From CNN:
A U.S. official told CNN on Monday that the CIA officer fired for leaking classified information was accused of a “pattern of behavior,” including multiple contacts with more than one reporter.
Sources also confirmed to CNN that the officer fired last Thursday is Mary O. McCarthy, who last worked in the CIA inspector general’s office.
“It’s not just about one story, it’s a pattern of activity,” the official said.
Officials said the investigation into leaking to Dana Priest of The Washington Post, and other journalists, is ongoing. “It is not over yet,” said one.
McCarthy admitted to multiple unauthorized contacts with journalists after failing a polygraph test, one of “dozens” conducted at the CIA since January of personnel knowledgeable about compromised programs, sources said. Those who took polygraph tests included CIA Director Porter Goss and the agency’s inspector general, John Helgerson, according to U.S. intelligence officials.
A congressional aide said that prior to the public revelation that a CIA employee had been fired, the intelligence committees were only told the person was a 61-year-old female in the inspector general’s office.
Two congressional aides—one Democratic, one Republican—both told CNN they knew of no attempt by McCarthy to speak to intelligence committee members about any concerns about CIA activities.
Macsmind, who has been following the Plame / Libby affair closely and sees a connection between the ginned up media and Congressional Democrat outrage in that case and this more substantive case of national security breaches, opines:
[…] the Plame Game wasn’t about anything else except to shut down and discredit the Bush Administration—from Day One. An elaborate apparatus of politicians, staffers, and MSM reporters, have conspired for the last five years to attack President Bush.
Mary is only the beginning—the four from the NSC [making 5 former Clinton staffers]—only a small group of a total cabal of others still in operation. Mary’s discovery is a real setback and could spell doom not only for the careers of many still working in the NSC, FBI, CIA, but also in the Senate, House.
I still think we need to proceed with caution here, but CNN’s report suggests—to me, at least—that perhaps a few media outlets are sensing a large scandal is about to break, and that Mary McCarthy’s is the wrong horse to back, early media attempts to either minimize the importance of the story or to paint McCarthy as a victim and a brave whistleblower (which she is not, either legally or ethically) notwithstanding.
Instead, it is beginning to look as though Ms McCarthy may (and I can’t stress that enough) have been part of a larger intentional and orchestrated effort to try to damage the Bush administration—and that the MSM, with a few predictable exceptions, are going to have to hold their noses and dive in, or else risk being scooped by more conservative media outlets (and come out looking as if they are trying to bury an important story).
Which, if this turns out to be the case—and in light of the CNN report—the Corner’s Andrew McCarthy will seem positively prescient:
[…] McCarthy’s situation cannot be considered in a vacuum. Even with McCarthy considered alone, we are not talking about a single leak – the reporting indicates that she may be a serial leaker, the black-sites story being only the most prominent instance. But the broader context here is an intelligence community that was, quite brazenly, leaking in a manner designed to topple a sitting president. A big question here—maybe not for purposes of guilt under the espionage act, but for the more important policy issue of a politicized CIA—is whether she was part of a campaign that was grossly inappropriate for the intelligence community to engage in.
[…]
Valerie Plame Wilson thought the whole Bush administration notion that Saddam was trying to arm up with nukes was crazy. She maneuvered to have, not an objective analyst, but her husband – with no WMD expertise but an enemy of the president’s policy – sent to Niger, whence he returned and wrote a highly partisan, misleading and damaging op-ed in the NYTimes about the Bush administration’s case for toppling Saddam … which op-ed he was permitted by the self-same CIA to write notwithstanding that his trip was (and should have been) classified.
All the while, there has been a steady drumbeat from the former intelligence officers –- who anonymously fill Seymour Hersh books when they are not venting their spleens on the record -– attacking every aspect of the administration’s handling of the war on terror.
This has all been steady since 9/11. But it was especially frenetic in the run-up to the 2004 election (and the flavor of it ran throughout the 9/11 Commission hearings and, to a somewhat more muted extent, in the Commission’s final report). The transparent purpose of it was to get Senator Kerry elected.
Now we find that an intelligence officer who was leaking information very damaging to Bush was a Kerry backer to a degree that was extraordinary for a single person on a government salary, and, even more extraordinarily, gave $5K of her own money to Democrats in the key swing state (Ohio) that, in the end, did actually decide the election.
