August 4, 2002	Sunday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 24,1423

WASHINGTON: 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 with at least two reporters they 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 Defence 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 says 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 on Friday 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.

After CNN reported the conversations on June 22, citing “two congressional sources,” Vice President Dick Cheney called and admonished the committee co-chairmen. The comittee members then invited the FBI to investigate the matter.—Dawn/The Washington Post News Service.