Posted on 06/12/2012 5:43:50 PM PDT by mandaladon
By opening an investigation into the leaks of classified information, the Obama White House appears to be entering the kind of perilous Fill-In-The-Blank-Gate terrain that has eventually engulfed most administrations in the modern era.
The pattern: an initial investigation launched to relieve mounting political pressure snowballs into a much larger scandal, leaving a trail of broken careers in its wake.
And the beginnings of that pattern are in place: Attorney General Eric Holder Friday appointed two federal prosecutors to oversee multiple FBI investigations into leaks involving stories in recently published books and articles in the New York Times, AP, and Newsweek. The move deflected, but didn't end, a rising, bipartisan tide of Congressional criticism of the leaks. Republican senators Tuesday called for a vote in Congress to recommend that an independent counsel look into national security secrets that have appeared in the media.
“It’s going to be trouble, “ says Steve Clemons, an influential policy analyst who has close ties to the administration. “It’s going to be like the search for who leaked Valerie Plame’s name. If the truth does come out, I suspect it will be a major player. Of course the White House is very nervous.”
Those major players are some of the most powerful figures in Obama’s Washington.
The scandal has the potential to drag in a cadre of senior administration officials, both former and current, who have extensive contacts with the press.
The short list could include Leon Panetta, Ben Rhodes, Tom Donilon, Gen. David Petraeus, John Brennan, Jim Jones, and General Doug Lute, among other heavy hitters.
(Excerpt) Read more at buzzfeed.com ...
Wasn’t Plame ‘just another CIA employee’?? I knew a CIA employee and his name and job description was unclassified although his work was classified. What was the big deal with Plame?
Aren't the media culpable if they aired or printed the "leaked" information? I realize that reporters have a special First Amendment privilege that prevents them from testifying about information obtained from confidential sources, but maybe one of the good ones will "leak" the source in this case since it involves national security.
A BO-spnsored investigation will never go to the top. The best we may get is a gopher who blogged secrets at the behest of Obama henchmen taking the fall.
i just wish it would lead to Valerie Jarrett.
No but it does qualify him to work at MSNBC or CNN.
send in joe the plumber
One would hope that would be the case but I fear the only way to get rid of Obama and his band of thieves and liars is by our vote in November.
This will happen much sooner than any investigation could take place and come to any conclusion.
The MSM is covering as usual but Donilon now seems to be the leaker and when one sees McCain,DiFi, Grassley, Cornyn et al all asking for facts and records now on not only the leaks, Stux but Fast too, perhaps even the kow towers will have to at least have one of ‘their’ experts on to ....DISCOUNT any Obama influence. Yikes LOL
Thanks mandaladon.
What makes you think they don't know who the leaker is this time?
That was some of that kinder gentler compassion conservative compromise the Bushes are so fond of.
Colson: Mr. President, the CIA and the FBI aren’t doing the job. We could create our own intelligence unit right here inside the White House.
Haldeman: To plug the leaks?
Colson: Yeah...like plumbers.
Haldeman: Plumbers! [smiles]
Nixon: I like that.
Ehrlichman: Yes but is it legal? Has anyone done that before?
Nixon: Oh sure...Lyndon...JFK...FDR...
—Oliver Stone’s ‘Nixon’
They are keeping the investigation within Holder’s Justice Department and Democrat Party members. They won’t find out much any time soon and probably never.
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