From where I sit, that’s pretty damn relevant.
I agree that we need to keep the pressure turned up on this story. But again, I also think we need to remain careful not to overstate any connections or conspiracies unless and until more information becomes available.
The CNN report notes that “McCarthy admitted to multiple unauthorized contacts with journalists,” and that the investigation is “ongoing.”
Will McCarthy be prosecuted? Well, that remains to be seen—though if this does go beyond a single serial leaker and turns in to a provable conspiracy thanks to her cooperation, she might avoid being prosecuted in exchange for her testimony against bigger fish.
At any rate, this is worth following closely; and we’ll soon see if other typically liberal mainstream media outlets follow CNN’s lead and begin seriously investigating just how and if this story extends deeper into the CIA and perhaps even the House and Senate.
(h/t AJ Strata, who has more)
Until someone can give me a reasonable explanation as to how Joey Plame got clearance to write a NYT OpEd about his CIA trip to Niger, I can’t possibly draw any other conclusion. If Mary starts singing, that’s just corroborating evidence.
Ah, finally, the Vast Left Wing Conspiracy. And unlike the VRWC, it actually is a conspiracy. Soon we’ll find that Cindy Sheehan was created at Ft. Dederick.
– If CNN no less, is really taking the lead on opening this up, I can only think its vendictive jealousy because McCarthy never gave them anything juicy.
– A couple of possible small “red lights” is the use of the words “program(s)” and reporter(s) in the various responses.
– One possible thing to watch for is which publications seem to be unable to find any space on their pages for the story, or persist in the “circle-the-wagons” defense approach.
– Everyone with a working brain cell knows what was at the bottom of the Rather mess, and its initials ryhme with “DNC”. That wasn’t pursued in the interests of not destroying the entire political process in the middle of an election cycle. No such limitation exists in this case.
– If the left isn’t sweating bullets already they should be. “PrisonGate” on the scale of the Nixon years, just before the fall elections, could be the desaster of the century for the Democrats.
So on top of leaking state secrets, she lied to the brass when asked about it? My money says she finds a home working on John F’ing Kerry’s next campaign with a resume like that.
Its an odd administration that can be damaged when people find out what its up to.
Off with her head!
Ms. McCarthy obviously forgot to wear her Sandy Berger Super Stretch Waistband Underwear.
It’s impervious to polygraph and other investigative tools and tactics. And it helps lighten the burden of full hands at times as well.
Too late now.
– Actually I like “LeakGate” better… Has a certain ring to it….Katrina like you might say…Flooding the “Low-Lying” area’s of the Demoratic “GetBush” bowl….
Its an odd administration that can be damaged when people find out what its up to.
Oral in the oval?
Damaging?
Odd?
Right on all counts, actus, my good ma..er…uh..
BBH, this fall? Idon’tthinkso don’tgetyourhopesup. If there’s one thing Democrats are good at it’s delay, denial and disruption. Even if Mary McCarthy is ever brought before a jury of her peers in a court of law, by then the President will be named Hillary and she will pardon her in a New York minute.
Or are you expecting a lot of leaks from the ongoing investigation of McCarthy? Now, that would sure make Porter Goss look bad!
tw: not likely
She won’t sing unless she’s arrested, as Sandy Berger was not. Unless and until the Justice Department shows the wonks they are not above the law, they will all shuffle off into highly paid think tank sinecures.
I’ve often wondered how one administration could leave highly placed officials of the opposition party in sensitive jobs. I guess it was assumed, apparently wrongly, that a high degree of professionalism implied a highly developed sense of honor.
And, no, I don’t think sneaking leaks to a comrade at the NYT while enjoying the perks of the job and the confidence of the executive branch constitutes “honor.”
The obligatory ”IGNORE ACTUS” comment is herewith posted. This particular comment by actus hits rock bottom in every regards…..and the poor lad has been digging furiously for sometime now. It ain’t worth the pixels, folks.
TW: moral. Geez, Jeff, the Turing software is getting sentient.
– Klrfz1 – The best we can tell shes caught flat footed. No out, no room, no excuse, and shes singing. Anyone inside the agency that tries to obstruct just gets sucked into the net. I’m guessing the only reason shes not already sitting in the greybar hotel is shes cut a deal. Since she was at the highest level of clearence, she probably knows where all the skeletons are buried, or at least most of them. There has to be some heavy sweating going on, because they generally give people a chance to volunterily come forward to mitigate their punishment before they drop the hammer. She kind of did that a little bit by fessing up to her examiner.
