Inquiry on domestic eavesdropping leak expands
Probe said to focus on N.Y. Times story
NEW YORK -- Federal agents have interviewed officials at several law enforcement and national security agencies in a criminal investigation involving the disclosure in The New York Times of a domestic eavesdropping program, the newspaper reported.
In a story in today's editions, the Times said the investigation was focused on the circumstances surrounding its report on the highly classified program late last year.
Officials and others interviewed by the Times said the investigation seemed to lay the groundwork for a grand jury inquiry and possible criminal charges, the Times said.
Many described the investigation as aggressive and fast moving, with the initial focus on identifying government officials who have had contacts with Times reporters, particularly those in the newspaper's Washington bureau.
It said that an FBI team had questioned employees at the FBI, the National Security Agency, the Justice Department, the CIA, and the office of the Director of National Intelligence, and that prosecutors had taken steps to activate a grand jury.
President Bush has condemned the leak as a ''shameful act." CIA Director Porter Goss said during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing Feb. 2 that: ''It is my aim, and it is my hope that we will witness a grand jury investigation with reporters present being asked to reveal who is leaking this information."
The Times characterized the case as one that pits the government, for which ''the investigation represents an effort to punish those responsible for a serious security breach," against news outlets, for which the inquiry threatens confidentiality of sources ''and the ability to report on controversial national security issues free of government interference."
The newspaper's executive editor, Bill Keller, said no one at the paper had been contacted in connection with the investigation.
