Senator shelves classified-leaks bill — for now
By The Associated Press
09.06.01
WASHINGTON — Sen. Richard Shelby predicts President Bush eventually will accept his bill to criminalize intelligence leaks, while conceding that new administration opposition dims chances of swift passage.
Shelby, ranking Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, canceled at Attorney General John Ashcroft's request a public hearing yesterday on the legislation. Ashcroft and CIA Director George Tenet were to have testified.
The postponement effectively ended action this year on the bill, which Congress approved last year but President Clinton vetoed. Even though the Alabama senator says he is confident Bush wouldn't use his veto pen, he says he won't push to reschedule the hearing before next year.
"I would figure if we were able to pass legislation like I've proposed or something similar to it that his administration would sign it," Shelby said.
"This is not a this-year legislation, necessarily. It's long-term legislation. This legislation is not going away, because the problem is going to get worse, not better."
Shelby said Ashcroft simply needed more time to review the issue. A senior administration official told the Associated Press, however, that the White House considers the bill problematic and unnecessary.
Laws already prohibit release of information that would compromise national security. Shelby's measure would impose a broader standard by making it a felony to leak virtually anything the government has deemed classified. Violators would face fines and up to three years in prison.
Open government, civil liberties and press groups have blasted the proposal. They contend it would undermine legitimate whistle-blowers and hinder communication between the government and the public.
"It's a huge victory for all of us who are opposed to it," said Thomas Blanton, executive director of the National Security Archive, a private group that collects declassified U.S. military and diplomatic documents.
"Maybe the experts can come up with solutions that are not as sweeping and broad and dangerous as we felt this particular provision was," said John Sturm, president of the Newspaper Association of America.
Several opponents said they would press for informal talks among government officials, the press and open government advocates to study the matter.
"The newspeople like all the leaks because they give them stories, but there has been and will be damage to national security because of leaks," Shelby said. "Some of these leaks are going to cause people to get killed."
In recent weeks, the Justice Department has come under fire for going after reporters' sources in two other cases. It supported the jailing of Houston writer Vanessa Leggett, who refused to disclose her sources to a federal judge; and it subpoenaed telephone records of Associated Press reporter John Solomon to find unidentified law enforcement officials who told the AP about a government wiretap of Sen. Robert Torricelli, D-N.J.