06 March 2004	Saturday	14 Muharram 1425

WASHINGTON, March 5: US Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch on Thursday blamed two former Republican staffers for what a top Democrat called "partisan spying" involving thousands of computer files.

Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the ranking Democrat on the committee, said a three-month probe found that computer files of staff Democrats were improperly accessed from at least 2001 to 2003.

Hatch, a Utah Republican, said Democrats were not the only victims, disclosing that the investigation found more than 100 of his documents were also improperly accessed.

Hatch and Leahy made the comments as they prepared to distribute copies of the probe to committee members to examine behind closed doors and then decide what, if any action, to take.

Options included - if consensus can be reached on the often sharply divided panel - seeking criminal prosecutions. Copies of the investigative report by the US Senate's Sergeant at Arms Office were to be publicly released later on Thursday.

Democrats contend the file breach constituted a theft. Republicans agreed to the investigation, but said they wanted more information before reaching conclusions.

"Regardless whether any criminal law was broken, the improper accessing was wrong and unjustified and will go down as a sad chapter in the Senate and this committee," Hatch said.

Congressional law enforcement in November began looking into what Democrats called the computer theft of 14 staff memos critical of President George W. Bush's judicial nominees.

The memos, which described Democrats conferring with liberal groups opposed to Bush's most conservative nominees, were first quoted in The Wall Street Journal, and then in other publications.

Hatch initially suggested the memos were turned over to the news media by a "conscience-stricken" Democratic staffer. But a short time later he denounced the action when he learned the files had been obtained by Republican staffers.

"I'm very upset that this happened, and I've been upset for quite a while," Hatch said. "I hope we can work through this and not be vindictive." "Let's not forget that the overwhelming majority of our staff conducted themselves in an entirely proper and honourable fashion while working with a less than perfect computer system in a too often too contentious environment," he added.

Hatch did not identify by name the two former staffers he called "misguided" and said were largely to blame for the improper computer accessing. Manuel Miranda, who formerly worked for Hatch, resigned last month as an aide to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican, after his name surfaced in the probe.

Leahy called it "an unprecedented case of partisan spying in the Senate." "Much remains to be learned about this breach," Leahy said. -Reuters