberts said in a speech to the National Newspaper Association that he had “been in touch with our intelligence community” and that the CIA had informed President Bush and the National Security Council “of intelligence information from what we call human intelligence that indicated the location of Saddam Hussein and his leadership in a bunker in the suburbs of Baghdad.”
The former intelligence officials said in interviews that Roberts was never held accountable for his comments, which bore directly on the issue of intelligence-gathering sources and methods, and revealed that Iraqis close to Hussein were probably talking to the United States.
As former intelligence officials told Waas, the incident showed “how rank and file intelligence professionals now have much to fear from legitimate and even inadvertent contacts with journalists, while senior executive branch officials and members of Congress are almost never held accountable when they seriously breach national security through leaks of information.â€
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Yeah, well…I wouldn’t put too much stock in what Waas and his anonymous “intelligence sources” have to say…Remember Waas is a reporter who got just about everything wrong in his coverage of the Valerie Plame “leak” investigation.
June 28th, 2006 at 5:41 pmRoberts is such a peice of crap, he spews the “your rights dont matter when your dead” nonsense. Who would attack Kansas, get over yourselves in Kansas Pat. Oh and Pat, the media is supposed to print stories, its their job. Whaddaya gonna do, pass a law banning media from printing stories? This is America Pat, remember, we have freedom of the press here.
June 28th, 2006 at 5:42 pmIsn’t this the same Senator who still hasn’t released the 2nd phase report on what was done with the faulty intelligence leading upto the war in Iraq?
June 28th, 2006 at 5:42 pmI say lock up Roberts and shut down the Times. Anyone who releases this type of stuff should be help accountable. Regardless of your feelings on the war, this type of info (from Roberts and the Times) can easily lead to another american soldier dying. I honestly don’t think this should be a Repug vs. Dem thing. Giving away intelligence secrets only helps the enemy.
June 28th, 2006 at 5:42 pmActually, Waas got just about everything right.
See this article by NYU Journalism Professor Jay Rosen: Murray Waas is Our Woodward Now
June 28th, 2006 at 5:44 pmDoes this feel like a set up for another attack to anybody else? BushCo allows another terrorist attack, blames the NYTimes, elections get run on terrorism and fear again. Just sayin’.
June 28th, 2006 at 5:44 pmGary it wouldn’t happen. Because giving away intelligence secrets is ok when certain administrations do it for political gain.
June 28th, 2006 at 5:45 pmPat Roberts is scum, and not very intelligent among scum at that. From Kansas, the state with so much to be ashamed of…
June 28th, 2006 at 5:46 pm#1
So Sen. Robert’s words as listed above, “…intelligence information from what we call human intelligence that indicated the location of Saddam Hussein and his leadership in a bunker in the suburbs of Baghdadâ€, mean nothing to you, right?
June 28th, 2006 at 5:46 pmAnd Exley,
If Waas got it all wrong, then no intellegence secrets were exposed, no harm done, and Pat Roberts wouldn’t be concerned with it. Right?
June 28th, 2006 at 5:46 pmYou know what:
I can’t believe people think that the terrorists are idiots who don’t know they are being monitored by phone, email, and bank records.
They come from countries where this kind of illeagal monitoring is the norm. So they have operated even before 9-11 under the assumption that the US was already monitoring them.
The only damage done by leaking these programs, is the Bush’s and the GOP’s numbers in the polls on an election year.
For heaven sake, don’t stop leaking.
June 28th, 2006 at 5:48 pmI have heard there are some good people in Lawrence Kansas, otherwise, that place is one big steaming pantload of pooh.
June 28th, 2006 at 5:49 pm#4
So, Gary, would you support locking up President Bush and his administration as well?
Have you read the Fact Sheet on Terrorist Financing Executive Order as signed by President Bush and available for all the world to see on the White House web site, including terrorists? Let me post an excerpt for you:
Hmmm. I see a few key words that would catch the attention of terrorists:
Asset Tracking
Terrorist Funding
Freeze Assets
Gosh. Sounds similar to what the NYT posted. Go ahead…Spin it, Gary.
June 28th, 2006 at 5:51 pmI think the commenter of #1 is thinking of Jason Leopold, not Murray Waas. Quite a difference.
June 28th, 2006 at 5:53 pmI have a cracked mirror, and Ithink I’ll send it to Sen Roberts — that way he can look at both of his faces.
June 28th, 2006 at 5:54 pmGary (and Exley, if you want to chime in), here’s some more reading pleasure for you, from the White House:
Click here for the complete fact sheet.
June 28th, 2006 at 5:56 pmThe only danger the release of this information posed was political. Are we supposed to believe that bin laden, et. al. are surprised to find the adminstration has been tracking our financial records? Americans are the only ones who ‘misunderestimate’ this administration.
