Security Agency Led FBI to Capitol Hill

Probe Into Leaks of Sept. 11 Warning Implicates Lawmakers Who Reportedly Called Journalists

The FBI's inquiry into the leak of intercepts related to the Sept. 11 attacks began to focus on members of Congress after a government agency told the FBI that news reporters had claimed to have received the information from lawmakers, according to sources close to the investigation.

When FBI agents visited one national security agency several weeks ago, officials provided detailed accounts of conversations they had had with at least two reporters who, officials said, revealed their sources to be members of Congress. The government agency, which insisted it not be named, gave agents copies of phone records that confirmed the date and time of day these conversations took place.

The disclosure suggested a possible new reason for the heightened concern on Capitol Hill about the aggressive FBI investigation, in which about 100 employees on Capitol Hill and dozens of officials at the CIA, National Security Agency and Defense Department have been questioned.

Agents have also interviewed nearly all 37 members of the House and Senate intelligence committees and asked members whether they would be willing to submit to lie detector tests. Many members have declined, citing concerns about the reliability of the exam and the separation of legislative and executive powers.

Some members said the inquiry, which began at the behest of the co-chairman of a joint intelligence panel looking into the Sept. 11 attacks, has muddied that separation: The same congressional committees that are evaluating the FBI's performance in tracking al Qaeda terrorists are now being investigated by the FBI.

The FBI yesterday declined to comment on the probe.

Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) said any complaints by intelligence committee members should be addressed to leaders of the committee, because they instigated the probe. "The FBI was asked to do the job. Now they [lawmakers] are complaining," Lott said. "I can't help but be amused that there has been misconduct, and then there's a complaint when the investigation begins."

Lawmakers could avoid such problems by zipping their lips, Lott suggested. It isn't just staff members who leak information, he said. Often, he added, he goes to meetings where staff members are excluded only to find that reporters have discovered what was discussed only minutes after the meeting ended. "We have found the problem, and it is us," he said.

While the probe might not discover the source of the leaks, it may "put a chill" on the willingness of lawmakers to talk, he said.

The leaked information, parts of which had been reported in The Washington Times in late September 2001 and then again by other news outlets in mid-June, contained snippets of conversation intercepted by the NSA on Sept. 10 in which people, speaking in Arabic, said "the match is about to begin" and "Tomorrow is zero hour."

The conversations were not translated by the NSA until Sept. 12. Intelligence officials say the conversations were not specific enough to have given them clues to the impending attack. But they have voiced concern that the news reports, quoting the actual wording used, may have tipped off terrorists as to which phones were being monitored.

After CNN reported the conversations on June 22, citing "two congressional sources," Vice President Cheney called and admonished the committee co-chairmen. The co-chairmen, Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.) and Rep. Porter J. Goss (R-Fla.), then invited the FBI to investigate the matter.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a critic of the probe, said the controversy over the FBI investigation is raising new questions about the ability of Congress to conduct a thorough investigation of intelligence lapses and other failures before Sept. 11.

McCain, who with Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) has sponsored legislation to create an independent commission, said he plans to try to force a vote on the issue shortly after the Senate returns from its month-long recess on Sept. 3, probably in connection with legislation to create a Department of Homeland Security.

McCain said lawmakers are increasingly upset about the idea of FBI polygraphs for themselves and their staff members, and he suggested that the constitutional separation of powers is being violated in spirit if not in the letter. "What you have here is an organization compiling dossiers on people who are investigating the same organization," he said.

McCain also took issue with suggestions that lawmakers, rather than administration officials, are responsible for leaks. "The administration bitterly complains about some leaks out of a committee, but meanwhile leaks abound about secret war plans for fighting a war against Saddam Hussein. What's that about? There's a bit of a contradiction here, if not a double standard."

He was referring to a spate of recent articles in major newspapers outlining military options under consideration for a war against Iraq.

Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) issued a statement saying, "The nation seems to be taking an alarming path recently. The attorney general wants neighbor to spy on neighbor. Senators and their staffs are being asked to take lie-detector tests. We must guard against turning our country into a police state where personal privacy rights are trampled in the name of the Justice Department. This must not be the price for security in these United States."

But Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), a former member of the intelligence panel and possible presidential aspirant, said, "I think everybody that goes on that committee ought to submit voluntarily and willingly" to polygraphs on a regular basis.