Colleagues Say C.I.A. Analyst Played by Rules (NYT in Spin Mode over Mary O. McCarthy)

The New York Slimes ^ | 22 April 2006 | DAVID S. CLOUD

[demlosers]

WASHINGTON, April 22 — In 1998, when President Bill Clinton ordered military strikes against a suspected chemical weapons factory in Sudan, Mary O. McCarthy, a senior intelligence officer assigned to the White House, warned the president that the plan relied on inconclusive intelligence, two former government officials said.

Ms. McCarthy's reservations did not stop the attack on the factory, which was carried out in retaliation for Al Qaeda's bombing of two American embassies in East Africa. But they illustrated her willingness to challenge intelligence data and methods endorsed by her bosses at the Central Intelligence Agency.

On Thursday, the C.I.A. fired Ms. McCarthy, 61, accusing her of leaking information to reporters about overseas prisons operated by the agency in the years since the Sept. 11 attacks. But despite Ms. McCarthy's independent streak, some colleagues who worked with her at the White House and other offices during her intelligence career say they cannot imagine Ms. McCarthy as a leaker of classified information.

As a senior National Security Council aide for intelligence from 1996 to 2001, she was responsible for guarding some of the nations most sensitive secrets.

"We're talking about a person with great integrity who played by the book and, as far as I know, never deviated from the rules," said Steven Simon, a National Security Council aide in the Clinton administration who worked closely with Ms. McCarthy.

Others said it was possible that Ms. McCarthy, who began attending law school at night several years ago, made a campaign contribution to Senator John Kerry's presidential campaign in 2004 and had announced her intention to retire from C.I.A., had grown increasingly disenchanted with the often harsh and extra-legal methods adopted by the Bush administration for handling Al Qaeda prisoners and felt she had no alternative except go to the press.

[popdonnelly]

"had grown increasingly disenchanted with the often harsh and extra-legal methods adopted by the Bush administration for handling Al Qaeda prisoners"

She wouldn't be privy to any of that information in her role in the Inspector General's Office.

[sgtbono2002]

What do you expect the Media to do?? Say their best snitch just got caught?? She should have been walked out of the CIA and Into Leavenworth for the next 4,000 years.

[KingKenrod]

The fact that she is 61 years old and had a long career, YET she was not allowed to retire quietly is very telling. Goss wanted to make a very public example out of her as a warning to others who were thinking/doing the same thing.

[Paladin2]

Oh, she's a whistleblower and freedom fighter, not a leaker. Must be OK then.

BBBWWWWWWWHHHHHAAAAA.

[ItsForTheChildren]

The original sealed indictment had added that al Qaeda had “reached an understanding with the government of Iraq that al Qaeda would not work against that government and that on particular projects, specifically including weapons development, al Qaeda would work cooperatively with the Government of Iraq.”109This passage led Clarke, who for years had read intelligence reports on Iraqi-Sudanese cooperation on chemical weapons, to speculate to Berger that a large Iraqi presence at chemical facilities in Khartoum was “probably a direct result of the Iraq–Al Qida agreement.” Clarke added that VX precursor traces found near al Shifa were the “exact formula used by Iraq.”110This language about al Qaeda’s “understanding” with Iraq had been dropped, however, when a superseding indictment was filed in November 1998.111

So Clarke and Berger both knew about the Saddam-al Qaida connection - not some tenuous connection but "the agreement" (“probably a direct result of the Iraq–Al Qida agreement.” ) and Iraqi WMD (VX precursor traces found near al Shifa were the “exact formula used by Iraq.”).

Guess I missed that.

[advance_copy]

She leaked the classified info as part of a DemocRAT political agenda. Disgusting.

[Socratic]

Despite its best efforts, the WHO will never rid the world of TB - treasonous bitches.

[mewzilla]

And this leaker should scare the heck out of people

Not to mention some of the advice she was giving on the job...

[advance_copy]

Oh, and let me also say KUDOS GRANDE to Director Porter Goss, who has taken the lead in cleaning out Langley's leakers. Nice job Director Goss!

[Ursus arctos horribilis]

"...warned the president that the plan relied on inconclusive intelligence..."

And of course she leaked Bubba's FU to the Washington Times. /S

[Zeppo]

OK, I guess, but how does that square with the reports that she was hired by Sandy Berger? Wouldn't that make Sandy Berger effectively her boss, and not the CIA?

[thegreatbeast]

Okay, she might have been right about the aspirin factory (though WJC still defends his choice). But what about this:
By 1991, she was working as deputy to one of the agency's most senior analysts, Charles E. Allen, whose job as "National Intelligence Officer for Warning" was to anticipate major national security threats. Ms. McCarthy took over the job from Mr. Allen in 1994 and moved to the Clinton White House two years later.

I'd say she failed miserably on tha score.

[demlosers]

They are all dancing around the fact that the Junk Media STILL refused to admit it awarded a Pulitzer based on a LIE.

Do you think McCarthy was feed bogus information in a sting op about CIA foreign prisons, or do you think she embellished her report to Priest that the foreign prisons were actually transit holding areas for terrorists on there way to Gitmo?

Or Priest embellished her story by inflating overnight holding facilities to foreign CIA prisons?

[johnny7]

Like a snake under the heel of a boot... the NYSlimes will writhe until its head is removed.

[P-40]

So Clarke and Berger both knew about the Saddam-al Qaida connection - not some tenuous connection but "the agreement"

Yes...funny how this was not a big story on the nightly news. I have yet to find out just what the "agreement" entailed or how we even knew about it for that matter. Just what the heck was Clarke reading about all those years also.

[oxcart]

Snip"...On Thursday, the C.I.A. fired Ms. McCarthy, 61, accusing her of leaking information to reporters about overseas prisons operated by the agency in the years since the Sept. 11 attacks. But despite Ms. McCarthy's independent streak, some colleagues who worked with her at the White House and other offices during her intelligence career say they cannot imagine Ms. McCarthy as a leaker of classified information."

I think this needs a BARF ALERT!

[Peach]

some colleagues who worked with her at the White House and other offices during her intelligence career say they cannot imagine Ms. McCarthy as a leaker of classified information.

Maybe if the reporter had done an OUNCE of research they'd know that she has CONFESSED to illegal leaking before writing that useless sentence.

[ncountylee]

I'm trying to determine if she will be stripped of her bloated pension if charged, tried and convicted.

Sometimes I feel that "civil (non) servants" fear loss of pension more than jail.

[Peach]

Good post! Please think about adding that post and talking with the other excellent freeper researchers over on this FR thread:


http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1619050/posts

[Drango]

Yawnnnnnnnnn....The NYTimes reads like it has reporters embedded from Pravda and Aljazeera.