– Playing “juggle-the-truth” with a sympathetic partisan press is not the same as playing the same game inside the CIA, particularly when all the big guns are on the other side. My guess is any remaining cockroaches have already been identified and will be named shortly. The rest of the “cabal” will hide under their desks and go minimal profile for a long long time. Once a “fumigation” starts its lingers on for years. So the vaunted Democratic evasion machine is powerless to act in this case. It won’t work, and it would just get more people indicted.
– The Congressional connection is even more intriguing. If it moves up that far, we can start talking about the Democratic “Culture of treason”. That has a nice ring to it too.
Actus’ comment is revealing. He’s been very quiet about all this which shows a likely level of unhappy pondering. It takes 8 to 10 posts before he can dare to show his head. When he does, well, its actually more comforting to read his attempted tangent than to deal with a BS excuse for her behavior.
I say we ship her off to one of those secret prisons and get all of the info we can out of her.
Just a thought.
I’m sure it wouldn’t have done FDR’s administration any harm for the Japanese to know that we were routinely breaking their codes.
It will be interesting to see all the logical pretzels that people twist explaning how THIS leak (a real leak) is so, so much worse that the leak of super-secret super agent Plame (not really so secret) by the evil Emperor Bush.
Err, “more noble” not “much worse”…
BBH
I hope you are right, especially about finding evidence to use against some congressional Democrats. I believe there needs to be some negative consequence for their “anything goes” culture. Unfortunately most remaining Democratic voters don’t care what their elected representatives do as long as the money keeps flowing.
– Hey Mr. Knox, lets play a game.
– Whats that Mr. Fox, as long as its not lame.
– actus you know, always evades. Lets try to guess, the next post he parades.
– After you Mr. Fox, sounds like some fun.
– Ok Mr. Knox, I’ll type, you load the gun.
actus: “An administration with nothing to hide has no need for codes”
Really? I been posting on her since the beggining. Like the rest of us, i’m finding the info to come out in a trickle.
Well, some of us don’t confuse administrations with the countries they run. I rather think that FDR’s popularity would increase if someone leaked that. But the country would suffer, of course.
Circling the wagons:
A former colleague says the fired Mary McCarthy ‘categorically denies’ being the source of the leak on agency renditions.
This thing we love, transparency
We need it for Democracy!
On Thursday, Tuesday, Sunday too!
We need a plan to see right through.
the way this works…
anyone that gets “read into” a program gets on a list in some security officer’s mosler safe.
need-to-know an’ all that.
If a program is compromised, all they do is go down the list and poly everyone with access.
Consider the list of people with access to the NSA “wire tapping” program. They are going down that list right now.
Another way someone could be caught is periodic clearance updates requiring a poly.
– Hmm. What a novel idea. Using the press to get out the CYA, and in this case finding someone to testify for you. I’m sure it will catch on. ‘cept next time it might have more impact if they do it BEFORE she confesses.
– The Dems need the “little king” to give them some “pillage, THEN burn” Rodney, the nimble knight, lessons.
– Watching the Dembulbs heads smoking, and their lame efforts to spin this, is going to be mondo entertaining. Somebody make some popcorn.
…that former colleague being a former national security advisor to the Kerry campaign (perhaps Sandy Burglar’s replacement?).
More interesting is a fairly long discussion of how McCarthy’s failed polygraph, and any admissions made in connection with it, will be inadmissable in a criminal trial.
The story also casts doubt on whether it was the Dana Priest story that McCarthy leaked.
– The polygraphs are not. The admissions very definately are. So thats the opening round of “bullshit for the rubes” in whatever upcoming legal battle the asshats are hoping for. Problem is, its pretty clear shes already “in the bag”, so at this point their biggest worry is collateral damge, depending on how much she spills for immunity. They’re already whistling past the cemetary. Most of these press-aided tactics will just make them look stupid as the story comes out. But hey. They gotta try something.
This will be the umpteenth time this type of scandle gets washed away. It started with the removal of the ‘W’ keys at the White House…
There are never consequences for these people. The ‘glow we cannot see’ protects them from felony prosecution.
I keep thinking truth and justice will prevail. Not in these times.
