FBI looks for leak in satellite program

[seemslikeadream]

Posted on Thu, Dec. 16, 2004
By Dan Eggen and Walter Pincus
WASHINGTON POST


WASHINGTON - The National Reconnaisance Office has asked the Justice Department to consider opening a criminal investigation into recent disclosures about a highly classified satellite program that has prompted criticism in Congress because of escalating costs, two administration officials said Wednesday.

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The request from the National Reconnaisance Office, which manages spy satellite programs, comes in the wake of reports about a stealth satellite program under debate in Congress.

The Washington Post on Saturday reported details of the program and said its cost has ballooned from $5 billion to $9.5 billion. The New York Times published an article on the program Sunday. The request for a Justice Department review was first reported by Associated Press.

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Four Democratic senators refused to sign "conference sheets" related to the 2005 intelligence authorization bill, reportedly to protest the program.

The NRO's request marks the latest in a series of high-profile federal inquiries related to leaks of classified or sensitive information, including an ongoing probe into whether Bush administration officials illegally identified a covert CIA operative to reporters in the summer of 2003.

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On Tuesday, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., ranking Democrat on the Select Committee on Intelligence and the Armed Services Committee, told reporters he did not believe from what he had read "that disclosure was improper."

Levin added that the report he read "was very general," and that Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., "had made in a very general way, a similar reference to a classified program."
more
http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/10429893.htm?1c

[seemslikeadream]

1. Inside The New Spy Bill

Monday, Dec. 20, 2004
The 600-page Intelligence-Reform Bill that congress passed last week is the most sweeping overhaul of the U.S. spy community since World War II. President Bush, who plans to sign the bill soon, was at first lukewarm about it, and conservative House Republicans almost derailed it. But congressional holdouts bowed to pressure from the Sept. 11 victims' families, who demanded the system be fixed. How will it work? Here are answers to five crucial questions.

Who will be the new Director of National Intelligence (DNI) that the bill establishes? CIA Director Porter Goss was the obvious choice. But the former Florida Congressman's first 2 1/2 months of righting the troubled agency have been bumpy, with five senior CIA officials quitting. Goss isn't out of the running, but because he would face a confirmation battle from Democrats worried that he's too political, the White House is considering others, such as 9/11 commission chairman Thomas Kean, former Senator Sam Nunn and ex — Navy Secretary John Lehman.

How powerful will the director be? Republican Senator Susan Collins describes the DNI as the "quarterback," controlling most of the $40 billion spent annually on intelligence, setting priorities among the 15 spy agencies and forcing them to share secrets. So that the director would remain neutral and not become bogged down in operational details, Congress didn't give the DNI control over spying at the CIA and other agencies. But without operational control, the director may be less useful to the President and therefore have less access to him. It will take a close friend of Bush's or someone "very aggressive" in the post to overcome that, warns Winston Wiley, a former CIA official.

Will the bill stop terrorists at the border? It requires 10,000 more border-patrol guards and 4,000 more immigration and customs agents over five years. It also orders improvements in air-cargo and cruise-ship security. But the measures are "meaningless without the dollars to back them up," says Democratic Representative David Obey. So far, Congress has been stingy about paying for them.

more
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101041220-1006645,00.html


Critics say mysterious new U.S. spy program endangers national security
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1055832