[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 17]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 23918]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    APPOINTMENT OF A SPECIAL COUNSEL

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. ADAM B. SCHIFF

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, October 1, 2003

  Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to discuss a matter of great 
importance to this country--impacting the national security of our 
Nation, the integrity of our branches of government, and the public 
trust.
  Earlier this week, the Central Intelligence Agency urged the Justice 
Department to open a criminal inquiry into whether Administration 
officials leaked the identity of a CIA agent, in order to discredit a 
critic of the Administration's intelligence claims with respect to an 
alleged uranium program in Iraq.
  Mr. Speaker, prior to the war, the Members of this House were 
provided with specific intelligence information with regard to weapons 
programs in Iraq--and this country went to war based on that 
intelligence. However, we are now learning that some of this 
intelligence information was seriously flawed, including information 
that was explicitly featured in a State of the Union address. The 
syndicated newspaper column that quoted ``senior administration 
officials'' identifying the undercover CIA operative by name was 
printed in order to discredit a critic of these very claims.
  Disclosure of the identity of a CIA operative is a serious setback to 
our national security. Such actions also undermine any efforts to 
candidly assess the intelligence flaws we are now discovering. Because 
the sharing of classified information by an administration official for 
political or malicious purposes is such a serious abuse of power, an 
independent investigation of this matter should be commenced 
immediately.
  As a former Assistant United States Attorney, I had the opportunity 
to handle both corruption and espionage cases. In my view, we have a 
clear conflict of interest if the Attorney General and other Justice 
Department officials are given primary responsibility for the 
investigation of this potential illegality, because of the alleged 
involvement of high-level Administration officials.
  Such an investigation will not only be difficult to pursue, but the 
conflict will undermine the results of the investigation, and cause the 
public to question its result. Rather, this investigation should be 
pursued by an independent and impartial special counsel appointed by 
the Attorney General with the full confidence of the public.

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