I don’t envy the stress this poor woman has in her life right now. She has some really horrible choices ahead of her. Such as: should she go with Richard Clarke’s publisher or Joe Wilson’s?
Mary O. McCarthy. Leaks. Milk Of Magnesia. Coincidence? I think not.
I LOLLED
Document procurer Lucy Ramirez is still unavailable for comment.
Mary, Mary, quite idiotary…
See how your leaks grow and grow…
With tin-foil hats, howling moonbats…
because of that evil Karl Rove…
I WILL MAKE THIS EASY FOR YOU ALL
SHOOT HER !!
Wait
get me my gun…
round up everyone at CNN
Mmmm, yeah, not really in to mass murder, JP.
Thanks though!
The Neocon crowd, insufferably proud….
with they’re morals and scriptures be damn…
We’re elitist and brave, no laws to behave…
We prefer dear Jihadist Islam….
Good idea, but not until she names all of her co-conspirators.
Don’t crush that dwarf, hand me the pliers.
They’ll call you the names, a traitor profane…
To us you’re our hero, dear Mary….
To us theres no shame, we’ll hail to your name….
and follow our leader, John Wilkes Kerry….
It scares me how the MSM and the DNC are spinning this. I mean, Bush only won by three million votes. What does that say for American “acumen”?
Sorry, but these people really scare me. It’s like beating your head against a brick wall. Reality remains elusive…
– The dwarf ate the pliers McGehee, you’ll have to make do with the chainsaw and cattle prod….
And they call themselves “the reality based community.” I wonder in which reality it is that leaking classified information is OK?
Ah, the reality of a Republican administration, that must be it!!
Excellent: “culture of corruption” meets “pattern of behavior!”
Let the best meme win!
THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!!
I think she shot Vince Foster.
Doubtful. We would have heard about it, otherwise.
Seems Mary can’t keep her yap shut.
Dear Jeff,
I politely request that you increase your blogput. I find your posts reasonable and intriguing but then I come to a single actus post and the ignorance positively rings in the ears.
I find I be mas dumbber every time I come to his sections. Please, give JP his IP address so we can have law-grade* gay brazilian gumbo and be done with it.
*Fit only for consumption by the military and prison populations.
– Those thumbscrews can really grab your attention Jeff.
Daniel Ellsberg might have some answers.
Over and over again, millions of watts streaming over flyover country announcing it. “here it is ladies and gentlemen.” with paper ruffling noises.
Vercingetorix, could you hold off awhile in the interests of science? I’m working on a grant application to study my theory of the origins of actus. It involves a clump of burned out brain cells shed by Ted Kennedy in a shaking fit of the DTs being struck by lightning in a DC gutter.
TW=expect. As in I expect to get a huge sum of cash for this investigation.
Ill save you the time and effort: subgenius level acid casualty gets into law school.
Comparisons to Daniel Ellsberg are among the most dishonest comparisons imaginable. The Pentagon Papers were classified, but had little to no operational intelligence value – being by and large classified copies of diplomatic correspondance, obsolete strategy memos and such. The stories about the CIA transport of detainees through Europe included information about the charter aircraft themselves.
If one drew a scale with the Pentagon Papers on one end and the Rosenbergs on the other, these leaks are closer to the latter than the former.
And has crazy adventures!!! Oh, look! Who better to edumakate ReichWingers on courage than a gay (courage: check) minority (everyday is another day in Jim Crow South. Courage: check) law student (proud guaranter of the Republic. Courage: check)!
To paraphrase a notional Marine Colonel, duty and courage are punch lines at a cocktail party to the metrosexual croud.
PS. Oh, maybe someone should ask, say a lawyer, about confidences. Major John, could YOU violate a lawyer-client trust without being disbarred, probable civil sanctions, and maybe even criminal sanctions?
Wouldn’t we all call the lawyer who incriminates his client’s guilt, courageous? Even if it destroyed the prosecution of that said client?
Odd, that. Do they cover that in the last semesters?
>Over and over again, millions of watts streaming over flyover country announcing it. “here it is ladies and gentlemen.†with paper ruffling noises.<
Because everyone knows that those “people” in “flyover country” are dumb as a box of rocks.
actus really sounds down tonight. Hes not his usual happy go lucky self. “Flyover country”? Where did that come from? You having nightmares of waking up in an Austin gay line dancing bar in your undies again actus?
