Republicans will investigate leaks, not torture.

Drudge is reporting this: (It's one of his unsourced "Flash" stories so, grains of salt. And these links often disappear if he's wrong.)

Sources tell Drudge that early this afternoon House Speaker Hastert and Senate Majority Leader Frist will announce a bicameral investigation into the leak of classified information to the WASHINGTON POST regarding the “black sites” where high value al Qaeda terrorists are being held and interrogated.

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Said one Hill source: “Talk about a leak that damaged national security! How will we ever get our allies to cooperate if they fear that their people will be targeted by al Qaeda.”

According to sources, the WASHINGTON POST story by Dana Priest (Wednesday November 2), revealed highly classified information that has already done significant damage to US efforts in the War on Terror.

Let's run through the issues here. 1. Notice that this is listed as "bicameral" not bipartisan. 2. Notice that the damage to national security is perceived to be the leak, not the underlying actions. 3. Notice that they are going to look into the LEAK, not the possible underlying violations of US law. 4. No mention is made of the possible withholding of information from congressional oversight.

Here comes the immunization. Dana Priest is "unamerican" therefore all right-thinking folks should not believe what she writes. Also, Dana Priest's sources just all dried up preventing any further reporting on this topic.

There's something big in all this. The GOP is throwing every asset they have into stopping the stories on torture. I would guess that there is an incriminating trail that leads right to the White House.

Update: here's a more reliable E&P version.