What was Jay Rockefeller doing in 2002?

Apparently alerting certain Middle Eastern leaders that he was ‘sure’ President Bush planned to launch an attack on Iraq. Powerline has a transcript of an interview Fox News’ Chris Wallace did with the Senator. The quote in question (emphasis added):

SEN. ROCKEFELLER: No. The Γ’β‚¬β€œ I mean, this question is asked a thousand times and I’ll be happy to answer it a thousand times. I took a trip by myself in January of 2002 to Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria, and I told each of the heads of state that it was my view that George Bush had already made up his mind to go to war against Iraq Γ’β‚¬β€œ that that was a predetermined set course which had taken shape shortly after 9/11.

Just what on earth was he doing discussing sensitive US foreign policy with foreign leaders in the Middle East?

Hat tip to Captain Ed, who writes:

One of the readers that pointed out this passage to me, Mark H., notes that Rockefeller’s conversation with Bashar Assad may have given Saddam Hussein 14 months to collude on the transfer of WMD to Syria, rather than the 6 we assumed he got when Bush wasted five months trying to get the UN to enforce its own resolutions.

As Jay from Wizbang points out in the Captain’s comments section, this sounds like a possible violation of the Logan Act:

Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.

This section shall not abridge the right of a citizen to apply, himself or his agent, to any foreign government or the agents thereof for redress of any injury which he may have sustained from such government or any of its agents or subjects.

More via The Anchoress, Confederate Yankee, MacsMindIan at The Political Teen has a video of the interview.

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