Dick Durbin: “What Senator Schumer is asking is for the Senate to go on record in calling on the Bush administration to appoint a…”

“What Senator Schumer is asking is for the Senate to go on record in calling on the Bush administration to appoint a special prosecutor, someone who will be independent enough to ask the hard questions and try to find out who was the source of this very serious security leak. Keep in mind what happened here. A decision was made by someone in the administration--perhaps in the White House--to disclose the identity of a woman working for one of our intelligence agencies. In and of itself, it doesn't sound like much to an outsider. But for many of the people working for those intelligence agencies in a covert status, the fact that their identity is not known is an important part of their job and an important part of their survival. As a result, the disclosure of the identity of such a person is a Federal felony, the most serious crime you can commit. We believe it undermines our intelligence-gathering capability and can literally endanger the lives of innocent, hard-working, patriotic Americans to knowingly disclose their identity.”