Capitol Cops Open Probe Into Leak -- MORE Senate docs stolen!!

UPDATE: Avoiding A Critical Inquiry

SEE ALSO: CIA Seeks Probe of Iraq-Al Qaeda Memo Leak (Weekly Standard)

http://www.thehill.com/news/111803/leak.aspx

A complaint filed by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) with the Senate sergeant at arms caused the Capitol Police to confiscate computer records of the Senate Judiciary Committee after sealing off the room.

Durbin’s complaint to William Pickle, the sergeant at arms, focused on memos written by Durbin’s staff in late 2001 about the opposition of liberal groups to President Bush’s conservative nominees to the federal bench.

The memos were cited last Friday in an editorial that ran in The Wall Street Journal and in The Washington Times.

In a letter to Pickle, Durbin said that his office “did not release these documents, nor did we authorize their release to anyone. Other than the original paper copies of these memos which are locked away in a file cabinet in my staff’s Judiciary Committee offices, the only other copies are stored electronically on the Judiciary Committee’s computer server in an allegedly secure file area.

“Therefore, it appears that the documents in question were taken without authorization and possibly illegally. This constitutes a serious breach of security and calls into question the confidentiality of Senate internal documents in both electronic and hard copy form.”

Joe Shoemaker, Durbin’s spokesman, said the panel’s majority and minority staff, accompanied by Capitol Police, removed the backup files of the committee’s server. They also sealed the office where the server was located and moved a staffer who normally worked in the area.

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printed from Capitol Cops Open Probe Into Leak -- MORE Senate docs stolen!! on 2004-06-16 15:58:33