Posted on 04/22/2006 4:22:36 AM PDT by pookie18
McCarthy served as assistant to Clinton, senior director for intelligence programs
WASHINGTON – A CIA officer fired for leaking classified information was appointed as special assistant to President Clinton and senior director for intelligence programs by former National Security Adviser Sandy Berger, who pleaded guilty to stealing highly classified documents.
Mary McCarthy
Mary O'Neil McCarthy was fired Thursday for reportedly leaking classified information that contributed to a Washington Post report about alleged secret CIA prisons in Eastern Europe.
She most recently worked for the CIA inspector general's office and served as a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Public records show McCarthy, a veteran CIA officer, had served as a special assistant to Clinton and, later, President Bush – a tenure that stretched from 1998 to 2001. She testified to the commission that investigated the Sept. 11 attacks.
The CIA acknowledged the dismissal of an officer over a media leak is extremely rare. It resulted from a 3-month investigation.
The Washington Post report in November about secret CIA prisons for terrorism suspects prompted an international controversy over U.S. detainee policies and also won a Pulitzer Prize.
The CIA would not say what the leak involved, and declined to identify the officer or describe the officer's duties at the agency, saying that such disclosures would violate the Privacy Act of 1974.
"This CIA officer acknowledged having unauthorized discussions with the media in which the officer knowingly shared classified intelligence, including operational information," CIA spokeswoman Michele Neff said.
Neff said the officer's actions violated a secrecy agreement that CIA employees sign when they begin working for the agency.
The Washington Post reported that the CIA operated a network of secret prisons for terrorism suspects in countries overseas, including Eastern Europe. The report spawned a number of investigations in Europe that have yet to produce definitive evidence that the secret prisons existed.
McCarthy succeeded Rand Beers in the job of special assistant to the president and senior director for intelligence programs. Ironically, she was named to the position by Berger, who pleaded guilty last fall to stealing classified information from the National Archives while preparing Clinton to testify to the 9-11 commission.
Sandy Berger
Last September, a judge ordered Berger to pay a $50,000 fine for his crime. Berger avoided prison time under the punishment handed down by U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah Robinson.
In addition to the fine, which exceeded the $10,000 recommended by government lawyers, he was prohibited from access to classified government materials for three years.
"The court finds the fine is inadequate because it doesn't reflect the seriousness of the offense," Robinson said as Berger stood before her.
During the hearing, Berger described his crime as a lapse of judgment.
"I let considerations of personal convenience override clear rules of handling classified material," Berger said. "I believe this lapse, serious as it is, does not reflect the character of myself. In this case, I failed. I will not again."
The stolen documents were copies of highly secret memoranda, possibly with handwritten notes, that allegedly were critical of the Clinton administration's response to the "Millennium 2000" terror plot to bomb the Los Angeles International Airport.
Berger, who was an adviser to the presidential campaign of Sen. John Kerry when the scandal broke, has held multiple national security jobs since the Carter administration and recently was a foreign policy adviser to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Public records show that McCarthy contributed $2,000 in 2004 to the presidential campaign of Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic nominee.
Berger initially said he took copies of the classified documents regarding terrorism from the National Archives by "accident" and then misplaced them in what he described as an "honest mistake." He later admitted, however, that after pilfering the documents, he destroyed three of the five with scissors at the office of his consulting firm.
Hah. You think Kerry would have been better? (Since we're talking about eunuchs and weenie b*st*rds...)
See how the bodies are starting to pile up on the Dem side, WV Rep Mohollon of the House Ethics committee resigned yesterday. The worm is turning.
It figures it would be a Clintonite---duh!
bump
Indeed, while I don't agree with all his positions, it appears that he has stuck with his campaign convictions at a level much higher than his immediate predecessor.
Now as for the subject at hand, I hope that this is the beginning of a huge house-cleaning at CIA. As a country, we simply can't have any socialist/liberal idealists in that agency that are hell-bent on destroying this country for personal gain.
Why don't you take it somewhere else?
Even then...the Duke University case, the Natalee Holloway case, and who knows what else will make top headlines, while this gets buried. As is often the case, it will be up to the conservatives to push these stories out there, even if it takes talking to friends and relatives until we're blue in the face.
Why isn't Berger in jail?
Just another crook carried over from the Clinton era. These traitors from those days are getting too numerous to count.
Take it to an appropriate thread. THIS thread is about a CIA leak. Read the title.
Nice, stupid is as stupid says.
First of all there is no Kerry and I voted for Bush 3 times.
The guy I voted for the last two times is a butt-boy to Vincente Fox. Do you deny that?
Second, the man doesn't defend himself against the daily attacks by the democrats and the press.
Yeah, I'm stupid and you're brilliant.
This is about anger with the people I voted for and who do not have the nads to do their job.
If that upsets you, so be it.
Ridiculous comment. Thanks for enlightening me as to your opinion though, and I'll remember not to count on you in the battle against the Left.
I know. Can you believe Ace got voted off?!
Bush should have screened all the Clinton appointees when he took office. Those that didn't fit his standards should have been fired. Wasn't it called the "spoils system"? These ingrates have been a thorn in his side.
This clown did irreparable damage to our war effort and the efforts of the Free World versus an insane, psychotic, remorseless, genocidal, alien, enemy. She should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Much like the State Department, the CIA is riddled with 5th Columnists.
As for Berger...........Why the present Administration has continued in its attempts to establish a new tone in Washington, etc. by letting scum like Berger get off leniently only encourages jerks like Mary McCarthy. I was disappointed in the outcome of his case and I suppose I will be disappointed in the outcome of Mary's too.
Get a grip..... There are 3 years left to act.
History lasts forever and wrongs are not instantaneously made right.
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