House Staffer Suspended for Possible Leak

[Rhino]

House Intel Committee Chairman Suspends Staffer for Possible Leak

Friday, October 20, 2006

WASHINGTON — Democrats are upset that the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee suspended a Democratic staff member over questions about the leak of a secret intelligence assessment.

The unidentified staff member is Larry Hanauer, FOX News learned Friday. Chairman Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., suspended Hanauer earlier this week and won't allow him access to classified information until a review can be completed, said Jamal Ware, Hoekstra's spokesman.

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.........http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,222680,00.html

[Pendragon_6]

Traitor to traitor?

By Katherine Shrader, Associated Press Writer | October 19, 2006

WASHINGTON --House Intelligence Chairman Peter Hoekstra has suspended a Democratic staff member because of concerns he may have leaked a high-level intelligence assessment to The New York Times last month.

In a letter obtained by The Associated Press Thursday night, Rep. Ray LaHood, R-Ill., a committee member, said that an unidentified staffer requested the document from National Intelligence Director John Negroponte three days before the Sept. 23 story about its conclusions.

The staffer received the National Intelligence Estimate on global terror trends on Sept. 21.

"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 wrote Hoekstra, R-Mich., late last month. "This may, in fact, be only coincidence, and simply 'look bad.' But coincidence, in this town, is rare."


In Full
Boston.com (http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/10/19/house_intel_chair_suspends_staff_member/)

[Rhino]

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