House Intel Chairman Suspends Democrat Staffer Over Possible Leak to NYT

The Associated Press reported late Thursday evening that the chairman of the House Intelligence committee Peter Hoekstra (R-Michigan) has suspended a Democrat staffer over possibly being the source of the recently leaked National Intelligence Estimate to the New York Times (hat tip to Michelle Malkin): “In a letter to Hoekstra dated Sept. 29, Rep. Ray LaHood, R-Ill., a committee member, said the Democratic staffer requested the document from National Intelligence Director John Negroponte three days before a Sept. 23 story by the Times on its conclusions.”

For those that have forgotten:

The leak to The New York Times of a National Intelligence Estimate on global terror trends caused a political uproar last month. In the assessment, completed in April, analysts from the government's 16 spy agencies concluded that the Iraq war has become a "cause celebre" for Islamic extremists, breeding deep resentment of the U.S. that probably will get worse before it gets better.

At the time, “President Bush suggested the document was leaked for ‘political purposes’ weeks before the midterm elections. He later made public four pages of the estimate's key findings.”

It should be fascinating to see how much airtime this gets on this evening’s newscasts. Anyone care to take a guess.