Who Needs Enemies When You Have The Washington Post?

I don’t get it. I just don’t get it. How can a newspaper or a journalist get away with revealing to the world top secret, classified information that could be harmful to our operatives and our national security? I’ve been waiting on word for the last several days for the Washington Post to be brought up on treasonous charges. In the current political climate in America, who needs foreign enemies when you have outlets like the Washington Post to destroy your country from within?

“The State Department is bracing for a potentially explosive new feature on the Washington Post website that would publish the names and locations of agencies and firms conducting Top Secret work on behalf of the U.S. government, according to the copy of an email obtained by The Cable.

The Diplomatic Security Bureau at State sent out a notice Thursday to all department employees warning them to protect classified information and reject inquiries from the press when the new web feature goes live.

“The Washington Post plans to publish a website listing all agencies and contractors believed to conduct Top Secret work on behalf of the U.S. Government,” the notice reads. ”The website provides a graphic representation pinpointing the location of firms conducting Top Secret work, describing the type of work they perform, and identifying many facilities where such work is done.”

First, how could any journalist, editor or American news organization, in good conscience (assuming that they had one), make such a move towards exposing their own country’s operatives for the sake of a story?

Second, where is the complete and utter outrage from the rest of America upon news of this atrocity? Things are just strangely silent on the front.

Third, why aren’t other news outlets giving this the attention with which it deserves? As usual, the pot found in Paris Hilton’s purse, Lindsay Lohan’s court performances and jail time, and Mel Gibson’s rants are being treated as front page news, day after day, with constant hourly updates.

Fourth, why is the Executive Branch of this country not reacting with the seriousness with which this situation deserves and why are they merely giving a preemptive warning to these agencies?

The Washington Post is notorious for its lack of integrity towards this country’s national security. It was only a few years ago that they published another article by author Dana Priest that seriously undermined the security of this nation and later found to be dubious at best.

Accuracy In Media wrote an expose, connecting the dots on Dana Priest in May of 2006. Dana Priest wrote a Pulitzer Prize winning article several years back on the CIA’s “secret prisons” that she boasted on National Public Radio would be “an embarrassment for the Bush administration.” The Washington Post (yes, the same newspaper in question today) waited until it would do maximum damage to the administration and to our country’s national security to publish it. In fact, it was released the day before Condoleeza Rice was to have a crucial meeting with our European Allies over the War on Terror, damaging our credibility and straining our relations.

Yet, after several years of investigations by Europe and other countries, all of her prize-winning accusations have been proven unfounded with absolutely no evidence of any of these international facilities. Further, it turns out that the story had been originally reported and written as a group piece in 2002, without the spin, since these so called “secret prisons” actually started when President Clinton was in office.

In 2006 she regurgitated the story, refusing to cite her sources, making it sound as if it were brand new information that she just uncovered, an original Bush production and a huge scandal. And since the Pulitzer Prize conditions have fallen as low as the Nobel Peace Prize, that’s all it took to win.

Her source we found out later came from a leak by CIA Operative Mary McCartney who ” has been outed as a Democratic partisan who worked closely with members of the Clinton Administration and the John Kerry Campaign foreign policy team, including Sandy Burger, Richard Clarke, Rand Beers and Joe Wilson.”

Jennifer Verner, the author of the Accuracy in Media piece, does a great job at exploring her spousal ties and her obvious conflict of interest. Dana Priest is married to William Goodfellow, a radical left wing political activist and Executive Director for the Center of International Policy. Verner writes:

While Goodfellow has remained with CIP since the seventies, he has also maintained a relationship with the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS, a notorious Marxist-oriented think tank). Throughout its history CIP has lobbied for the weakening of the U.S. military through unilateral nuclear disarmament measures and opposition to vital weapons systems, constraining U.S. intelligence gathering capabilities, and appeasement of Marxist regimes around the globe.

All of this has been accomplished without any major media scrutiny…Yet not a single mainstream media outlet has examined the documented histories and hard connections of money and political interest shared by Dana Priest, William Goodfellow, Mary McCarthy, Joe Wilson, Fenton Communications, Melvin Goodman and other vocal enemies of the Bush Administration. These relationships cannot be chalked up to random “inside the beltway” webs of acquaintance. They pose obvious and deeply troubling questions for anyone who values a free and independent press. The evidence suggests that Priest is part of a Democratic Party influence operation designed not only to politically damage the Bush Administration but to subvert U.S. foreign policy.

The dots between Dana Priest, Goodfellow, the CIP and radical Marxism are frequent and the ties between them run sinister and deep. Identifying them and understanding them in tandem with this new story that is about to break is crucial to discovering the hidden intentions behind it. The men and women who put their own lives on the line for each of us every day are at stake, the national security of our nation is at stake and the war we are fighting on two fronts is at stake. How much of this will we continue to tolerate, America? When should these people be held accountable for their actions and exposed for who they are, along with their no-so-hidden agendas?

Some say these kinds of stories are published and broadcasted to sell more dryer sheets and peanut butter at commercial time. However, I believe it’s far more sinister than that given the ties, the relationships with radical left wing extremists and their ideological views and purposeful intents on doing their parts to neuter and undermine our military, our secret operatives and our national security. The Washington Post is either a part of this agenda, of which I have very little doubt, or they don’t mind pimping out their country to the highest bidder. Either one is beyond shameful.

** UPDATE 7/19/010 8AM: It was confirmed this morning that the author of the new 16 page article released through the Washington Post was, once again, none other than Dana Priest. This new article can only be considered within the light and the lack of truth and integrity of her last “award-winning” article…which today is reflective for what it is worth… the puppies pee-pad.

