Richard Shelby and the Politicization of Intelligence

CQ’s Jeff Stein actually reads the political memoirs that proliferate in Washington. At the end of a piece about the quiet that has settled over the CIA after years of turmoil, Stein drops this little bomblet about Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) (via War and Piece):

Tenet got back at Shelby in a little-noticed passage in his memoir.

He recounted how, in December 1996, shortly after President Bill Clinton nominated his national security advisor Anthony Lake to be CIA director, Shelby approached him after a committee briefing. (Tenet was then deputy director.)

“George, he drawled,” according to Tenet, “if you have any dirt on Tony Lake, I sure would like to have it.”

Tenet was taken aback, he wrote, because he and Lake were friends.

Tenet also wrote that, “National Security Agency officials told us that Shelby staffers had been asking whether there was derogatory information in their communications intercepts on Lake.”

But the NSA refused Shelby’s entreaties, two sources said, and there was no derogatory information in the FBI’s files.

Shelby also demanded, and got, the FBI’s raw files on Lake. The senator did not respond to three days of requests last week for comment.

But Lake did.

“The facts speak for themselves,” he said in a brief interview.

Shelby’s ability to obtain FBI files, which could be filled with uncorroborated allegations and rumors, he added, set a bad precedent.

“Using intelligence agencies to go after officials,” he said, “is not a good idea.”

Tenet’s memoir has been out for a while now. Have I just missed the follow-up reporting on this? Back in 2004, Shelby was investigated for leaking classified information to reporters, and although Shelby was not charged in that case, it was clear that he had in fact leaked. But this accusation from Tenet seems to be unrelated to that other case.