A surprising leak investigation

The Justice Department is investigating an alleged leak of classified information apart from the one involving Valerie Plame's CIA identity.

Why is this surprising?

It's surprising because the departments that comprise the judicial branch have considerable sympathy for those who damage the Bush administration--and leaking is one way to accomplish that task. Leaking classified information is illegal, however, so the technique carries some risk.

FBI agents searched the home of a former Justice Department lawyer last week in an effort to determine who leaked details of the warrantless eavesdropping program to the news media, Newsweek magazine reported yesterday, citing two anonymous legal sources.

The agents, who had obtained a classified search warrant, took Thomas Tamm's desktop computer, two laptops belonging to his children and some of Tamm's personal files, Newsweek reported.

(the Washington Post)

This leak was certainly more damaging to U.S. interests than sharing the open secret of Valerie Plame's employment.

I was puzzling over the term "classified search warrant." The term seems limited to this story in terms of Internet coverage, if Google is any indication.