Terrorists rife in the State Dept.The FBI is on it:)

[Matthew X]

Senators to give FBI records on contacts with media
By The Associated Press
08.30.02
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WASHINGTON — Most members of a Senate committee investigating the Sept. 11 
attacks have agreed to provide the FBI with details of their contacts with 
reporters as part of an investigation into leaks of classified information.
Contacted yesterday by the Associated Press, the offices of 13 of the 17 
Senate Intelligence Committee members said they were complying with the FBI 
request. No office said it wasn't. In the other four offices, information 
wasn't available because the senator was traveling.
The FBI is trying to determine who leaked details of conversations 
intercepted by the National Security Agency that were discussed June 18 at 
the House and Senate intelligence committees' closed-door inquiry.
Details of the Arabic intercepts on Sept. 10 — the day before the September 
2001 terror attacks — were initially broadcast by CNN the day after the 
closed hearing. The committees had requested the FBI investigation.
Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., the committee's chairman, has instructed his staff 
to compile the material requested, his spokesman, Paul Anderson, said.
Anderson said Graham supported the FBI investigation because the leak of 
classified information violated the law. The FBI also could examine whether 
the leaks may have come from outside Congress, he said. An internal 
investigation might not be able to do so.
Graham "has said that he has nothing to hide," Anderson said.
But Paul McMasters, First Amendment ombudsman for the Freedom Forum's First 
Amendment Center, said the FBI investigation could go beyond the leaks and 
uncover unrelated communications between lawmakers and journalists.
"That's where this problem comes in," he said.
Caesar Andrews, president of the Associated Press Managing Editors, said 
the request for information about press contacts "creates a mood of fear 
and dread among those people who should be helping to put the U.S. efforts 
in context."
"I think it's more the climate that's created when there's a sense of 
overly aggressive efforts to clamp down on information," said Andrews, 
editor of Gannett News Service.
"Obviously it's an issue that ultimately has a chilling effect on the flow 
of information from official sources to the public," said Douglas Clifton, 
editor of The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and chairman of the American 
Society of Newspaper Editors' Freedom of Information Committee.
The FBI investigation comes as the Justice Department seeks to block public 
disclosure by Congress of the results of its investigation of Zacarias 
Moussaoui, the only person charged in the United States in connection with 
the Sept. 11 attacks.
In court papers unsealed yesterday in Alexandria, Va., prosecutors said 
they didn't object to plans by the House and Senate intelligence committees 
to disclose what the government knows about the planning and execution of 
the attacks or what was known about two of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers who 
met with al-Qaida operatives in Malaysia in January 2000, shortly before 
they came to the United States.
But the government said planned hearings next month into the FBI's 
investigation of Moussaoui while he was in custody before the attacks could 
jeopardize his trial, now set for January. Lawyers for the committees said 
the hearings would not delve into Moussaoui's guilt or innocence.
U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema refused for the time being to interfere 
with the hearings. But she asked prosecutors to propose new rules for 
handling sensitive material from the Moussaoui case that might be made 
public during congressional hearings.
In connection with the FBI's investigation of leaks, the Justice Department 
sent a letter to the Senate counsel's office Aug. 7 requesting that members 
of the Senate committee and their press staff submit telephone logs, memos, 
visitor sign-in sheets and other material showing communications with the 
news media between noon June 18 and 3:15 p.m. June 19, when CNN broadcast 
details of the intercepts.
The letter also called for calendars, appointment books and e-mails for the 
senators and their press staff during that period. No similar request was 
made of House Intelligence Committee members.
Some lawmakers, including the panel's top Republican, Sen. Richard Shelby 
of Alabama, have said the FBI investigation of the committees breached the 
separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches — 
particularly while the committee was examining intelligence shortcomings at 
the FBI and other agencies.
Sen. Richard Durbin, R-Ill., told the Chicago Sun-Times this week that in 
requesting personal schedules, the FBI was "trying to put a damper on our 
activities and I think they will be successful." He was unavailable for 
comment yesterday.
Related
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Ombudsman Many regard robust exercise of First Amendment rights by either 
the press or the people as a dangerous problem in the fight against 
terrorism. 08.08.02
Rumsfeld urges crackdown on leaks to press
Defense secretary writes memo a week after The New York Times reports on 
classified document outlining aspects of 'concept' for U.S. war against 
Iraq. 07.17.02
Reporter: State Department demanded source of classified leak
National Review's Joel Mowbray says officials detained him briefly, wanted 
to know how he obtained secret papers on U.S. visa program in Saudi Arabia. 
07.16.02
http://www.freedomforum.org/templates/document.asp?documentID=16846