Republikans investigating Republicans?
GOP leaders ask probe of how newspaper got
information. They may be probing themselves.
The CIA has sent a report to the U.S. Justice Department indicating classified information may have been leaked to The Washington Post for its recent story about secret prisons run by the spy agency, according to U.S. officials.
The newspaper reported last week that the CIA was holding top suspected al Qaeda terrorists at undisclosed prisons in eastern Europe and other locations.
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Earlier Tuesday, Republican congressional leaders asked for an investigation into the matter, and Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi suggested his own GOP colleagues could be to blame for the possible leak.
Sen. Bill Frist of Tennessee, the Senate majority leader, and Rep. Dennis Hastert of Illinois, the House speaker, asked the chairmen of the House and Senate intelligence committees to look into the report, saying the disclosure could damage national security.
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Lott told reporters the information in the Post story was the same as that given to Republican senators in a closed-door briefing by Vice President Dick Cheney last week.
"Every word that was said in there went right to the newspaper," he said. "We can't keep our mouths shut."
The ripple effect around the world could also be significant. The EU Constitution bans torture and complicity and the EU Commission asked all members if they were helping the US and the CIA torture prisoners. They all said “No”. Including Romania and Poland who were named in the original article.
Posted: Wed - November 9, 2005 at 07:05 AM