The Hypocrisy of Silence

From:
THE PROGRESS REPORT
http://www.progressreport.org

by David Sirota, Christy Harvey, Judd Legum and Jonathan Baskin

July 26, 2004


House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX), Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL)
and other White House allies, who were in full attack mode
(http://msnbc.msn.com/ID/5463586/) last week against Sandy Berger, were
dead silent this weekend as senior law enforcement officials
acknowledged they were conducting a criminal investigation into possible
intelligence leaks by Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL)
(http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5504846/) . The information is related to a
leak of intercepted al Qaeda communications just prior to the Sept. 11,
2001 attacks. Shelby was chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee at
the time, and the matter has been referred to the Senate Ethics
Committee.

WHERE ARE THE CALLS FOR CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS?: After FBI officials
and the 9/11 Commission
(http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0407/22/ldt.00.html) both played down
the allegations against Berger last week, congressional Republicans
decided they wanted to push the story anyway
(http://msnbc.msn.com/ID/5463586/) , calling for hearings on Capitol
Hill. Similar calls for an investigation into the Shelby matter have not
followed this weekend. And, as a new American Progress backgrounder
(http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=130039)
shows, these same Republicans have also refused to hold hearings on other
pressing national security matters, including the leak of an undercover
CIA agent's name by the Bush administration.