Commodore makes an excellent point in the cyber attacks thread, and I think the issue, which has bothered me for some time, deserves its own thread. Unbelievable that the administration is leaking national security info to the NYTimes. People need to be prosecuted and thrown in prison for this crap (not the journalists, the leakers). I don't think anyone was ever prosecuted for the leaking of the bank tracking program or the warrant-less surveillance program. The difference here is I would bet the administration leaked this intentionally to spike the football, whereas those other instances the government specifically asked the Times not to print the story. As someone who possesses a security clearance, reading this makes me violently angry. The amount of time and effort and care we take to protect information, and this stuff just gets blabbed to the Times like its no big deal. We should have no knowledge of Stuxnet, zero. Ace likewise devotes a post to the issue, worth reading on its own, and now noted neocon scare mongers CNN have picked up the ball. details on the killing of Bin Laden, Stuxnet, the NK infiltration...we should not know any of this, and that we do not only endagers the lives of men and women in the field, it endagers our national security. that these leaks are being done by the administration, if not the president himself, is nothing short of treasonous.
You guys should all move to China or Syria. They really crack down on leaking state secrets. America has a long and rich history of whistle blowers. It is what makes America great because our government is supposed to be accountable to its people.
This is not whistle blowing, this is providing details of top secret operations to glorify the president, and boost his reelection prospects. It's scandalous.
At least the current administration is not cooking up false intel and leaking it to reporters as a pretext to go to war.
This wasn't whistleblowing, it was bragging about the success of the highly classified Stuxnet program. There is a mechanism for whistle blowing without revealing classified information. It's called the Office of the Inspector General. People with a security clearance don't have a right to decide when to violate it.
Kudos to basso for personal commentary in the OP! 5 sentences! these guys aren't whistle blowers. They're as leaky as the "analysts" the DoD paid news orgs to shill before and during the Iraq war. There are propaganda benefits out of these leaks considering how bad Afghanistan (bin Laden), Iraq and Iran (spy planes, diplomatic failures in stopping nuclear ascension) is going under public opinion. and knoWing its half the battle There's another thread started by Rhad about how the Obama admin is actively pursuing the prosecution of whistle blowers and even journalists even the blanket guise of national security. I'm on my phone right now. No link for you.
It’s time to stop “amateur hour at the White House.” -- OBAMA ADMINISTRATION: REMEMBER WHEN “TOP SECRET” ACTUALLY MEANT SOMETHING? POSTED BY MCQ • [JUNE 05, 2012] On the eve of the anniversary of D-Day, it isn’t difficult, given their record, to believe that if it was the Obama Administration in charge on that historic day, the Germans would have known all about it. In recent months, operations which we should frankly know nothing about, have been leaked by this administration. Most observers have come to the conclusion that the leaks are an attempt to paint a positive picture of Obama the Commander-in-Chief in what promises to be a bruising fight for re-election. The reason for such an attempt is the rest of the Obama record leaves much to be desired. Here, from Peter Brooks at the NY Post, is a litany of the leaks: It started with the Osama bin Laden takedown last May, in which operational and intelligence details found their way out of the White House Situation Room to the press in just a number of hours. In a slap at the leakers, then- Defense Secretary Bob Gates said, “We all agreed that we would not release any operational details from the effort to take out bin Laden . . . That all fell apart on Monday — the next day.” The situation was made worse by exposing the role a Pakistani doctor played in finding bin Laden. The doc is now going to jail for 30-some years — and the crafty inoculation program meant to get Osama’s DNA is blown. Earlier this year, info escaped about the busting of the plot to put an “underwear bomber” on a US-bound aircraft by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. While kudos go to the intel community for this fabulous counterterrorism op, it was revealed that the expected bomber was a double agent who’d penetrated AQAP. Now al Qaeda knows, too. Then, late last week, came a news story on “Stuxnet,” the tippy-top-secret US-Israel cyberassault on Iran’s uranium-enrichment plant at Natanz that’s been going on since the George W. Bush presidency. It’s terrific the cyberattack reportedly led to the destruction of some centrifuges used in Iran’s bomb program, but now the mullahs know for sure who was behind the operation. Moreover, dope on our highly successful drone program continues to ooze out. All of this has led to compromising networks, having an agent (the Pakistani doctor) arrested and jailed, and blowing other operations. It has also made it clear to our allies that sharing intel with the US is a risky business, especially if the outcome could help the political career of the incumbent president. Let’s be clear here – none of this should have leaked. None of it. A fairly terse announcement of fact that Osama bin Laden was confirmed dead should have been the extent of any sort of information released. That’s it. Instead operational details that should never have seen the light of day have been routinely released. Anyone with an ounce of sense knows you never, ever talk about methods and means. Yet both have been a part of these releases. This sort of behavior, for pure political gain, compromises our intel gathering capabilities and is likely to hurt future operations. We spend years trying to develop human intelligence networks and agents and in one fell swoop we compromise them (the double agent in Yemen and the doctor in Pakistan). Who is going to trust us now? "It's a pattern that goes back two years, starting with the Times Square bomber, where somebody in the federal government, probably the FBI, leaked his name before he was captured," said Rep. Pete King, the GOP chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. "That's why he tried to leave the country — he knew they were on to him." Calling the episode "amateur hour" at the White House, King said: "It puts our people at risk and gives information to the enemy." Amateurs are dangerous. Amateurs who leak classified information for political gain are even more dangerous. It’s time to stop “amateur hour at the White House.” ~McQ
Obama is purely a campaigner, and will stoop to shameful levels to use anything for his campaign benefit, including top secret military information. He's a COMPLETE failure and coward. Time for America to take out the trash in November.
