Gibbons privy to inside ‘intel’

Benjamin Grove

Friday, Sept. 28, 2001 | 9:28 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., a key member of the House Intelligence Committee, was in Reno two weekends ago when officials in Washington called him into another meeting.

Gibbons joined the briefing using a key-activated phone -- a Secured Transmission Unit -- provided by a U.S. marshal.

Users affectionately call the device "STU," he said.

Gibbon is perhaps Nevada's top insider in the Bush administration's plans to battle terrorists worldwide.

A former combat pilot, Gibbons has the highest security clearance available in Congress.

Since the terrorist attacks Sept. 11, Gibbons has attended daily classified briefings with officials for the CIA, FBI and Pentagon -- even during two quick trips home to Nevada.

As the rest of the nation monitors television, Internet websites and newspapers for the latest on U.S. actions -- and as a few lawmakers bemoan their lack of information -- Gibbons is privy to real-time, confidential data that average citizens and reporters may never know.

Gibbons cannot discuss the content of some briefings, even with his staff or family. A few members of the Intelligence Committee staff, including CIA veterans, are the only people he can talk to, he said.

"Much of this information is so sensitive, so secret, that if it were to leak out, lives could be put in danger," Gibbons said.

Since Sept. 11 government officials from a variety of departments have been briefing members of Congress and their staffs. They include officials from the Defense, Justice, Health and Human Services and Transportation departments, in addition to the Federal Aviation Administration and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Some meetings are apparently more informative than others. A few lawmakers have openly complained that they learn more from television than from government briefers.

But Gibbons, with seats on the Intelligence Committee and Armed Services Committee, has unusual access to information about both the investigation into the terrorist attacks and pending military activity abroad, he said.

Intelligence Committee members undergo rigorous background checks. Investigators carefully sifted through Gibbons' classified military service records, he said.

Gibbons and fellow "Intel" committee members have met in recent days with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, CIA Director George Tenet, Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller, Gibbons said.

Gibbons said only top leaders in Congress and the leaders of the intelligence committees would know when a U.S. military strike is imminent, he said. As vice chairman of the Intelligence Committee's new subcommittee on terrorism and chairman of its Human Intelligence Subcommittee, Gibbons would not say if he ranked high enough to be briefed on pending military strikes.

"Maybe," Gibbons said. "Maybe not."

Gibbons said he has been generally pleased with the response of the FBI in leading the investigation, and with the CIA, which is chasing Osama bin Laden and other members of the al Qaeda terrorist network.

"We have a fairly good idea of the region that he is in, but I can't say that we can pinpoint him," Gibbons said. "He's very crafty."

The FBI keeps Gibbons abreast on the latest breakthroughs, he said. The agency's 4,000 investigators, aided by 1,000 scientists, are chasing 200,000 leads -- many of them fruitful, Gibbons said.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., the No. 2 Senate Democrat, also has more access to information than most rank-and-file members of Congress, aides said.

Reid and four other Senate leaders on Thursday met with Jordan's King Abdullah, Reid said. But he downplayed the notion that he is able to track classified developments in the war on terrorism more closely than most.

"I think we get good information; it's not everything," Reid said. "There are a lot of different agencies, and they don't have to tell me everything."