Republican leaders call for probe of gulag leak... Trent Lot says Republicans did it!

This is really too funny.

Yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert called on the House and Senate intelligence committees to launch an investigation into just who it was that told the press about the CIA's network of super-secret overseas prisons.

From "The Drudge Report's" coverage:

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According to one Hill source: “Talk about a leak that damaged national security! How will we ever get our allies to cooperate if they fear that their people will be targeted by al Qaeda.”

According to sources, the WASHINGTON POST story by Dana Priest (Wednesday November 2), revealed highly classified information that has already done significant damage to US efforts in the War on Terror. LINK

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Today, we have this:

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Senator tells CNN he believes Republican leaked info on CIA jails
11/08/2005 @ 3:40 pm
Filed by RAW STORY

Senator Trent Lott (R-MS) told CNN's Ed Henry Tuesday afternoon that he believed it was a Republican senator who gave information about secret CIA jails abroad to the Washington Post, RAW STORY can report.

Lott said that much of the information contained in the Post report -- which stated that the U.S. was holding terrorist suspects in secret CIA jails overseas -- was discussed at a meeting of Republican senators last Tuesday.

The revelation appears to torpedo the political gambit of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) and House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-IL) who called on the Senate and House intelligence committees to investigate who leaked the information to the Post.

The Post story cited as sources "U.S. and foreign officials familiar with the arrangement."

More via Eschaton.

CNN's Ed Henry: "Trent Lott stunned reporters by declaring that this subject was actualy discussed at a Senate Republican luncheon, Republican senators only, last tuesday the day before the story ran in the Washington Post. Lott noted that Vice President Cheney was also in the room for that discussion and Lott said point blank "a lot of it came out of that room last tuesday, pointing to the room where the lunch was held in the capitol." He added of senators "we can't keep our mouths shut." He added about the vice president, "He was up here last week and talked up here in that room right there in a roomful of nothing but senators and every word that was said in there went right to the newspaper." He said he believes when all is said and done it may wind up as an ethics investigation of a Republican senator, maybe a Republican staffer as well. Senator Frist's office not commenting on this development. The Washington Post not commenting either."

DEVELOPING HARD... LINK

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Also from Eschaton:

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Money quote from Lott; "We can not remain silent. We have met the enemy, and it is us."

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~D

So, according to Trent Lott, it was Dick Cheney who was blabbing about the CIA's gulags... and a Republican senator who passed that information onto the press.

McCain was interviewed this morning on CNN and said that he had never heard of these secret prisons before he read about them in the Washington Post. Now, McCain thinks that "the American people ought to know if we're doing that kind of thing", and so do I. However, it will be interesting to see just how secret that information really was, and whether all of the Republican senators at that little luncheon had the proper clearances.

Does Cheney just go around spewing classified information to his associates? In the Plame indictment, it appears that Libby got his knowledge about Plame from Cheney.

Loose lips sink ships. Somebody should mention that to Cheney. Maybe it's time to send him to Gitmo for some stress positions, anal humiliation, and perhaps a touch of waterboarding.

Yes indeed, it will be funny to see the backtracking on this one. Are the Republicans imploding or what? I think the Republican spin machine just flew off the rack. I think they were trying to nail the Democrats and ended up hitting themselves on the ass instead.

Lets not, however, let this matter detract from the real issues. The real issue is not how this information was leaked (although that is a serious matter in and of itself); it is that:

1. The CIA is running a secret gulag archipelago;

2. Fact 1 was only made known to the public because Cheney disclosed classified information in a private meeting only to select Republicans;

3. Cheney did so, apparently, as a means of killing another Republican's (i.e. John McCain's) bill to ban torture.

So, more secret jails, abuse of classified information and sanctioning of torture. All this wrapped up in incompetence.

Wow, are things getting ugly for the Republicans.

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...a Republican senator who passed that information onto the press.

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Good to see one American politician still has some ideals.

OhMyGod! Karl Rove has kidnapped Trent Lott's children! ~D

Lott now says that he was talking about a different story when he told CNN that a Republican senator leaked classified information to the Washington Post.

This from "Roll Call" via "Eschaton":

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Lott appeared to tell the reporters that the source on the secret prisons in Eastern Europe came from a Senate Republican who had been at the Nov. 1 luncheon. CNN reported Lott’s remarks citing a fellow Senator as the leak on the Nov. 2 story, as did at other news organizations, including Roll Call and Congressional Quarterly.

But it was clearly impossible for a Senator to have been the initial source, since that meeting broke up after 2 p.m. and the secret-prison story — a more than 2,800-word opus which included sources in intelligence communities around the globe — was filed and slapped down in the next day’s paper.

Instead, Lott was really complaining about a different Post story, one that ran Monday, that focused on Cheney’s role in trying to defeat an anti-torture amendment sponsored by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

Initially on Wednesday, Lott blamed CNN for misreporting or misunderstanding his comments Tuesday. Told that several other reporters heard the same thing, Lott said it’s possible that they also misunderstood him or that he was answering a question about the Nov. 7 story and the reporters thought he was talking about the Nov. 2 story.

“Two separate issues, they got tangled up,” Lott explained.

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Actually, as much fun as this story is, I think it's possible that a whole room of reporters really did misunderstand what Trent Lott was saying... or perhaps Trent Lott misunderstood a whole room full of reporters. One way or the other.

The November 7th story was about Republican infighting and Cheney's campaign to insert an exemption for the CIA in McCain's anti-terror, um I mean torture, bill.

