Fromwww. kentimmerman.com
Reprinted from NewsMax.com
Fromwww. kentimmerman.com
Reprinted from NewsMax.com
Curt Weldon: CIA,FBI 'Out of Control'
Monday, Dec.11, 2006
WASHINGTON -- Defeated Pennsylvania Republican Curt Weldonbelieves that the CIA and the FBI are "out of control," and that thenext Congress must do better oversight to prevent them from continuedinterference in domestic U.S. politics.
The charge by the outgoing Republican congressman and deputychairman of the House Armed Services Committee, one of the toptargets of the Democratic National Committee in November'scongressional election, was not idle speculation.
"Just yesterday, FBI Director Mueller took the unusual step ofpublicly acknowledging that the FBI had launched a criminal inquiryinto the activities of two of its agents for misconduct in a federalinvestigation," Weldon said. "Even more unusual, Mueller said thatthe improper leaks involved Congressman Weldon."
Weldon spoke to NewsMax on Friday just outside the Housechamber in the Capitol building on his last day as a United Statescongressman. He planned to stay for votes scheduled to continue until11 p.m.
Six weeks before last November's election, Weldon continue todominate his Democratic opponent in the polls. Then, out of nowhere,"anonymous law enforcement sources" leaked to the press that the FBIwas conducting a federal probe into the Pennsylvania Republican foralleged influence peddling.
Weldon has been in Congress since 1986, and was re-elected in2004 with 59 percent of the vote. After a televised FBI raid on hisdaughter's townhouse on Oct. 16, Weldon dropped like a rock in thepolls.
"I was exceptionally disappointed, and that is being charitablein terms of my response," Mueller told the Senate Judiciary Committeeon Thursday, referring to the leaks in the "Weldon matter."
"It is unfair in advance of an election; but, as importantly tous, it adversely affected the investigation," Mueller said.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., blastedMueller and said he found the FBI behavior to be "highlyprejudicial."
Weldon's opponent, retired Rear Adm. Joseph A. Sestak, won topdrawer support from the national Democratic Party, including anendorsement and campaign appearance by Bill Clinton on Oct. 5.
The list of his campaign contributors reads like a "Who's Who" of theClinton administration. Contributors included former Secretary ofState Madeleine Albright, former National Security adviser SandyBerger, former White House political director John Podesta, and ahost of Clinton White House aides including national security expertsRand Beers and Bob Bell, and terrorism analyst Daniel Benjamin.
Also significant, Weldon believes, was a contribution from MaryMcCarthy, a senior CIA official forced to resign just 10 days fromretirement in April on allegations she had leaked highly-classifiedinformation to The Washington Post that helped expose the existenceof CIA secret prisons for terrorists.
"The CIA is out of control," Weldon said. "They are not leakingfor the good of the country, or out of national security concerns,but purely to satisfy a personal agenda."
Weldon believes he became a top target of the nationalDemocratic Party because of his investigations into Clinton-eranational security scandals, including the sell-off of militarytechnology to communist China. He further cooled his relationshipwith the Democratic Party after asserting that before 9/11, the AbleDanger intelligence program identified Mohamed Atta and other 9/11hijackers as possible members in al-Qaida.
Weldon also charged the former CIA station chief in Paris, BillMurray, of attempting to smear the incoming chairman of the HousePermanent Select Intelligence Committee, Silvestre Reyes, by allegingthat Reyes attended a meeting in Paris with Iran-contra figure,Manoucher Ghorbanifar.
Those allegations appeared in a left-wing Internet publicationon Nov. 17 that was clearly aimed at thwarting Reyes's candidacy totake over the sensitive intelligence oversight position. "What doesthis say about Reyes' judgment, meeting with a guy like this?"left-wing journalist Laura Rozen wrote.
Impeached former federal judge Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., wasin line to become chairman of the intelligence committee, but wasfacing stiff opposition from security-minded Democrats as well asRepublicans, who argued he was unfit for the job. Reyes was seen as acompromise candidate for the job.
"Bill Murray's aim was to impugn the reputation of the incomingchairman of the House intelligence committee," Weldon said. "This isoutrageous. And it is a blatant lie, because Reyes never met withGhorbanifar in Paris."
Weldon also accused Murray of having leaked to the press thename of a confidential source in Paris who had provided Weldon withintelligence information on Iran.
"I questioned the CIA about this," Weldon told NewsMax. "Theysent me a memo with the name of my source blacked out. I asked themwhy. They said, because it was classified. That didn't stop Murrayfrom releasing his name."
"This is what the whole Valerie Plame case was about," headded. Murray was embarrassed because he had mishandled theinformant, so was seeking to discredit him through the press, Weldonbelieved.
Despite protests to CIA and FBI over Murray's leaks, neitheragency launched a criminal investigation. "Murray got away with it,"Weldon said. "This demonstrates everything that is wrong with ourintelligence community."
Weldon said he was not bitter about his defeat, but wasencouraging Congress to do stricter oversight of an intelligencecommunity he believed was "out of control."
Kenneth R. Timmerman is president of the Middle East Data Project,author of "Countdown to Crisis: The Coming Nuclear Showdown withIran," and a contributing editor to NewsMax.com.
Originalarticle: