Friday, February 3, 2006
CIA's Goss: Times Leak Damage 'Severe'
Testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Goss blasted the Times leakers, saying, "The damage has been very severe to our capabilities to carry out our mission.
"I use the words `very severe' intentionally," the CIA chief told the panel. "And I think the evidence will show that," he said.
The December 16 New York Times story that outed President Bush's National Security Agency terrorist surveillance program caused "severe damage" to U.S. counterterrorism efforts, CIA chief Porter Goss said yesterday.
Goss cited a "disruption to our plans, things that we have under way." He also complained that CIA sources and "assets" had been rendered "no longer viable or usable, or less effective by a large degree."
The nation's top spy called for a grand jury investigation into the Times leak to determine who it was who had sabotaged U.S. counterterrorism efforts.
Director of national intelligence and former NSA chief, Gen. Michael Hayden, echoed Goss, saying that those who argue the surveillance program wasn't critical are flat out wrong.
"I can tell you, in a broad sense, that is certainly not true," he told the Committee.
Last month, Hayden said that had President Bush's terrorist surveillance program been in place before the 9/11 attacks, there's a good chance they would have been foiled.
In December, the Justice Department launched a criminal investigation into the Times leak.
Testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Goss blasted the Times leakers, saying, "The damage has been very severe to our capabilities to carry out our mission.
"I use the words `very severe' intentionally," the CIA chief told the panel. "And I think the evidence will show that," he said.
The December 16 New York Times story that outed President Bush's National Security Agency terrorist surveillance program caused "severe damage" to U.S. counterterrorism efforts, CIA chief Porter Goss said yesterday.
Goss cited a "disruption to our plans, things that we have under way." He also complained that CIA sources and "assets" had been rendered "no longer viable or usable, or less effective by a large degree."
The nation's top spy called for a grand jury investigation into the Times leak to determine who it was who had sabotaged U.S. counterterrorism efforts.
Director of national intelligence and former NSA chief, Gen. Michael Hayden, echoed Goss, saying that those who argue the surveillance program wasn't critical are flat out wrong.
"I can tell you, in a broad sense, that is certainly not true," he told the Committee.
Last month, Hayden said that had President Bush's terrorist surveillance program been in place before the 9/11 attacks, there's a good chance they would have been foiled.
In December, the Justice Department launched a criminal investigation into the Times leak.
