Head of Intel Committee Leaked Secret Information in 2003

If you've never read the excellent reporting done by Murray Waas of The National Journal, you need to start now. Waas has been the beacon of light in exposing the dark machinations of the Bush administration for some time now and he certainly doesn't fail us with his new article, "Is There A Double Standard On Leak Probes?", in which Waas reveals that the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Senator Pat Roberts (R-KS), disclosed "sensitive intelligence information that, according to four former senior intelligence officers, impaired efforts to capture Saddam Hussein and potentially threatened the lives of Iraqis who were spying for the United States."

On March 20, 2003, at the onset of military hostilities between U.S. and Iraqi forces, Roberts said in a speech to the National Newspaper Association that he had "been in touch with our intelligence community" and that the CIA had informed President Bush and the National Security Council "of intelligence information from what we call human intelligence that indicated the location of Saddam Hussein and his leadership in a bunker in the suburbs of Baghdad."

The former intelligence officials said in interviews that Roberts was never held accountable for his comments, which bore directly on the issue of intelligence-gathering sources and methods, and revealed that Iraqis close to Hussein were probably talking to the United States.
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After opening his speech with the information about human intelligence and Saddam Hussein's location in a Baghdad bunker, the senator said that President Bush had conferred with his top military advisers and had "authorized a pre-emptive surgical strike with 40 Tomahawk Missiles launched by ship and submarines and so called bunker bombs by F-117 stealth aircraft. I do not have a damage assessment. The Iraqi's report 14 killed and one wounded and are reporting damage in residential areas."

At the time, it was one of the most sensitive secrets in government that the CIA had recruited Iraqi nationals who claimed to have infiltrated Hussein's inner circle to be able to follow his movements at the onset of war. But after the bombs and missiles hit an Iraqi governmental complex known as Dora Park, located on the Tigris River south of Baghdad, Hussein either was not there, or escaped unharmed.

Whether or not Roberts' comments were inadvertent, former intelligence officials said, they almost certainly tipped off the Iraqi dictator that there were spies close to him. "He [Roberts] had given up that we had a penetration of [Saddam's] inner circle," says a former senior intelligence official. "It was the worst thing you could ever do."

Waas and his sources contrast Roberts' actions and the shrug by the Bush administration with the swift investigation and allegations of leaking against the CIA's Mary McCarthy. He also interviews Bill Keller, editor of the New York Times, about the current, chilling environment of threats by Bushco to aggressively pursue leaks in the press that they don't like or simply didn't authorize. It's well known that they have no interest in going after anyone who leaks for Bush propaganda purposes.

Is there a double standard? Absolutely. What will become of this news about Senator Roberts? Absolutely nothing.