Mobile Register WASHINGTON -- Unable to muster support from the Bush administration, U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Tuscaloosa, has shelved action on legislation to make virtually any leak of classified material a crime punishable by up to three years in prison.
September 6, 2001
Attorney General asks top Republican to postpone hearing
By SEAN REILLY
to allow him more time to study issue
Washington Bureau
Shelby, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, indefinitely postponed a Wednesday public hearing on the controversial proposal after Attorney General John Ashcroft asked for more time to study it, spokeswoman Andrea Andrews said.
Instead, Andrews said, Shelby is interested in the creation of an inter-agency government task force to study the impact of leaks of classified information on such agencies as the CIA and FBI.
"Sen. Shelby acknowledges that there may be a better solution out there," she said, and is "more than willing" to consider any alternative proposed by the task force that addresses the problem.
She referred other questions to the Justice Department, where a spokeswoman did not return phone messages Wednesday. A White House spokesman also could not be reached.
Shelby's decision represents a victory for media organizations and government watchdog groups who succeeded in persuading then-President Clinton to veto similar legislation last year on the grounds that it would have harmed legitimate efforts to keep government accountable.
It now appears that press representatives and members of the intelligence community will work together informally to confront problems caused by leaking, said Steven Aftergood, a government secrecy expert with the Federation of American Scientists, a Washington, D.C. nonprofit organization.
"That's a much more sensible way to go than locking new legislation into place," Aftergood said.
Shelby had wanted to make the unauthorized release of all "properly" classified information a felony carrying a $10,000 fine and a maximum of three years behind bars.
Shelby contended that a torrent of leaks was damaging intelligence sources and in some cases putting agents in danger.
Citing secrecy restrictions, neither Shelby nor the CIA has ever publicly provided any evidence to back up that claim. According to news accounts, however, suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden stopped using satellite telephones after the media reported that the United States had succeeded in tapping his calls.
But critics argued that Shelby's proposal represented overkill and would have had a chilling effect on whistleblowers and others seeking to open the door on questionable government activities such as the arms-for-hostages deal with Iran in the mid-1980s. They also noted that it is already a crime to disclose classified information affecting individuals' safety, national security or national defense.
While Shelby evidently hoped a Bush White House would be more sympathetic, a spokesman had said last week that the administration was still studying the need for a new criminal statute. Over the last month, numerous newspapers around the country had editorialized against the plan. Even the American Library Association protested.
"I think Sen. Shelby's concerns are well-taken; they are from the heart," said Newspaper Association of America President John Sturm, who had been scheduled to testify at Wednesday's postponed public hearing.
"My only quarrel was with the way they were to be addressed and maybe this discussion over the next few months will result in a better approach."
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