CIA Fires Officer For Leaking Classified Information to Media

Fox News ^ | April 21, 2006

[Howlin]

Just breaking on Fox...

No details, but the agent was caught dead to rights leaking....

Update: CIA Officer Fired for Leaking Classified Info to Media

WASHINGTON — A CIA officer has been relieved of his duty after being caught leaking classified information to the media.

CIA officials will not reveal the officer's name, assignment, or the information that was leaked. The firing is a highly unusual move, although there has been an ongoing investigation into leaks in the CIA.

One official called this a "damaging leak" that deals with operational information and said the fired officer "knowingly and willfully" leaked the information to the media and "was caught."

Excerpt.

[STARWISE]

Talk about the heightened state of ambivalence, huh? I'm so happy .. I'm scared ####less.

[Mo1]

It is possible Fitzgerald may still indict Rove and these investigations being done against the CIA will give Libby and Rove a great defense, that they were trying to set straight information coming out of the CIA that was not true and trying to undermine Bush from a bunch of rogue agents!

That would be a stupid move on Fitz' part .. he is already on thin ice with the charges against Libby

Though ... it would be interesting if Fitz got caught up in this though

Wasn't it reported that his evidence to the grand jury regarding Libby was an article that was reported in the papers?

ok ok .. I'm doing wishful thinking again ..

Back to reality

[strategofr]

"GOSS IS THE MAN .. ABSOLUTELY !! God protect he and his family ... I'm sure he's a marked man."

Good points. We all need to start looking out for each other a little better, as best we can.

[popdonnelly]

I'll bet the Democrats in the news media - and that's most of the news media - never saw this day coming. I don't think they ever believed an Administration would mean what it said about leaks. I mean, things are never done that way in Washington. The news media has free rein. This should really be good. I'm going to put on some popcorn.

[Mo1]

ABC ???

Wow .. I wouldn't have thought if them

[onyx]

I read it's ABC.

[mass55th]

"EU official: No evidence of illegal CIA action "

One way to find a leaker is to provide false classified info to certain people and then see what happens. The dope may have been set up.

I wonder how the reporter who wrote the prison story feels about the possibility that her story was gleaned from false info. And, I wonder how she feels knowing that the person who provided her with that info is probably going to be charged. I hope it comes out that the story was a hoax and that the Pulitzer Prize is taken back.

[bert]

...If it was the "secret prison" story, and it was found to be false, then maybe it was a sting operation by the CIA?
...

Good thinkin. The other story of the day would tend to validate the thought.

[onyx]

Right!
Guilt already admitted and now it's time to save his arse as best he can.
Let the info flow.

[STARWISE]

Great minds ... (and working ears .. ;)

[ordi]

That is why they dislike Bush so much. He means what he says and says what he means.

[jrooney]

Actually you are right there. Fitz used stories from the New York Times and WAPO, I believe, as pieces of evidence to the grand jury! Unbelievable! He used reporters stories that have very little fact in them and allot of liberal conjecture to indict Libby.

[Suzy Quzy]

Why will Bill Bennett be tickled pink?

[gov_bean_ counter]

From the CIA internet site...

Inspector General (OIG)
The Office of Inspector General (OIG) promotes efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability in the administration of Agency activities. OIG also seeks to prevent and detect fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement. The Inspector General is nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate. The Inspector General, whose activities are independent of those of any other component in the Agency, reports directly to the D/CIA. OIG conducts inspections, investigations, and audits at Headquarters and in the field, and oversees the Agency-wide grievance-handling system. The OIG provides a semiannual report to the D/CIA which the Director is required to submit by law to the Intelligence Committees of Congress within 30 days.

Google on CIA / IG office and you will see where they have a hand in many different types of functions, providing something like a quality assurance review on previous investigative determinations.

[maica]

I wonder how Dana is feeling today? She prints the story he gave her, he loses his job and salary, probably will get jail time; and she walks away with a Prize

Icing on the cake, or the silver lining -- if there can be such a thing when national secrets have been exposed. Forevermore, her name AND the Pulitzer committee will be linked with revealing national secrets that hurt our country's efforts to contain terrorists.

[Suzy Quzy]

It would be funny if Goss planted a false story about the secret prisons so he could see who was LEAKING!!!!

[STARWISE]

;)

[onyx]

LOL -- yes!

[jrooney]

Thank you for the info.

[Republican Red]

MRO Corner

THE LEAK -- AND THE DAMAGE DONE [Byron York]

There's word today that the CIA has fired a senior career official over the leak of the so-called "secret prisons" story to the Washington Post. Opponents of the Bush administration have tried hard to cast the leak as the work of a "whistleblower," exposing wrongdoing, as opposed to a "leaker" out to exact political revenge, as in the Valerie Plame affair. But unlike the Plame matter, there's no doubt that the secret prisons story damaged U.S. national security. In January, I wrote a story for the magazine describing that damage. It focused on the two countries, Poland and Romania, suspected of assisting the U.S. in the incarceration of high-value terrorists. Here's an excerpt:

In Europe, the reaction [to the Post story] was immediate and intense. The EU said it would launch a probe of both Poland, which is an EU member, and Romania, which hopes to become one. Both countries might be punished if the story were true, EU officials said. Romania denied the whole thing, sort of; in a statement that perhaps sounded more definitive than it was, Romania's premier said, "I repeat: We do not have CIA bases in Romania." In Poland, the new government -- it had been in office for just a few weeks and had played no role in whatever had happened before -- also issued a denial.

But, at least in Poland, the story caused enormous anger and unhappiness behind the scenes. In an interview with National Review, one source with knowledge of the Polish government's dilemma would not address the facts of the story, but called the damage "horrific." The source cited two reasons. First, the Polish government believes that it is now, as a result of the Post story, on al-Qaeda's hit list, setting off fears that Warsaw or Krakow could follow Madrid and London as European terrorist targets. And second, the leak shook the pro-American Polish government's faith in the United States. Poland has been a loyal ally of the U.S., sending troops to Iraq and keeping them there when others withdrew. That decision has been costly not only in lives -- 17 Poles have died in Iraq -- but also in terms of Poland's relations with largely anti-U.S. European governments. And now Poland worries about whether it can trust its most powerful ally. "The next time we are asked to do an operation in common, we will always think twice about your intelligence community's ability to keep a secret," the source said.