I think the right question to ask here is this... who is leaking this information to the press? Surely it has to be at individual or a group of people from inside the government who have privileged access to such information.

Why aren't these individuals tracked down and prosecuted?

Sounds naive. If you have an administration that is doing everything in its power to destroy this country as quickly as possible, how could you ever think its corrupt Justice dept. or any other dept. it controls would stop it. I am sure this has the private blessing of Obama.

Because it all has the stamp of approval from The Won. The Won who promised to fundamentally transform The United States of America.

transform = destroy

If this top secret group is so effective, why were they unable to stop the shooter at Fort Hood or the latest NYC bomber?

What I see is a secret service that will eventually be used against us. This IS big brother.

If you live around the DC area, you know where the TSSCI stuff is done, and probably who works there.

This isn’t hard to figure out. A huge building with 3 levels of guards to enter is a pretty clear indication of what is going on back there

There are huge signs on the GW Parkway for the “George Bush Center for Intelligence”

On 295 near the NSA at Ft Meade, huge signs that say “National Security Agency”

Most people around here have friends “in the business.”

Putting the pieces of the puzzle together isn’t an impossible task

"How can a newspaper or a journalist get away with revealing to the world top secret"

Like others are saying, where do journalists get "Top Secret" information anyway?

In the USAF I had only a "secret" clearance, and we didn't dare utter anything we knew to anyone that didn't have clearance and a "need to know". And especially not to a low-life journalist.

In Germany, we were briefed regularly about not being duped into answering questions from civilians when off-base, etc.

And now we have journalists who know "top secret" information...a big step above just "secret".

Why aren't these people under the hot lights of the CIA and FBI answering some questions? I'm not sure "freedom of information" acts cover National security secrets as long as they remain classified.

Top Secret clearances are handed out like candy these days.

Half of the contractors in the DC area have TS/SCI access.

This is a sad externality of the post 9/11 world..so many more resources devoted to fighting terrorism and so many more people employed by the federal government to do it, meaning that more people have TS/SCI access.

Its not hard for leaks to occur when the government has allowed this apparatus to grow out of control

For her first “award winning article” the information was leaked through CIA operative Mary McCartney... who has since been fired...but you can read my piece and follow the trail between her and the lefty liberal world and easily figure out the motivations behind it all.

Liberal/communist/marxist motivations are one thing

However, as conservatives, shouldn’t we ask ourselves why our intelligence agencies are no longer staffed with people that care for the mission, but now have people who are in it for the pay check only, careerism, terrible leadership, are paid far too much for too little in results, and are now a parasite to the American tax payer?

A generation ago our intel agencies did what they were supposed to do, now its just turned into a money pit.

Which is a shame, because there are many fine people in the IC who want to do a damn good job. However the multi level bueracracy, and just imbeciles in management make it much harder, and far far more expensive, then it needs to be.

“If you live around the DC area, you know where the TSSCI stuff is done, and probably who works there.”

That’s not what this is about. If the previews are correct, the Post is going to reveal the private sector companies that do contract work for the intel agencies, not the agencies themselves (which, as you point out, are already well-known). Most of these private companies love the money they get from contracts, but don’t want it to be known that they are doing the work as it might enganger their civilian business in the US and abroad. Because I’ll bet that in lots of cases, the intel work is a minor (though lucrative) part of their overall business.

There’s only one way of looking at this - someone wants to embarrass the private sector companies that do vital research and work, demonize them, and scare them into ending such work, to the detriment of national security.

LOL. Incorrect.

Look, everyone knows who the private sector companies are that do work in the IC. Its not hard to figure out at all.

Off the top of my head

CSC, General Dynamics, Booz Allen Hamilton, Northrup Grumman, Lockheed Martin, CACI, XE, LMI, ICF. And thats just off the top of my head

CSC drives around with vehicles that say “the business of intelligence”

Again, the amount of money wasted in the IC is downright embarrasing. As conservatives, we should be asking why we are wasting so much money, and why is there piss poor leadership in the IC. The most motivated are the ones whose ability to perform their work is being hindered by this giacantic community.

"Top Secret clearances are handed out like candy these days."

That's true. Back in the 60's when I go my secret clearance, they sent people to investigate me, talk to all my old friends, teachers, check criminal records, etc...and I was only 18, just out of high school.

It is extremely sad, you're right.

Here's my concern... these leaks have been happening since well before the 0bama regime took over.

Also, the press is simply doing what it is always been doing, reporting things. Naturally, something that is purported to be "top secret" will always end up on the front page. While we can wish that the media would take greater care in not reporting certain things, it cannot legally be compelled to do so.

The answer, IMO, is to find out where these leaks are coming from, not blaming the media for doing what it always does.

That is still done, for TS/SCI. And it is a long process.

However, there are just so many more people with TS/SCI clearances. There is a backlog of over 20,000 people waiting for their TS/SCI to come through.

Think of all the money that is spent investigating these people. The average TS/SCI investigation costs tax payers about 100k.

The question we need to be asking is why have we allowed the IC to become so big, when many of the people involved in the IC are simply overhead or “management” and contribute 0 to the mission.

The people who actually do the mission (in the case of the CIA the Operations Officers) are a very small part of the entire agency.

Why are we spending so much money on contractors, who bill out at 3 to 4 times the amount that an in house person does, and contributes far less then the person in house who is mission oriented

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