June 28th, 2006 at 5:58 pmHere, Gary and Exley, is President Bush telling the public how we track money trails of terrorists. This is from 2004:
You can find this, and more examples of Bush telling the world other ways we track terrorists, by clicking here.
June 28th, 2006 at 5:59 pm[...] Pat Roberts, when he’s not berating the news media for revealing “secrets” how the Administration is spying on its citizens, their communications and their bank accounts, reveals secrets himself. Of course, when he does it, it’s OK under the IOKIYAR rule (”It’s OK if you’re a Republican”). [...]
June 28th, 2006 at 6:04 pmLeisure Guy,
Nope. I didn’t mix them up. Waas may have gotten things wrong in his “leak” inverstigation coverage, but Leopold is just a nutcase…
June 28th, 2006 at 6:06 pmI’m still waiting for some rightwinger to step forward and call the FBI and report CNN for posting this on the Internet in 2001:
Surely this helps terrorists in some fashion.
Here’s a tip: you can find a link on the FBI web site for contact info for your local field office.
June 28th, 2006 at 6:06 pmRegardless of your feelings on the war, this type of info (from Roberts and the Times) can easily lead to another american soldier dying. #4 Gary
how exactly will the revelation of an international asset tracking program by the NYtimes (and WSJ btw) automatically going to lead to another American soldier dying? Does the information suddenly put guns & IEDs (improvised explosive devices) into the hands of insurgents?
June 28th, 2006 at 6:08 pmAnd The Frozen Scandal Man shows up right on cue….
June 28th, 2006 at 6:16 pmRoberts did not reveal anything. Murray Waas is a mouthpiece for Larry Johnson and VIPS.
First of all, Roberts said what he said in public to a bunch of newspaper editors. How does that compare with anonymous sources tipping off the New York Times in secret about a program that no one knows about? It doesn’t.
Second, what Roberts said was common sense, and was in fact not what Murray Waas makes it out to be. Dana Priest, the reporter who was entangled with the Mary McCarthy story, wrote an article with Bob Woodward and Walter Pincus the day after Roberts’ comments stating that the tip on Saddam’s location came from sources in close proximity to Saddam’s whereabouts, not from within Saddam’s inner circle:
We soon found out that these sources had been incorrect – Saddam was not where they said he was.
So not only did Roberts “reveal” information that was common sense, he revealed that human sources gave us what turned out to be wrong information. None of those human sources were in any danger, since none of them were from within Saddam’s inner circle. If they were from Saddam’s inner circle, obviously we would have known exactly where he was. Addtionally, intelligence officials stated that the reason why we got it wrong was because the information from the sources was misinformation:
Last of all, Roberts made his comments AFTER the event which the intelligence he was talking about had been used. There was no reason to keep withholding that information because it had served its purpose, and absolutely no one was put in jeopardy by releasing it. In the end, we find out that the information was incorrect anyways.
Think Progress is pushing up a Waas article from two months ago that has already been discredited by its sheer ridiculous claims.
June 28th, 2006 at 6:20 pmNo Gary, what puts weapons in the hands of terrorists in Iraq is the 8 billion that went missing, and of course the arms dealers.
One day I tried to hurt a co-worker with a floppy disk and some other software by throwing it at him. Well guess what happened?
He laughed at me! =)
June 28th, 2006 at 6:21 pmRoberts epitomizes all the feelings I have had for years about the state of Kansas. Not to say that its people are bad, but… The last time I saw Kansas was in the rear view mirrow of my car as I crossed the border into Missouri and I swore then I would never set foot in the state of Kansas again. That was in 1955 and I have held true to that swear to this day. But, even Kansas deserves better than Roberts and should put him out to one of those great wheat pastures they have there in the next election. The man is a disgrace!
June 28th, 2006 at 6:22 pmApparently Exley is an expert on screwing things up, and disdains the ameteurs at NYU who write articles claiming good things about people.
Exeley, it sounds like you ARE an EXPERT at screwing things up. Why you’ve done more to screw up in this thread than anyone else here.
Do you perhaps have a PhD is Screwupology?
June 28th, 2006 at 6:23 pmThe only ones who are aiding the terrorists are the ones who are surrendering their freedoms and attacking the constitutional rights of Americans. Anybody with a lick of sense can see this. However, a large percentage of Americans are obtusely ignorant to these facts.
Right now, Americans are attacking themselves and fumbling all over each other to see who can take away each other’s rights faster. It’s quite pathetic to watch, actually. Especially when you see posts like some of those above who openly and aggressively promote censorship and prosecution of those who are merely speaking “freely”.
The world is clearly disgusted with Americans and their hypocrisy. OBL is most definitely laughing at how easy it was to defeat the “sanctimonious” giant. And God is most certainly looking upon your murderous and treacherous ways in disgust. (I’m still waiting for your Pat Robertson to point out that the floods in your Washington D.C. are G-d’s efforts to “wash away your sins”.)
