As I said before, the people who leaked information at the NSA eavesdropping operation are traitors and should be executed, so it's good to see that there's finally an investigation.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department has launched an investigation to determine who disclosed a secret NSA eavesdropping operation approved by President George W. Bush after the September 11 attacks, officials said on Friday."We are opening an investigation into the unauthorized disclosure of classified materials related to the NSA," one official said.
Earlier this month Bush acknowledged the program and called its disclosure to The New York Times "a shameful act." He said he presumed a Justice Department leak investigation into who disclosed the National Security Agency eavesdropping operation would get under way.
I wouldn't be surprised if the information turns out to have come from a Democratic member of the House or Senate Intelligence Committee. I hope that's not the case, but I'm not sure if it would be worse or better than if the leak came from an employee of the NSA.
I'd certainly like to think that no one of sufficient level at the NSA to have access to this information would betray it for partisan political purposes, but I'm not entirely beyond thinking it may have been leaked out of honest, serious concern for its Constitutionalism.
I think it is hard, if not impossible, for outsiders to ever really understand just how strong the internal prohibition against spying on Americans is to NSA employees. It's as entrenched and as emotionally significant as "semper fi" to a Marine, if not more so. For the Administration to have tampered with that policy at all -- even for an excellent reason -- will hit most Agency veterans on a gut level as a betrayal of one of the highest guiding principles of the organization.
Of course, the counterpoint to this is the OTHER highest guiding principle: secrecy above all else. If this was leaked by anyone at the Agency, I don't doubt it was done with a severe crisis of conscience and the feeling of being caught in an impossible situation.
While I generally support "whatever means necessary" for the GWoT, I have to admit that on this particular issue, I'm extraordinarily conflicted as well, in no small part due to the aforementioned training. Even knowing rationally that there seemed to be plenty of oversight for this program, it really does hit me on a gut level that I just can't shake.