You leaving the country? Just kidding. But seriously, the only trash is what's in the House of Representatives. White trash! haha. Just joking man. Seriously - give it up. You're jihad against Obama is tired and old and fake and full of lies.
Dims be pissed too. -- Senate Democrats blast national security leak on Iran cyberattack By Jeremy Herb - 06/05/12 08:46 PM ET Senate Democrats on Tuesday blasted leaks to the press about a cyberattack against Iran and warned the disclosure of President Obama’s order could put the United States at risk of a retaliatory strike. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Intelligence Committee, said the leak about the attack on Iran’s nuclear program could “to some extent” provide justification for copycat attacks against the United States. “This is like an avalanche. It is very detrimental and, candidly, I found it very concerning,” Feinstein said. “There’s no question that this kind of thing hurts our country.” The FBI opened its own probe Tuesday into who disclosed information on the Iranian attack, The Wall Street Journal reported. On Capitol Hill, the Senate Armed Service Committee promised hearings, while two Republican senators called for a special counsel investigation. Several Democrats noted with alarm that the Iranian cyber leak is just the latest in a series of media reports that disclosed classified information about U.S. anti-terrorism activity. “A number of those leaks, and others in the last months about drone activities and other activities, are frankly all against national-security interests,” said Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. “I think they’re dangerous, damaging, and whoever is doing that is not acting in the interest of the United States of America.” Feinstein and Kerry, however, rejected charges from Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) that the leaks were made deliberately in an attempt to boost President Obama’s reelection bid. Kerry “categorically” rejected the accusations that the leaks were coming from the White House for political purposes, saying that was “not close to reality.” Feinstein also said she did not think the information about the Iran attack came from the White House. “That’s hard for me to believe,” she said. A story in The New York Times last week revealed U.S. involvement with the Stuxnet worm, a computer virus that was used against an Iranian nuclear facility and caused centrifuges to explode. The story detailed joint U.S. and Israeli efforts to develop the virus as well as conversations Obama had with his advisers on whether to continue the program when the worm became public in 2010. The story cited unnamed current and former U.S., Israeli and European officials. The White House has denied that it was an authorized leak. McCain accused the White House of planting the story for political purposes, and on Tuesday joined with Intelligence Committee ranking member Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) in calling for a special counsel to investigate and prosecute whoever is responsible for the national-security leaks. “The only conceivable motive for such damaging and compromising leaks of classified information is that it makes the president look good,” said McCain, the ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee. “They are merely gratuitous and utterly self-serving.” McCain said Senate Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) has agreed to hold congressional hearings on the leaks. Other Republicans were more hesitant to attribute political motivations to the disclosures. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a McCain ally on the Armed Services Committee, said he didn’t know whether the leaks were campaign-related. “I’m glad that we have a targeted assassination program against terrorists trying to kill us all, but I’m not sure we need to read blow by blow how it’s done,” Graham said. “I cannot imagine this can continue much longer without seriously undermining our national security.” Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) said she hoped politics weren’t behind the leak, and that that was “a question that should be answered.” The story on the Stuxnet virus last week follows other media accounts of classified information, including reports on a double agent who helped the United States and its allies track down al Qaeda members in Yemen, an expanded U.S. drone program in Yemen and the Obama administration’s “kill list.” Republicans have accused the Obama administration of playing politics by granting two filmmakers access to CIA planners for a movie about the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. The conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch released emails last month that showed U.S. officials offering Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal access to CIA facility planners. Pentagon officials say that the filmmakers did not receive access to any officials connected with the bin Laden raid. Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) called for an independent investigation into the Iran leaks on Tuesday. “It’s beginning to sound repetitive,” Lieberman said, referring to previous leaks of classified information. Asked if he thought there was a political motive behind the latest incident, Lieberman told The Hill he couldn’t say. “The mere fact that people suspect it … means that it ought to be investigated,” he said. Levin said he didn’t know where the leaks came from, and downplayed the charges of political meddling. He said he has serious concerns about the cyberattack story going public, but isn’t concerned about it being used as justification for a cyberattack against the United States. “The nations that are going to attack us don’t need justification,” Levin said. http://thehill.com/blogs/defcon-hil...e-dems-blast-leaks-about-iranian-cyberattacks
Gates to Team Obama: STFU! http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs...tml?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