I’m just wondering which rights will be surrendered next. The cowards leading your country are pathetic. But, what does that say about those who so willingly follow them?
June 28th, 2006 at 6:23 pmOn thread – Roberts is a hack. Notice how he doesn’t ever do the right thing.
June 28th, 2006 at 6:24 pmThink Progress is pushing up a Waas article from two months ago that has already been discredited by its sheer ridiculous claims.
Comment by Seixon — June 28, 2006 @ 6:20 pm
Seixon, from months ago. has already been discredited by its sheer ridiculous claims. -Seixon
June 28th, 2006 at 6:24 pm“kindness,”
I am unclear as to what you are referring.
June 28th, 2006 at 6:27 pmHells bells, has anyone here ever wandered off into the Patent website and looked at the stuff that there?
June 28th, 2006 at 6:36 pmLike patents on programs that do data-mining….Patents on mind control devices, all kinds of things.
Since they get nothing for their fawning treatment of the Bush administration (Bumiller’s “Whitehouse Letter” was an ongoing propaganda spectacle), the NYT should reverse course and write that in-depth article on just what Valerie Plame was doing for America before the Bush administration ruined her career. Just a thought.
June 28th, 2006 at 7:54 pm[...] And now conservative Senators are getting into the act with the call by Pat Roberts (R-KS) for a “formal damage assessment” by the Director of National Intelligence. The problem with Roberts call though is that he actually did pretty much the same thing during the start of the Gulf Occupation when he delivered a speech to the National Newspaper Association. [...]
June 28th, 2006 at 8:33 pmAnother republican distraction brought to you by Karl Rove. We all know their game by now, so why waste time talking about it?
America, it’s time to get out there and start helping this country you love so much. First things first. If we don’t have free and fair elections in this country in 2006, we are all doomed. There was election tampering in 2000, 2002, and 2004. Do something about it. Get involved! Study what’s going on in our government and stand up for your rights. Enough of the bickering (which is what the neocon republicans in washington want you to do) and get to work! Do it for your family, your children and your grandchildren before it’s too late!
June 28th, 2006 at 10:06 pmSen. Pat Roberts is the worst Senator in the entire Senate > nothing more needs to be said!
June 28th, 2006 at 10:08 pmLink to the story I mentioned above:
U.S. leak ‘harms al qaeda sting’
June 28th, 2006 at 10:46 pm[...] Sen. Pat Roberts Double Standard on Intel Leaks Think Progress, DC – 12 hours ago officials said in interviews that Roberts was never held accountable for his comments, which bore directly on the issue of intelligence-gathering sources and [...]
June 29th, 2006 at 6:25 am#11
So another 9/11 can happen.
June 29th, 2006 at 10:16 am[...] Finally the event that started it all, the story run by the Times, and other papers by the way that seem to have been spared the wrath of the right, that “exposed” the government’s SWIFT bank monitoring program used by the government to track terror funding. The right took this “treasonous” story and ran with it for weeks including a “massive protest” (approx 150 people) of the New York Times Washington office and soon after Congress members got into the treason declaring business. Of course again many have pointed out here, here, here, and here that this secret program wasn’t so secret after all. And now it has been reported that the government had planned for this program to become public when they first started using it as they included a press plan when the program was developed. [...]
July 18th, 2006 at 1:24 pmComrades,
I promise you that we’ll deal with these Intel Leaks with a firm iron fist when we take back the Congress!
But, you’re loosing focus again! There is a greater, clearer and more dangerous threat too our party that will shortly perpetrate our air-waves on ABC’s “The Path to 9/11â€
These traitors at ABC are betrayers of our new mother land. Where I come from, this Robert A. Iger would be dragged through the streets in front of the tomb of our glorious leader Vladimir Lenin and shot in public. The producers, directors, writers and anyone associated with this propaganda would be picked up in the early hours of the morning by our State Security Chief Lavrenty Beria (The Black Hand) and taken to a Siberian labor camp never too be heard from again.
For many years I have been loyal to ABC and the Pravda (truth) that our Socialist Liberal ally has put forth in order to progress our ultimate goal; the decline and absolute destruction of America and the capitalist traitorous pig’s like ABC.
I ask you Mr. Robert A. Iger, “Have you no shame Sir�
Comrades, we must not give up the fight. It has taken us many years to groom you and your elected leaders.
Remember what our great leader Nikita Khrushchev said:
“ We can’t expect the American People to jump from Capitalism to Communism, but we can assist their elected leaders in giving them small doses of Socialism, until they awaken one day to find that they have Communism ”
It’s more important now then ever before that we stand together and stay focused! We can not allow this abomination of propaganda to go forward.
