JURIST - Paper Chase: GOP lawmaker urges probe into possible CIA leak on secret prisons

[JURIST] A top Republican legislator Friday called for an investigation [press release] into whether CIA agents leaked classified information to Council of Europe investigator Dick Marty [personal website] about secret prisons for detaining suspected terrorists. Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-MI) [official website], ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, requested the probe in a letter [PDF text] to Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell [official profile]. In the letter, Hoekstra said that

every intelligence official swears an oath to protect the people and national secrets of this great land. To willingly discuss the details of any classified government program with an agent of a foreign power without authorization is absolutely unconscionable. This would represent an egregious violation of the public's trust.

Hoekstra asked McConnell to investigate Marty's findings and, if he finds them to be inaccurate, demand that the Council of Europe [official website] force Marty to withdraw his claims.

In June, in a report [CoE materials; JURIST report] from the Legal Affairs Committee of the Council of Europe, Marty said that the CIA directly ran secret detention facilities in Europe with the "requisite permissions, protections or active assistance" of European governments, and that the framework for the cooperation was developed secretly among NATO members. The report was part of the CoE's investigation into alleged secret detention centers [CoE materials] and illegal rendition flights [JURIST news archive] operated by the CIA in Europe. Some European lawmakers have criticized [JURIST report] Marty's findings for failing to cite sources. US President George W. Bush acknowledged the existence of the secret CIA prison program [JURIST report] last year, but did not disclose any details. AP has more.

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