Spy Leak May Violate Patriot Act
http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-vpdas273511432oct27,0,7012271.story?coll=ny-viewpoints-headlinesSamuel Dash, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center, was chief counsel of the Senate Watergate Committee in 1973-74.
October 27, 2003
... the conduct of the White House officials may still amount to domestic terrorism under the Patriot Act. This places the Justice Department investigators in a dilemma. Can they treat this investigation differently from any other terrorist investigation? Under the Patriot Act, they have acquired expanded powers to wiretap and search. Will they place sweeping and roving wiretaps on White House aides? Will they engage in sneak, secret searches of their offices, computers and homes? Will they arrest and detain incommunicado, without access to counsel, some White House aides as material witnesses?
Whether or not this disclosure by White House officials of the identity of a CIA undercover agent constitutes an act of domestic terrorism under the Patriot Act, it was certainly an outrageous betrayal of trust and an arrogant display of power by officials charged with protecting our national security and, on behalf of the president, assuring that the laws are faithfully executed.
President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney must share the blame. They have created a culture in the White House of ruthless opposition to dissent symbolized by their slogan, "You are either for us or against us," which encourages the kind of retaliation involved in the unlawful leak. This combative spare-no-critic culture allows White House officials to believe that the intolerable conduct involved in this leak is condoned by their bosses.
He should make it unambiguously clear that he does not and will not tolerate this kind of conduct by anyone who works for him. It is not enough for him to condemn generally such leaks and leave it up to only the Justice Department to find the leakers. He must act on his own if he wants to keep the confidence of the people and move ahead with his presidency.
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