Dick Cheney Complains About Leaks

By JOHN J. LUMPKIN, Associated Press Writer

June 20, 2002

WASHINGTON (AP) - Vice President Dick Cheney complained to lawmakers Thursday about leaks that he believes led to disclosure of the National Security Agency's Sept. 10 intercepts of at least two messages in Arabic that suggested a major event was to take place the next day.

At President Bush's direction, Cheney called Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Rep. Porter Goss, R-Fla., chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, "to express the president's concerns about this inappropriate disclosure," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.

Fleischer called the disclosure "alarmingly specific."

"The information that is being provided to these committees is extraordinarily sensitive," Fleischer said. "The selective, inappropriate leaking of snippets of information risks undermining national security, and it risks undermining the promises made to protect this sensitive information."

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