Taking More Leaks

Too too funny. So the GOP tried to do their false equivalence thing again today. They tried to open their own leak investigation, this one over Dana Priest's story in the Washington Post last week about secret CIA "black sites" housing terror detainees in Soviet-era prisons in Eastern Europe. It was a bicameral investigation signed by Bill Frist and Dennis Hastert.

Well, turns out that, according to one Republican Senator, the leak probably came out of the GOP's own caucus:

Another Republican, Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi, said it may have been Republican senators who leaked the information to the Post. Lott told reporters that the existence of the secret prison system was discussed last week during the Republican policy luncheon, held on Capitol Hill the day before the Post story appeared.

"Information that was said in there, given out in there, did get into the newspaper," Lott said.

Asked whether he believed it was Republicans who had breached security, Lott said: "I don't know where else it came from...it looked to me that at least one of those reports came right out of that room."

Physician (talking to Frist here), heal thyself.

This could actually be a worthwhile discussion about the public's right to know what is being done in their name balanced with the leaking of classified information that could harm national security. But now that the spectre is raised that this investigation could actually turn out badly for the Republicans, I think we'll see it 86'ed in a matter of days...

...OK, a matter of hours! CNN is now reporting that Bill Frist is claiming he has not officially signed the letter authorizing the investigation. This despite the fact that the LA Times article clearly states that:

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) circulated a letter asking the intelligence committees to "immediately initiate a joint investigation into the possible release of classified information to the media," about the existence of the prisons.

Sound like Fristy knows something and now wants to get out of this deal. As if he has insider information, and now he wants to sell the stock...