The Washington Post reports today that Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., leaked classified information that the NSA intercepted on Sept. 10, 2001 but not translated until Sept. 12. The Arabic-language messages said “The match is about to begin” and “Tomorrow is zero hour.” Couple of interesting things about the leak:
1. Shelby talked to reporters from Fox News and CNN during the break of a committee meeting. CNN had it on the air quick enough for a CIA official to ream out the committee when it reconvened the same day.
2. It’s alleged that Shelby leaked the information to undermine the CIA’s George Tenet.
3. The Bush administration used the leak to argue that it needed to withhold information from Congress, because senators and representatives couldn’t be trusted to keep a secret.
4. Despite a two-year investigation, Shelby was never charged with a crime.
5. Fox News is a bunch of rat finks.

Put all this together, and you have the makings of an interesting conspiracy theory.

The White House, looking to keep everything secret, goes to their pal Shelby and says, “If you would leak a piece of sensational, but innocuous classified material, we could argue that nobody in Congress can be trusted and we won’t have to release a thing. The public will blame everyone but us, and we’ll strengthen our grip on the throat of democracy.”

Shelby may have responded, “Isn’t that illegal?” At that point, the White House and Shelby, knowing Ashcroft was in charge of the Justice Department, would enjoy a good, long chuckle.