GOP Congressman Breached Security Via Twitter

Oh, brother. I just got this item from Congressional Quarterly. Apparently, a Congressional delegation went to Iraq today. The trip was supposed to be a secret. News outlets that knew of the trip had been told that the information was embargoed. But someone's been teaching these fools in Congress to use Twitter. SO GUESS WHAT HAPPENED:

A delegation led by House Minority Leader John A. Boehner , R-Ohio, arrived in Iraq earlier today, and because of Rep. Peter Hoekstra , R-Mich., the entire world -- or at least Twitter.com readers--now know they're there.

"Just landed in Baghdad," messaged Hoekstra, a former chairman of the Intelligence panel and now the ranking member, who is routinely entrusted to keep some of the nation's most closely guarded secrets.

Before the delegation left Washington, they were advised to keep the trip to themselves for security reasons. A few media outlets, including Congressional Quarterly, learned about it, but agreed not to disclose anything until the delegation had left Iraq.

Nobody expected, though, that a lawmaker with such an extensive national security background would be the first to break the silence. And in such a big way.

Not only did Hoekstra reveal the existence of the lawmakers' trip, but included details about their itinerary in updates posted every few hours on his Twitter page, until he suddenly stopped, for some reason, on Friday morning.

Word fail. One hundred and forty words fail.

Comments

[adamson]

Former chairman of the INTELLIGENCE panel!

You would think that he wouldn't do this... but there's always a new low for Republicans.

[Paxhope]

Doh!

[OneVoiceOfReason]

Ah, no big deal...it's not like a truck...it's a series of tubes

[deepfreezevideo]

He mistakenly thought he was tweeting on "thuh innernets" instead of THE INTERNET.

[steveinohio]

Be nice...he graduated from the Geraldo Rivera school of secrecy.

[lapdogs]

Guess Hoekstra forgot what HE WROTE back in 2006

Leaking Away Our National Security
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=AF7D2DA9-D2C7-4230-824D-0536B6B404F9

[NoSillyName]

Just another example of republican hypocrisy.

[MadJeffersonian]

If this had been a Democrat, the rethugs would demand he resign and be tried for treason.

[blkbtrfly1]

Yep. So...What are we waiting for?

[MadJeffersonian]

I don't know...an uncompromised Justice Department?

[Tenebrae]

I live in Hoekstra's district. It's VERY conservative, so the best chance of getting him out of office, unfortunately, is to have him defeated in the GOP primary rather than the general election. More unfortunate, he was just re-elected this fall, so it's a long time until then and people will most likely have forgotten. So aggravating.. Grrrrrr.

[ObjectiveRealist]

Looks like a good place for a Ron Paul conservative. Please, for the love of democracy and the Constitution, select one who you know will oppose the next war for corporate profit.

[ReealOne]

I can hear them now..... "was that wrong?" Because I can say categorically, that I didn't know.

[okjoel]

Way to go Pete! If I'm not mistaken this kind of breach is a crime. By the way...one of Rep Hoekstra's constituents is Eric Prince of Blackwater.

[LREKing]

Just him and 48,000,000 of his best friends. Honestly, these guys are so clueless.

[sueinmn]

I would hoe seeing he is a ranking member of the intelligence panel,
Maybe it's time to remove him.

Correction: REMOVE HIM NOW..........!

[ena]

Arseh@@les the lot of them.

[DrBillo1]

this half-baked congressman wants to run for Governor of Michigan--he can not be trusted with anything - he is a supporter of Blackwater and all extreme right wing projects--

[Fromageball]

more proof that most republicans should never be allowed anywhere near The Internets/The Google/etc.