We must do whatever it takes to keep this film from airing on Sunday the 10th, 2006, we only have a few hours left.
It is your duty as loyal Liberal Socialist Democrats to rise up in solidarity and put a stop to this immediately!
Senator Harry Reid, one of our courageous and distinguished Senatorial leaders from the state of Nevada, reminded the capitalist traitorous pigs at ABC of their license from the FCC. Please Senator Reid, we’re your loyal comrades in arms and begging you to use all the glorious power you possess. You must stop this film! You must push forward with an iron fist and crush this despicable display of propaganda.
If this film isn’t stopped from airing on ABC, Sunday night, I’m afraid all our efforts since the cold war and the aspirations of our great leaders from glorious years past and Nikita Khrushchev’s dreams and predictions will have been lost.
If we loose now, the great Liberal Socialist Democratic Party, we have nurtured, will decline into the ash heaps of history never too be heard from again.
Where are our great defenders the A.C.L.U.? There silence is deafening. Their founder; Roger Nash Baldwin a supporter of the Communist Party would not let this despicable propaganda go unchallenged.
Remember comrades, we destroyed Senator Joseph R. McCarthy in the 1950’s while attempting to exploit and expose us.
This should be an easy task. We already have many supporters in positions of power. If we wish to control this country, then we must be more diligent in our efforts to stop this ABC film.
You must!…. I repeat, you must contact our comrades in arms at their offices in Washington.
Now I’ve done all the work all you have to do is contact our “elected officials†below by e-mail or call:
Clinton, Hillary Rodham- (D – NY) Class I
476 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-4451
Web Form: clinton.senate.gov/contact
Reid, Harry- (D – NV) Class III
528 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-3542
Web Form: reid.senate.gov/contact/email_form.cfm
Kerry, John F.- (D – MA) Class II
304 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-2742
Web Form: kerry.senate.gov/v3/contact/email.html
Landrieu, Mary L.- (D – LA) Class II
724 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-5824
Web Form: landrieu.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm
Levin, Carl- (D – MI) Class II
269 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-6221
Web Form: levin.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm
Rockefeller, John D., IV- (D – WV) Class II
531 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-6472
Web Form: rockefeller.senate.gov/services/email.cfm
Schumer, Charles E.- (D – NY) Class III
313 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-6542
Web Form: schumer.senate.gov/SchumerWebsite/contact/webform.cfm
Kennedy, Edward M.- (D – MA) Class I
317 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-4543
Web Form: kennedy.senate.gov/senator/contact.cfm
Feinstein, Dianne- (D – CA) Class I
331 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-3841
Web Form: feinstein.senate.gov/email.html
Leahy, Patrick J.- (D – VT) Class III
433 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-4242
E-mail: senator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov
Stabenow, Debbie- (D – MI) Class I
133 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-4822
Web Form: stabenow.senate.gov/email.htm
Durbin, Richard- (D – IL) Class II
332 DIRKSEN SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-2152
Web Form: durbin.senate.gov/contact.cfm
Lincoln, Blanche L.- (D – AR) Class III
355 DIRKSEN SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-4843
Web Form: lincoln.senate.gov/webform.html
Feingold, Russell D.- (D – WI) Class III
506 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-5323
E-mail: russell_feingold@feingold.senate.gov
Harkin, Tom- (D – IA) Class II
731 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-3254
Web Form: harkin.senate.gov/contact/contact.cfm
Bayh, Evan- (D – IN) Class III
463 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-5623
Web Form: bayh.senate.gov/WebMail1.htm
Biden, Joseph R., Jr.- (D – DE) Class II
201 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-5042
E-mail: senator@biden.senate.gov
Boxer, Barbara- (D – CA) Class III
112 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-3553
Web Form: boxer.senate.gov/contact
Menendez, Robert- (D – NJ) Class I
502 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-4744
Web Form: menendez.senate.gov/contact/contact.cfm
Nelson, Bill- (D – FL) Class I
716 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-5274
Web Form: billnelson.senate.gov/contact/email.cfm
Obama, Barack- (D – IL) Class III
713 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-2854
Web Form: obama.senate.gov/contact/
Byrd, Robert C.- (D – WV) Class I
311 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-3954
Web Form: byrd.senate.gov/byrd_email.html
Cantwell, Maria- (D – WA) Class I
717 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-3441
Web Form: cantwell.senate.gov/contact/index.html
Conrad, Kent- (D – ND) Class I
530 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-2043
Web Form: conrad.senate.gov/webform.html
Dayton, Mark- (D – MN) Class I
123 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-3244
Web Form: dayton.senate.gov/contact/email.cfm
Dodd, Christopher J.- (D – CT) Class III
September 10th, 2006 at 9:05 pm448 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-2823
Web Form: dodd.senate.gov/index.php?q=node/3130