Posted on 06/20/2006 5:07:35 PM PDT by Para-Ord.45
WASHINGTON -- The chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich, told NewsMax that he believes the recent leaks over the CIA's secret prisons and the NSA's terrorist surveillance program were "politically driven," and that the leakers "ought to be prosecuted."
"What we are seeing is a systematic breakdown in the intelligence community when it comes to leaking highly classified intelligence information," he stated.
If intelligence officers have concerns about a particular program, they have various legal avenues to make those concerns known, he said.
"First, there's an inspector general," he noted. "Then there's a House intelligence committee, and a Senate intelligence committee. If you have questions about the legality of some program or some action, that's where you go to make sure what's being done is legal and within the law."
An Intelligence officer who goes to the press with grievances and leaks classified information is "no better than a common thief," he said.
"Nobody's given you the authorization to determine what information should be made freely available to the public. Nobody's given you the authorization to determine what should or should not be classified, or to make those decisions for the American people," Hoekstra said.
Hoekstra applauded former CIA Director Porter Goss for having identified a CIA official for making unauthorized disclosures of highly classified intelligence information to the media.
The Deputy CIA inspector general, Mary McCarthy, who was fired on April 21, 2006, 10 days short of retirement, was identified in the media as having leaked information on the CIA secret prisons to Washington Post reporter Dana Priest
McCarthy denied through her lawyer ever meeting with Priest, but has acknowledged she was fired before her retirement.
For Hoekstra, McCarthy's firing was symbolic, and went way beyond whatever specific offense she may or may not have committed.
"Mary McCarthy clearly represented the entrenched bureaucracy at CIA," he said. "She wasn't the only one, not by a long shot."...(excerpt)
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2006/6/20/121538.shtml?s=lh
meanwhile, in undisclosed locations throughout the world, former DOD Intelligence specialists now know their personal data has been "stolen".
Let's not even talk about the constant access to current data the CIA had on all of us.
Every single one of us since 1974...
Lock and load people.
After several years of litigation, she will get full retirement with back pay.... unless someone charges her with something.
Well, finally, a bit of good news today. Thanks to the ping about this, SE Mom. I hope Hoekstra pushes this as far as it can go and then some.
We have some real scholars in D.C.
It truly is shameful that one-half the people in this country have chosen to throw in with al-Qaeda for purely partisan political reasons. I've lost all respect for the American public.
No joke. Waiting for the investigation of Ray McGovern, VIPs, Larry Johnson, and certain reporters.
Ya think?
BTW, Tell me what you think about this?
http://www.riehlworldview.com/carnivorous_conservative/2006/06/missing_soldier.html
During the cold war didn't traitors in the CIA when caught go to prison for many years at least?
Why the difference now?
These "leakers" should be fried not fired!
People in government who take it upon themselves that their different is the "correct" view have two professional options, after they first, take their opinion as high as is possible for them to do.
Then, they can
(1) accept whatever the elected officials do, after having heard that opinon and whether or not that hearing changed any policy, and then the government worker must just get on with their job, while following that policy to the letter,
or (2)they can resign.
Anyone in that type of circumstance who remains on the job and tries to obstruct the policy they disagree with should be fired, period and it really does not matter who was "right".
Be patient. There are lots of investigations ongoing.
Be patient.
Mary McCarthy is probably singing like a bird to avoid execution. She undoubtedly prefers to do the time.
So, who would benefit from being in a position to "out" the DOD operations?
I thought she (McCarthy) originally confessed to the leak, then back-tracked and denied she was the source of the leak (probably after some lawyer consulted with her).
[Why aren't they in the process of prosecuting them already? Isn't that their duty?]
It's utterly disgusting, isn't it. Unless, of course, they are currently under surveillance to see who is involved, etc.:)
This site seems to have compiled quite a bit of intel on Ms. McCarthy, and others. It is worth reading.
http://neveryetmelted.com/?cat=489
In case we forget:
First, background. McCarthy joined the CIA in 1984. Fourteen years later, she’d risen to the position of senior director for intelligence programs on the National Security Council. How fast was her ascent? “Meteoric,” according to Spook86, a blogger claiming to be a former intelligence official who wonders whether the rapid promotion of comparatively inexperienced officers like McCarthy explains some of the pre-9/11 intel failures under Clinton. If so, then the Reagan and Bush I administrations should share some of the blame: according to the New York Times, by the late 1980s McCarthy was already chief of the CIA’s Central America and Caribbean section despite having no experience in those areas. By 1991 – just seven years after joining the agency – she was a top deputy to Charles Allen, then-national intelligence officer for warning. McCarthy inherited that position from Allen in 1994, then went to work in the Clinton White House in 1996 before replacing Rand Beers as senior director for intelligence programs in 1998.
Bear all this in the mind the next time you read or hear a news report suggesting she was some no-name “analyst.”
Bonus fun fact #1: the guy who appointed her to the position of senior director in 1998 was then-NSA Sandy Berger, who was last seen pleading guilty to destroying intelligence documents after smuggling them out of a National Archives reading room. In his pants.
Sounds like it...it's a comin'
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