Did the US defeat wiretapping success?

[John Denker]

At 01:25 PM 9/17/01 -0500, Matt Crawford wrote:

>Somehow I doubt that it was not a speech or debate in the senate.

And what is the basis for this doubt?

All evidence, including that which I quoted in my original message, 
indicates that he first said it in a media interview.  Here is some more 
evidence:

   http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16460-2001Sep12.html
which says in part:
>>"Sen. Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary 
>>Committee, first disclosed in a CNN interview that an intercept revealed 
>>the bin Laden group claimed to have 'hit two targets.'

See also
  http://www.itn.co.uk/news/20010912/world/06suspects.shtml

To put this in context, see
   http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/wtc_counterterrorism_010912.html
which says in part:
>>Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld today spoke at length on the 
>>importance of U.S. government personnel not disclosing classified information.
....
>>Rumsfeld might have been referring to the Washington Times story [from 
>>last year], rather than disclosures by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. Hatch 
>>told ABCNEWS and other news organizations Tuesday night that senior CIA 
>>officials told him a communication had been intercepted between suspected 
>>associates of Osama bin Laden discussing the attack, and that he was told 
>>he could disclose the information to the public.

According to all indications, Mr. Hatch is not protected by the 
speech-and-debate clause.

In my judgement, I find Mr. Hatch's assertion that "he was told he could 
disclose the information" to be self-serving and highly implausible.  It 
would be good to find out who, if anyone, told him that.  Perhaps a grand 
jury would be a good way to find out.




---------------------------------------------------------------------
The Cryptography Mailing List
Unsubscribe by sending "unsubscribe cryptography" to majordomo at wasabisystems.com