Every institution, both political and cultural, every
political process, every political sensibility, every
tradition...It is all being subverted...
The Hill: “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.”
http://www.thehill.com/news/111803/leak.aspx
Capitol cops open a probe into leak
By Alexander Bolton and Geoff Earle
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.
Both staffs share a single server, Shoemaker noted.
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), the committee’s chairman,
said there was “no indication” that the memos in
question were either stolen or pilfered.
The leaked memos are the second set of private
documents to cause a furor in the Senate. Earlier this
month, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) saw a
confidential political memo laying out a critical
approach on President Bush’s handling on Iraqi
intelligence matters leaked to Fox News.
Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) is drafting a letter to the
Justice Department seeking a probe of that leak.