Thursday, August 09, 2007

But It's OK When Republicans Leak

By Cernig

From Michael Roston over at Raw Story:
Rep. Peter Hoekstra, the top Republican on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, has been calling for the intelligence community to strongly prosecute leakers in recent weeks. But in a Thursday op-ed in the New York Post, the Michigan Republican revealed a budget cut from the classified portion of an intelligence authorization bill for the coming year.

"The 2008 Intelligence Authorization bill cut [emphasis original] human-intelligence programs but directed U.S. intelligence agencies to study global climate change," Hoekstra wrote in his Thursday critique of Congressional Democrats' intelligence policy.

The Congressman's revelation of the budget cut on a newspaper op-ed page drew sharp criticism from advocates of greater openness and transparency in the budgeting for the intelligence community.

"It looks like Rep. Hoekstra is playing games with classification rules by making his claim publicly," said Dr. Steven Aftergood, who directs the Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy. "I suggest that he go investigate himself."

...Earlier this month, the group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington accused House Minority Leader John Boehner of publicly disclosing a classified court decision that found the Bush administration's Terrorist Surveillence Program violated the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
But...but...but...we're only interested in Dem-supporting leakers, aren't we?

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