I think they were top secret. I have no idea how that ranks in the classification scheme. But Rosenbergs! Red bastards sold out the bomb.
But the idea is that it is possible to be reality based and leak classified information.
And the ultimate reality basis is when you are called to account for having been a weasel-sucking f-head. Meanwhile, we’re fed this line of crap that it’s patriotic for some IG middle manager to leak classified materials, which may or may not have been sting BS, on her own volition, and it’s an act of heroism, but when the POTUS decides to declassify it in order to set the record straight after suffering the libels of the moronic Joe Wilson, it’s a violation of the rules. Just how far up your ass is your head stuffed, actus primus?
– Yeh see actus. Now you’re catching on. We have secrets we need to keep for our country’s security, and well, we trust people, people who sign pledges of honor and stuff, people who say they love America, and we trust them not to rat out those secrets. And gee garsh, if they do, its not a good thing. It tends to help our enemies and bad thingies can happen. People can get hurt a lot, maybe even dead a lot. See how it works.
– An an, when someone does that we get a little upset, and maybe even throw them in jail, cause they did a really bad thing. Now eat your spinach.
Actus primus–
I see. So, it’s all right for a weasel-sucking IG middle manager to decide what Secret Documents (whether they’re sting BS or not) ought to be leaked to the public, and that is an act of heroism. But when the POTUS declassifies documents to demonstrate that lyin’ Joe Wilson is full of shite, that demonstrates that he’s a vindictive bastard who sets himself above the law, right?
Where was I a gay minority? On the internetland!
I preferred my flyover experiences in new mexico over austin.
Oh I don’t know if she did right. I dont’ even know the full details of what she leaked. Hopefully we’ll have a big ole trial where we air all of this out. But for me, the inquiry doesn’t end at it being classified. It begins there.
I just think there are bigger things than country. Must be my catholic upbringing.
Oh good grief….I think he got off on that….. ewwwwwww…
TW: Someday actus will be united with his brain cell, and the world will be even less safe….
Yeah, well, I’m Catholic, too, big boy, and I believe that when you sign on that dotted line to uphold the Constitution and all that crap, then you’d better understand that Caesar gets his due. What we’re talking about here is, as you perceive, the truth. You may choose to violate your oath to the country, you may choose, as did Thomas More, to follow your conscience. And all plaudits to those who do. But if you do, you ought to conscientiously understand that you are liable to pay the price. Sandy Berger didn’t. Perhaps sedition comes cheap these days. I don’t know. But I do know that I hope MOM is prosecuted to the full extent of the law, if only to demonstrate her deep conviction over what she’s done.
I have the feeling, though, that when all is said and done in this instance, the thing that is more important than the country will turn out to be the DNC.
I think that was supposed to be snark. Of course, I’m Ukrainian. So go fuck yourself if you think the Soviet butchers should have had the bomb, or downplay it.
Russian butchers, Vietnamese butchers, Chinese butchers, Saddam’s butchers, Islamist butchers, Iranian neo-Nazis, is there any butchers whose gay cock pron of lies doesn’t slide comfortably near your tonsils, actus?
Yes. And pontius pilate too. But I’m not catholic, and I think that has to do with my catholic upbringing too.
I’m saying i’d much prefer if we all had the pentagon papers. And same with us all being able to have some accountability for this admin. How that approaches the red bomb, I don’t know.
Pure weasel troll.
>Yes. And pontius pilate too. But I’m not catholic, and I think that has to do with my catholic upbringing too.<
And what of the Christ who said that his kingdom was not of this world, when ambitious men such as Judas believed that he ought to set himself up as a temporal ruler? I know a guy who at age 45 feels that his troubles stem from his not having been breast-fed. Get over it, dude.
So you think that your Catholic upbringing has run interference against Caesar, but you repudiate that upbringing? Ave, Howard Dean!
I’m not going to say that you suck, but by and large, people who think as you do do suck. How does it feel to be so sucky?
repudiate? That must have been aroudn the time that I said “enough” between first communion and confirmation.
actus…. just say 50,000 hail Mary’s and call the DA in the morning…. you’ll feel better about yourself….
Then I assume that you had the gumption to bail out before Confirmation. Honestly, a lot of the Catechism occurs at that time. So, did you find it in your heart somehow to vote for John Kerry, despite his nominal Catholicism?
