Under that cloud the FBI recently declared they'll no longer brief members of Congress about the progress of their Operation Amerithrax, the stone cold anthrax letter investigation. MSNBC's Lisa Myers explains:
The FBI's Assistant Director for Congressional Affairs wrote, "After sensitive information about the investigation citing congressional sources was reported in the media, the Department of Justice and the FBI agreed that no additional briefings to Congress would be provided."Put another way:
"we won't brief you because you will leak"That's probably true, but one has to wonder what sensitive information was leaked to the media by Congress about the case? We've hardly heard a peep about it since 2003, and the media, themselves a primary target in the attack, have been about as enthusiastic and effective as OJ in locating the real killer(s).
Senator Charles Grassley points out that the leaks aren't all from unauthorized sources. This week he sent Attorney General Alberto Gonzales one of those official Congressional letters (itself leaked to the media) asking for answers to 14 questions about Amerithrax. He also gingerly mocked the apparent hypocrisy of the FBI's feigned indignation over this while themselves being the source of leaks about Dr. Steven Hatfill and Richard Jewell. By the way, Judge Reggie Walton, the presider in charge of the Scooter Libby case, always seems to be in the middle of these things.
Anyway, Grassley also wondered why the FBI further justified their Congressional lockout by contending the case was one of law enforcement not intelligence without providing Congress much convincing evidence to believe otherwise. There are only so many sources of this stuff.
Plainly speaking, it sounds like Grassley is just ticked that he's been cut out of the loop with the insinuation that he can't handle the truth. There's nothing like a Senator with a bruised ego.
As to the Hatfill thing, seems to me if we believe the person of interest story was just a bone thrown to divert the media hounds that leaves only two conspiratorial possibilities to explain the attack. One, the letters were perpetrated by a cabal within the military industrial complex/biodefense sector to ellicit more government funding or to genuinely raise awareness of the threat. There were warnings to 'take penacillin', etc, which doesn't sound like something AQ would do. Hatfill was selected to take the heat to cover others.
Or two, the letters were sent by terrorists as a calling card to advertise a newly acquired deterrent and/or offensive weapon, something that would surely affect Bush's nightly sleep. Both are bad, but I believe most people would choose door number one if given an option. Reality is what it is, of course, and nothing more.
Seems to me if the Feds had anything on Hatfill they would have arrested and perp-walked him long ago, since such a thing would have provided a very reassuring visual to the public. The fact they haven't has led some to explore more insidious trails, now including a Senator in search of a truth they don't believe he can handle, whatever that might be.
ht Hatfill Deception
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