This IS a PR stunt, but I don't think in a spike the ball or "Mission Accomplished" kind of way. It's a way of addressing the AIPAC faithful and their fellow travellers on the "Obama isn't doing enough for Israel / enough about Iran" thing. It also takes away the presumptive swagger that the whole thing was an Israeli move because "Obama wasn't helping." And that he's somehow soft or indecisive on the Iran threat. The leak takes away a lot of the fuel from the "Let's bomb Tehran now before it's too late" crowd. It's also a pretty direct message to Iran that says the US has more in mind and is capable of more besides sanctions or an airstrike. In short...it's war propaganda, or psychological warfare or whatever you want to call it, and I wouldn't be surprised if the authors of it were CIA or Pentagon wonks rather than from the cabinet. I'd also add, that it sets itself apart from Israel, which has a policy of NEVER commenting on it's clandestine activities, which I think is not always the best way to go. If Obama really wanted to "spike the ball" he could have had a media parade in either the Bill Clinton or W kind of way, by either having a TV moment with the armed forces or having hoorah press conference. THAT would have been worthy of throwing tomatoes at him
Bipartisanship. -- Lawmakers blast White House over leaks Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill don’t agree on much these days, but they agree that the Obama administration has a serious problem with leaking classified information. And with national security in the balance, a group of congressional leaders says there’s an urgent need to get things back in line. “A special prosecutor can take years. We don’t have years. We need to legislate, and we need to do things quickly,” Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said Thursday at a press conference of chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate intelligence committees. The four legislators — Feinstein, Sen. Saxby Chambless (R-Ga.) and Reps. Mike Rogers (R-Mich) and Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.) — said they met Thursday morning with James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, and will receive a briefing from FBI Director Robert Mueller later in the day. But after a glut of stories about secret U.S. operations overseas – from an Associated Press reports of foiled Yemeni bomb plots to drone strikes in Pakistan to last week’s New York Times story confirming long-suspected U.S. involvement in development of the computer virus Stuxnet – they say it’s become clear that there’s a problem that the administration hasn’t been able to address on its own. Last month’s revelation by Judicial Watch that the White House, the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency allowed filmmakers unusual access to people involved in the planning and execution of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden has also caused concern. Rogers said the bipartisan presence spoke to the seriousness of the issue. Of the leaks, he said: “It seems to be a pattern that is growing worse and more frequent. … Their inability to keep a secret, this has been as serious a problem as I have seen.” Rogers also raised the possibility some of the leaks could be coming from the Justice Department of FBI. The Justice Department’s national security division has recused itself from part of the leak investigation, Rogers said. “It appears the sources of these leaks could be in a position to influence the investigations,” he said. Rogers later issued a “clarification statement,” saying he “did not intend to suggest” that just because the Justice Department’s national security division recused itself, the recent leaks emanated from Justice. A Justice official said that it is not uncommon for members of the department to recuse themselves from investigations to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest. That, the official said, does not suggest the person or department that recuses itself is culpable. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Thursday afternoon, White House press secretary Jay Carney said the president takes the leaks “very seriously,” and said the administration is taking “all appropriate and necessary steps to prevent leaks of classified information or sensitive information that could risk our counterterrorism operations.” Carney said Obama is committed to transparency, “but he is also president and commander-in-chief, and he will not countenance the leaking of classified information that can harm our men and women in uniform, harm Americans who work on our national security, harm counterterrorism operations.” Even with Feinstein’s call for a legislative response, Rogers still wants a special prosecutor to investigate the matter because, he said, a single investigator could find evidence of wrongdoing “within their chain of command.” “I believe this warrants a fair and complete investigation,” he said in an interview Thursday afternoon on CNN. “Someone who would be able to have access to all elements, not just the intelligence community, not just the Department of Defense, but all elements that had access to this information.” Carney said the president was not in favor of appointing a special prosecutor. The Hill press conference came hours after Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) took the opportunity of Attorney General Eric Holder’s previously scheduled appearance to testify on the Fast & Furious scandal before the House Judiciary Committee as to accuse his department – which has prosecuted an unprecedented number of prosecutions of alleged leaks of national security matters – of failing vigilance. Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0612/77171.html#ixzz1xEOqJ6nY
Politicians get so pissed at "leakings" but can't muster words about the unconstitutional treatment of Manning, and the show trial of Drake, who exposed the blatant disregard for the constitution that is prevalent in "national security"? Interesting. Looks like when you're full of s**t, you don't like it when others notice.