You know, I’m starting to warm to actus. Sure, he’s a fuck-tard but he’s our little fuck-tard.
Is this a sign of some kind of inverse-Stockholm-by-proxy syndrome I’ve got?
Whats the problem with voting for catholics?
We need to face the fact that we have a new Copperhead faction in the Democratic Party as bad as the one that plagued the Union during the Civil War, if not worse. The question becomes, what do we do about it?
Forget the fact that Actus has, for the umpteenth time, achieved some success in making this thread about him. He does that, okay, fine, good, check.
But he just made light of someone passing atomic secrets to Stalin. Hey, never mind the obligatory snark ignoring the Venona Decrypts, the evidence of Soviet archives, even the fact that the Rosenberg’s KGB controller was identified.
He made light of someone passing atomic secrets to Stalin.
actually, the point depends on the seriousness of that.
Well see actually actus doesn’t really hijack a thread as much as he lays these squishy little fly eggs all over everything. So people just naturally start toying and then pulling at his wings…and then one thing leads to another…. well you know….. he just keeps coming back for more…..
He made light of someone passing atomic secrets to Stalin.
Hey, what’s the problem with voting for someone who passed atomic secrets to Stalin? It’s not like their proxies told the truth about “Catholic” John Kerry’s service in Vietnam.
The mind just positively shrugs, doesn’t it?
You guys engaging Anus, uh, I mean Actus, got a headache yet? No? Just keep banging your head against that stone wall, it’ll come.
TW:Death, I kid you not.
Tail-chasing with actus. Wheeee, round and round. The tail staying firmly attached to the…
Meanwhile.
A quick read of Dana Priest’s PP winner turns up according to 10 times, followed as closely by “intelligence officials” “current or former” as actus rebuttals to actus comments.
Parliaments in Canada, Italy, France…opened inquiries… Hmmmm. That was nearly a year ago.
“The black-site program was approved by a small circle of White House and Justice Department lawyers and officials.” A cabal! I like that word better! “Circle” lacks fire.
The oddest paragraph with the oddest sentence at its end:
Not even going to work at the meaning there. May need a CIA official for it.
Actually, none of this is worth dicing and slicing. Which is not to say that it isn’t worth examining.
The ones who need to break it down are the ones who wrote it.
It could be laundry time! Hang it up and ‘splain it and throw the laundry baskets away!
Actually, if I were going to plant a little nefarious tidbit to tag a leaker that nugget might be it.
And actually also, I agree with JG that it’s good to be cautious; but it does no harm to ask questions. There are no stupid questions…no, wait…
– One thing has occured to me thats bothersome. What if the agency decides to simply fire all these people “en masque’”, and never reveal the details of their actual acts or any of the story behind it, including the projected past damage they’ve done, or their inter-relationships if it was indeed a get Bush cabal like so many people believe?
Lee–
Headache? No. I dedicate to this all the seriousness it deserves: none at all. I just like tweaking assholes. Prolly deserve a third degree sexual assault charge.
Mary, mary, where you goin’ to?
Mary, mary, who else will go too?
This one thing we will vow ya,
We’ll fight the media tryin’ to save ya.
Mary, mary, where you goin’ to?
Will the Post and their reporter (sic) send the awards back? It’s evident the post did no investigation and only copied leaked (by a traitor) CIA data as a news story on the hidden prisons, which no one has been able to locate. Does the post story (and that’s what it was, a story) qualify as an investigative report?
Not so much shrugs, Verc, as freezes in sheer, horrified, disbelief.
Shock isn’t a strong enough word here. You ask yourself, “Did he just….” and the answer is “Yes, he did.”
Actus will backpeddle now, of course; his 10:32 post marks the first sign of that. But that doesn’t erase the jaw-dropping, abysmal reality of what he did. It can’t even come close.
I thought 9:53 clarified things enough.
The Europeans tell us they can’t find the secret prisons! its becaue they’re not there!
Then whats the Pulitzer for… “Best journalistic note reading in fiction piece”?
– They’re sewing the seeds of their own fall from grace. at some point no one will care if they win one or not. It won’t mean anything.
I just like tweaking assholes.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Just try and restrain yourself before you lobby your state rep to marry it.
Of course it’s fine, if not right, to fire her, and possibly prosecute her.