Here's an excerpt from the November 7th story that seems to jibe with what Lott claims he meant:

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On Tuesday, Cheney, who often attends the GOP senators' weekly luncheons without addressing the lawmakers, made "an impassioned plea" to reject McCain's amendment, said a senatorial aide who was briefed on the meeting and spoke on the condition of anonymity because of its closed nature. After Senate aides were ordered out of the Mansfield Room, just steps from the Senate chamber, Cheney said that aggressive interrogations of detainees such as Khalid Sheik Mohammed had yielded useful information, and that the option to treat prisoners harshly must not be taken from interrogators.

McCain then rebutted Cheney's comments, the aide said, telling his colleagues that the image of the United States using torture "is killing us around the world." At least one other senator, Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), supported Cheney, as he has in public, the aide said.

... Following McCain's rebuttal, Vice President Cheney then climbed onto the table where the Senators were eating and began screaming "THE ENDS JUSTIFY THE MEANS, THE ENDS JUSTIFY THE MEANS!", before he was straitjacketed, carted off by his aides, and returned to his undisclosed location.

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Actually, I added that last part. ~D

So, it does seem quite possible that this is the story that Lott was complaining about... that an aide told the press about Republican party infighting. Gee Trent, that's just terrible.

Of course, the other option is that Lott is backpedaling from his original story after getting pressured by the big men upstairs. That is still possible, but I'm trending towards believing the stupidity scenario.

"Roll Call" claims that: "it was clearly impossible for a Senator to have been the initial source, since that meeting broke up after 2 p.m. and the secret-prison story — a more than 2,800-word opus which included sources in intelligence communities around the globe — was filed and slapped down in the next day’s paper." While it's true that the story was most likely begun before the Senate meeting, it is not true that it was "impossible" for a Senator to have been the initial source. It's also possible that things that were said at that meeting could have been passed on to the Washington Post and used in the November 2nd story... perhaps as corroboration. The gulags may have been discussed in the Senate meeting, and Lott may have thought that that information was the basis for the story.

But...

What is more in Trent Lott's character: 1) Being mad over a Senator exposing secret CIA prisons to the Washington Post... or 2) Being mad over a Senator exposing Republican party infighting to the Washington Post?

I've got to go with option 2.

I think its more likely he was being partisan than noble.

Maybe there will be some further confirmation on this story one way or the other.

~:cheers:

One more thing...

Did you notice that McCain's rebuttal of Cheney's pro-torture stance was that "the image" of the US using torture "is killing us around the world", rather than the more obvious: "We're talking about torture here! What's wrong with you?"

Obviously, McCain knows his audience. ~D

But, in short, the Reps are having some party discipline problems.

Just to nitpick, but technically speaking it would be incorrect to refer to the CIA's interrogation centres as "gulags". The old GULAG Arkipelago was, after all, a network of penal labor camps - generally speaking you went in there through the judicial system (albeit in practice for seriously absurd things), and normally the system didn't actually actively try to brutalize you (although the casual cruelty of the guards, other inmates, lousy adminstration, harsh conditions and general neglect often made survival rather challenging...).

That's a bit different from a system which incarcerates people in secret in order to squeeze information out of them.

'Course, in practice "gulag" makes for a nice catch-word with properly nasty associations in the minds of most people.

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Just to nitpick, but technically speaking it would be incorrect to refer to the CIA's interrogation centres as "gulags". The old GULAG Arkipelago was, after all, a network of penal labor camps - generally speaking you went in there through the judicial system (albeit in practice for seriously absurd things), and normally the system didn't actually actively try to brutalize you (although the casual cruelty of the guards, other inmates, lousy adminstration, harsh conditions and general neglect often made survival rather challenging...).

That's a bit different from a system which incarcerates people in secret in order to squeeze information out of them.

'Course, in practice "gulag" makes for a nice catch-word with properly nasty associations in the minds of most people.

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Sad, but true. A while back, there was a long article posted somewhere quoting Solzhenitsyn's description of the kind of tortures the Soviet's used against their dissidents. What was remarkable about it was how consistent it was with the "stress position" practices that the US uses routinely. They used the same kind of stress positions, exposure to heat and cold, psychological ploys, etc. that are considered acceptable for use by the US military. I'll have to see if I can dig that up...

As predicted, the Republicans are now alleging the more damaging thing is the leak, and that they are 'not concerned' about the possibility that illegal activities might be going on in the prisons.

(For a change, I'll let Fox news take this one, though please don't let this article's grammatical mistakes throw you off).

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Frist Wants to Know Source of Leak of Secret CIA Prisons
Thursday, November 10, 2005

WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist says he is more concerned about the leak of information regarding secret CIA detention centers than activity in the prisons themselves.

Frist told reporters Thursday that while he believed illegal activity should not take place at detention centers, he believes the leak itself poses a greater threat to national security and is "not concerned about what goes on" behind the prison walls.

"My concern is with leaks of information that jeopardize your safety and security — period," Frist said. "That is a legitimate concern."

He noted that the number of sensitive national security issues, including the existence of secret CIA detention centers for suspected terrorists in Eastern European democracies. The Bush administration has neither confirmed nor denied that report.

Frist was asked if that meant he was not concerned about investigating what goes on in detention centers.

"I am not concerned about what goes on and I'm not going to comment about the nature of that," Frist replied.

He added that as Senate majority leader he is privy to classified information and discussions about prison activity. "I'm going to make sure that everything that's done is consistent with the Constitution ... and the laws of the United States of America," he said.

Frist and House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., wrote the leaders of the House and Senate intelligence committees earlier this week calling for a joint congressional investigation into the leak.

"What is the actual and potential damage done to the national security of the United States and our partners in the global war on terror?" the letter said, referring to the leak.

The Post's story said the CIA has been hiding and interrogating some of its most important al-Qaida captives at a Soviet-era compound in Eastern Europe, part of a covert prison system set up by the agency four years ago that at various times has included sites in eight countries. Those countries, the Post said, include several democracies.

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http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,175191,00.html