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| Rockefeller angry over Bush revealing al-Qaeda's LA plot |
| 2006-02-24 |
| President George W. Bush's disclosure of detailed intelligence about a thwarted al Qaeda plot to attack Los Angeles could prove damaging for U.S. national security, the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee said in a letter released on Thursday. In a Feb. 17 letter to U.S. intelligence chief John Negroponte, Sen. John Rockefeller of West Virginia echoed a warning from CIA Director Porter Goss that revelations about intelligence successes or failures against al Qaeda can aid America's militant enemies. "Why then did the president and the assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism describe in great detail the information about this plot contained in a highly classified October 2004 CIA document?" Rockefeller wrote. White House officials were not immediately available for comment. The Senate Democrat was referring to a Feb. 9 presidential speech in which Bush disclosed new details of a 2002 al Qaeda plot to use shoe bombs to hijack a plane and fly it into the 1,017-foot-(310-metre) high US Bank Tower in Los Angeles. The Bush administration cited the same plan to attack West Coast targets using hijacked planes last October as being among 10 disrupted al Qaeda plots. But Bush, while facing criticism over his decision to authorize warrantless eavesdropping inside the United States, provided the public with a more detailed account in his Feb. 9 speech. He said Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, al Qaeda's operational mastermind behind the Sept. 11 attacks, planned to use four Southeast Asian men in a second-wave attack on Los Angeles and trained the cell's leader on how to use a shoebomb. Frances Townsend, Bush's homeland security and counterterrorism adviser, also disclosed intelligence details about the plot. Rockefeller said Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and other senior officials have disclosed sensitive information for political purposes on a range of issues from prewar Iraq to National Security Agency eavesdropping. The disclosures have all been potentially damaging to U.S. interests, Rockefeller said. At the same time, the administration has sought to blame lower-level officials for damage caused by unauthorized leaks. "Given the administration's continuing abuse of intelligence information for political purposes, its criticism of leaks is extraordinarily hypocritical," Rockefeller wrote. "The president and other senior members must set an example for others to follow," he added. A spokesman for Negroponte's office would confirm only that the director for national intelligence had received the letter. Rockefeller spokeswoman Wendy Morigi said the senator has not yet received a response from Negroponte. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #11 "Disclosure of detailed intelligence"? Rocky's just |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2006-02-24 22:58 |
| #10 I think he is just gettting his deck stacked so that, if in the event of another attack ( remember we have to righ ALL the time, the bad guys only have to be right ONCE) he, or some other anti-Bushnut can say, " See I tol' ya so. Now maybe somebody will listen to me." |
| Posted by: USN, ret. 2006-02-24 14:55 |
| #9 "At the same time, the administration has sought to blame lower-level officials for damage caused by unauthorized leaks." Sounds like Rocky is still pursuing the DOJ angle for the leaks. |
| Posted by: DepotGuy 2006-02-24 10:47 |
| #8 Rockie is just throwing up a smokescreen because he was one of the leakers of the NSA program to the NY Times... |
| Posted by: danking_70 2006-02-24 10:43 |
| #7 You mean Nagin calling for more welfare for N.O. is scrappleface and this isn't? Man, what a tangled web we weave, Sen. Rocky! Good grief, if this isn't the most blatant example of the pot calling the kettle black, I don't know what is??!!!! |
| Posted by: BA 2006-02-24 09:16 |
| #6 A classic case of yelling, "Stop, thief!" as you run away with the goods. |
| Posted by: 11A5S 2006-02-24 09:05 |
| #5 "Why then did the president and the assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism describe in great detail the information about this plot contained in a highly classified October 2004 CIA document?" Rockefeller wrote. Who has the authority to classify information? The President. Who has the authority to declassify information? The President. Who should be tossed out of office, disgraced, and then cast out from society? Sen. Rockefeller. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2006-02-24 08:01 |
| #4 "Why then did the president and the assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism describe in great detail the information about this plot contained in a highly classified October 2004 CIA document?" Um, because the Democrats,READ YOUR PEERS, have been screaming for just one example of how the wiretaps helped save Americans! THATS WHY YOU OLD MAN!!! BFOTO |
| Posted by: 49 Pan 2006-02-24 01:29 |
| #3 He is a disingenuous SOB isn't he? He or one of his staffers is suspected by me ed. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet O' Doom 2006-02-24 01:11 |
| #2 Americans fought a revolution to get rid of inbred hereditary monarchs. What a shame the founding fathers forgot about the corrosive effects of hereditary Senators and Representatives who carpetbag to out of the way districts and buy their seats. P.S. Isn't Rockefeller the leading suspect in the NSA leak investigation> |
| Posted by: ed 2006-02-24 00:56 |
| #1 Rocky off his nut |
| Posted by: Captain America 2006-02-24 00:45 |