Talk:Richard Shelby

Processing complaint from Shelby's office
I received a complaint from Shelby's office about this section and, seeing as how the sourcing on it is pretty weak, I'm going to place it here for a day or two until I get the chance to go over it and find better sourcing.

Original content: Shelby leaks classified messages to media
Senator Shelby served on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence from 1995 to 2003, stepping down because of a Senate rule limiting committee terms to eight years.

Controversy surrounds Shelby's role in leaking national security secrets involving the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. In 2004, a federal investigaton concluded that Shelby revealed classified information to the media when he was a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Specifically, Shelby revealed classified information on June 19, 2002 to Carl Cameron, the chief political correspondent on Fox News. This information had been given to Shelby only minutes before at a closed intelligence committee meeting. This information consisted of two messages intercepted by the National Security Agency on September 10, 2001, but only translated after the attacks the next day &mdash; "the match is about to begin" and "tomorrow is zero hour."

Intercepts by the National Security Agency are among the most sensitive of classified information. Both the U.S. attorney's office and the FBI investigated the case, and a grand jury empaneled; however, as of 2005, no one has been charged with a crime.

On August 11, the media confirmed that Shelby had hired Washington, D.C.-based attorney Gregory Craig, to represent him in investigations by the House Ethics Committee.

In July 2004, the Department of Justice declined to file criminal charges against Shelby and transferred the case to the Senate Ethics Committee.

In November 2005, the Senate Ethics Committee dismissed its probe into the alleged leak of classified information regarding National Security Agency intercepts the day before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, administering no punishment to the Alabama Republican.