The CIA Secret Prisons Leak

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Top Republican leaders have demanded "an immediate joint House and Senate investigation into the disclosure of classified information to The Washington Post that detailed a web of secret prisons for terrorism suspects facing interrogation," Post reporter Jonathan Weisman wrote November 9, 2005.

Post reporter Dana Priest reported November 2, 2005, about the "hidden global internment network [which] is a central element in the CIA's unconventional war on terrorism."

Priest reported that the CIA "has been hiding and interrogating some of its most important al Qaeda captives at a Soviet-era compound in Eastern Europe, according to U.S. and foreign officials familiar with the arrangement."

"The secret facility," Priest wrote, "is part of a covert prison system set up by the CIA nearly four years ago that at various times has included sites in eight countries, including Thailand, Afghanistan and several democracies in Eastern Europe, as well as a small center at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, according to current and former intelligence officials and diplomats from three continents."

Justice Department

"The CIA took the first step toward a criminal investigation of a leak of possibly classified information on secret prisons to The Washington Post," Associated Press writer Katherine Shrader reported November 8, 2005. "The agency's general counsel sent a report to the Justice Department about the Post story."

"The [CIA] official," Shrader wrote, "who spoke on condition of anonymity because the issue deals with classified information, said the referral was made shortly after the Nov. 2 story. ... The Justice Department will decide whether to initiate a criminal investigation."

Trent Lott

CNN reported November 8, 2005, that Senator Trent Lott "told reporters the information in the Post story was the same as that given to Republican senators in a closed-door briefing by Vice President Dick Cheney last week."

The Raw Story reported November 8, 2005, that Lott "said that much of the information contained in the Post report -- which stated that the U.S. was holding terrorist suspects in secret CIA jails overseas -- was discussed at a meeting of Republican senators last Tuesday."

The November 8, 2005, CNN Situation Room news report regarding the investigation and Lott's comments was captured on video and made available online by ShadowTV.com, Crooks and Liars (QT and WMP); and Think Progress (QT).

However, The Hill's Alexander Bolton reported November 10, 2005, that the day before, on November 9, 2005, Lott told reporters "that he had been talking about another Post article. He said he was not talking about the article about the detention and interrogation facilities."

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