Of course the president has the right to declassify material.
None of this means it’s good to set the precedent that it’s perfectly fine to selectively declassify info that is politically helpful and selectively prosecute leaks that are politically damaging.
I have no problem working over REAL terrorists in secret detention facilities, and I do think that they may be a necessary tool, but Perfection is impossible and the CIA DOES apprehend some innocent “suspected terrorist” as well as real ones. That german guy got nabbed because he had the same name as a wanted terrorist – they ordered him bagged without double-checking and worked him over until they realised he wasn’t just bullshitting them to stop the pain. Its one thing to use torture on the extreme cases but when you make it routine it always spills over onto the innocent.
Congress should put themselves on the record with this one, as they did with Murtha.
Call a vote on a declaration calling for there to be no consequences for unapproved release of classified information. Better yet, call for there to be an open government ala actus– no classified information at all.
See where they stand.
There is nothing inherently wrong with selective declassification for political gain. The government selectivly releases all manner of information on a routine basis. That this process may be politicized is not earth shattering. The process of declassification effectively means that the information no longer need be kept secret. Only if the declassification actually harms the nation by unmasking something that should remain secret would such acts be considered wrong. It is conceivable that those entrusted to decide what is best kept secret may fail to do so prudently, but that is why elections are held.
Leaks are not prosecuted because they are politically damaging, they are prosecuted because they are violations of the law. They are violations of the law because they represent individuals usurping the lawful authority of their government. If political advantage stems from prosecuting a leak it is likely due to the fact that the leak was done for political gain in the first place.
As you note, routine is different than political gain.
I’d say the decisions should be considered wrong on the other end to: if they decide to keep classified things which wouldn’t harm the nation if released.
Retarded. Telephone. Pole.
(I shoulda figured out a way to copyright that.)
So reality based hypocritical ex-Catholics get to pick and choose “which laws to obey”? Along with journalists and Democrat supporting CIA officers, I mean.
Rule #1: Anything goes! Right?
As we all know too well, the ‘cons only tolerate leaks that serve their political aims, and exposing their crimes won’t do much for the Chimperor’s 32% approval rating. His worshippers, naturally, wouldn’t care if their Chimperor was caught in bed with His Pet Goat, but Americans are seeing the light.
JollyRogered,
You hate the president because he won’t let you legally marry your cousin Buford – and that’s okay.
But who do you blame for your one-dimensional non-writing style? You were a Teletubbies child weren’t you?
Alp–
C’mon. Next thing you’ll be blaming the Teletubbies for his sexual orientation. I know he does.
Isn’t the notion of worshipping political leaders awfully communist? Maybe JollyRoger is North Korean or something. ‘Course, they’d just shoot the likes of McCarthy.
{{guys, I am bilingual, and I know a little liberalese. I’m going to pepper my response with a few of these foreign phrases}}
Jolly Roger- This no leaking policy, it’s like a zero tolerance policy. Bush is the principal, and the other people are like the students. Bush says, “You bring a knife to school and you will be suspended. Even if it’s a cakeknife”. Of course, the Principal can bring a knife to school.
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Jolly, did you think of “Chimperor” all by yourself? I bet you read it somewhere and thought you’d introduce it to us before one of the other drewlers beat you to it.
You kids and your neologisms. I tell ya.
Regardless, you’re going to have to register that one with the front office before we can officially add it to the KosKid lexicon.
Short phrases and slogans like that can’t be copyrighted.
Current reverends too. The point being, the fact that it violated the law isn’t the end of the discussion.
Oh, man…actus loves the Stalinist nuclear abettors AND compares McCarthy to Martin Luther King.
Actus is the gift that keeps on giving. Like genital warts.
The point being, the fact that it violated the law isn’t the end of the discussion.
For Mary O it is. She had a myriad of legal options if she sincerely wished to play the role of “whistleblower.”
But she wasn’t ever a “whistleblower”, just a crass Leftist mole more interested in feeding the self-anointed 4th branch of government who has decided for itself that IT, not the Executive branch, is the sole arbitrator of what is/is not legitimate classified information and HOW it will be used. 4th Branch disseminations of fake/fraudulent information by such as Joe Wilson are NEVER to be challenged, Executive branch disseminations of information are to be countered and portrayed as “unlawful” and “partisan” with shrill calls for impeachment.