We now have Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) calling a "Truth and Reconciliation Commission" to investigate decisions of the Bush Administration. If the Senator were not serious, we would all be doubled over with a good belly laugh. Due to his own history, Mr. Leahy would be best to take the advise of his far left colleagues and "Move On."
Since Sen. Leahy doesn't care to move on, maybe we should have a commission review his misdeeds. Better yet, we should have the US Attorney investigate them. It is ironic that Sen. Leahy would be the one Senator calling for a commission to investigate so called misdeeds by the prior administration since, as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, he leaked information that made have led to the death of a covert American intelligence agent in Egypt. According to a 1987 San Diego Union-Tribune report, in a 1985 television appearance, Mr. Leahy disclosed classified information that one of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's telephone conversations had been intercepted. The information that Leahy revealed had been used in the operation to capture the Arab terrorists who had hijacked the Achille Lauro cruise ship and killed American citizens. The Union-Tribune claimed that Leahy's indiscretion may have cost the life of at least one of the Egyptian operatives involved in that operation.
There is no question that the leaking of classified intelligence information is a felony. Therefore, if one of the operatives involved in the capture of the Achille Lauro terrorist was murdered as a result of Sen. Leahy's leak, the Senator is guilty of felony murder. This is the perfect topic for a commission, or at least a grand jury.
But wait, there is more. Senator Leahy evidently thought that he was solely empowered to declassify any information that he wanted. In 1987, the Washington Times reported that Leahy had also leaked secret information about a 1986 covert operation planned by the Reagan administration to overthrow Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi. Leahy allegedly had said, "I thought the operation was probably the most ridiculous thing I had seen, and also the most irresponsible." Leahy had threatened to expose the operation to then CIA Director William Casey. A few weeks later, details of the plan appeared in The Washington Post, and the operation was canceled. It is nice to see that the judgment of one Senator can override that of the entire national security apparatus.
And, just when you think it's over, Senator Leahy reappears for an encore. Just before the Iran-Contra hearings were to begin, Leahy allowed an NBC reporter to look through the Senate Intelligence Committee's confidential draft report on the burgeoning scandal. After NBC used the information in a January 1987 report, Leahy came under increasing fire, and after a six-month internal investigation he was finally forced to step down from the Intelligence Committee. This leak was considered to be one of the most serious breaches of secrecy in the Intelligence Committee's then-10-year history.
If Senator Leahy's Senate colleagues had a moral compass, they would have expelled him from the Senate. Next, they would have demanded that he be prosecuted and sent to jail. Then, not only would Sen. Leahy have received the punishment that he deserved, the prosecution would have acted as a deterrent to future leakers of classified information. Maybe the New York Times would never have known about the the terrorist surveillance program or our efforts to stop the international financing of Islamic terrorists. Instead, Senators and bureaucrats leak with impunity and repeatedly compromise our security.
Sen. Leahy is a far left zealot who is not worthy of the office that he holds. The people of Vermont should have realized this a long time ago. The true lesson for Mr. Leahy is that people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones!
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