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Purposeful leaks.


Purposeful Leaks

THE CONVENTIONAL thing to say is that leaks are the political coin of the realm inside the Beltway "Inside the Beltway" is a phrase used to characterize parts of the real or imagined American political system. It refers to the Capital Beltway (Interstate 495), a beltway that encircles Washington, D.C. . Politicians feed leaks to newsmen in order to curry favor to seek to gain favor by flattery or attentions. See Favor,

n. os>
to seek to gain favor by flattery, caresses, kindness, or officious civilities.

See also: Curry favor
, to advance their own goals, and score points against political opponents. And no doubt they sometimes leak just for the thrill of it, as a demonstration of power and inside knowledge.

That is the conventional thing to say, and it is true as far as it goes, but something qualitatively different is in the air these days.

ABC's Capitol Hill correspondent Brit Hume Alexander Britton "Brit" Hume, Sr. (born June 22, 1943), is the Washington managing editor of the Fox News Channel. He anchors Special Report with Brit Hume and is a panelist on Fox News Sunday.  has charged that Senator Joseph Biden twice threatened to "go public' about Reagan Administration Noun 1. Reagan administration - the executive under President Reagan
executive - persons who administer the law
 plans for covert action against Libya. The senator has denied this but--distinction without a difference--says that what he would have done was reveal the plans to a closed session of the full Senate. These days, that would be "going public.'

On July 21, the Washington Times reported that in 1985, Senators Dave Durenberger and Patrick Leahy, then chairman and vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, after being briefed on plans for covert action against Qaddafi, wrote to then-Director of the CIA CIA: see Central Intelligence Agency.


(1) (Confidentiality Integrity Authentication) The three important concerns with regards to information security. Encryption is used to provide confidentiality (privacy, secrecy).
 William Casey with threats of "going public.' Shortly thereafter a story about the plans surfaced in the Washington Post, whereupon two African nations backed out of the scheme.

This January Senator Leahy resigned pre-emptively from the Intelligence Committee after leaking a confidential report on Iranaquiddick to NBC News. Senator Leahy is now under investigation by the FBI and the Senate Ethics Committee ethics committee A multidisciplinary hospital body composed of a broad spectrum of personnel–eg, physicians, nurses, social workers, priests, and others, which addresses the moral and ethical issues within the hospital. See DNR, Institutional review board.  because of evidence suggesting that he has leaked classified information to the news media. The senator could be in very serious trouble if this turns out to be true.

What we are witnessing here does not appear to be the usual sort of Washington leaking, but a systematic and conscious effort on the part of certain senators and representatives to wrest wrest  
tr.v. wrest·ed, wrest·ing, wrests
1. To obtain by or as if by pulling with violent twisting movements: wrested the book out of his hands; wrested the islands from the settlers.
 control of American foreign policy away from the officials who are constitutionally charged with conducting it. Talk about shredding the Constitution.
COPYRIGHT 1987 National Review, Inc.
No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
Copyright 1987, Gale Group. All rights reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company.

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Title Annotation:Congressional leaks to press
Publication:National Review
Date:Sep 11, 1987
Words:333
Previous Article:The House unrepresentative. (gerrymandering of House of Representative)
Next Article:Rudolf Hess, RIP. (obituary)
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