I told you so! Theory of CIA plot to subvert Presidency gains traction

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Reprinted from NewsMax.com

House Intel Chairman Hoekstra: CIA Leaks 'Politically Driven'

Kenneth R. Timmerman, NewsMax.com
Wednesday, June 21, 2006

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."

 

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The individuals that leaked the NSA’s intelligence operations should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. The fact that, at the very least, the avenues (the Inspector General, the House intelligence committee, and Senate intelligence committee) provided to make concerns known where not first exhausted prior to public disclosure of the NSA's intelligence programs, demonstrates the leaking was motivated by sinister purposes. These individuals are not “whistleblowers;” rather, they are traitors who have betrayed the public trust and have damage national security for nothing more than potential political gain and a chance to vilify President Bush for whom, I suspect, they have a sadistic hatred for.

The fact that democrats who, for the most part, are so unabashedly willing to defend individuals who leak details of classified intelligence programs, which in the long run, could be used to make our nation more safe, underscores why they cannot be trusted when it comes to national security. The democrats shameful political tactics demonstrate that their main focus is on party politics and fighting a war against President Bush and the republicans instead of leading the nation in our war against terrorism. They apparently are unable to appreciate the damage that leakers, who are so willing to betray public trust and the trust of the government agency for which they work, can inflict upon our nation’s security.

Meanwhile, democrats say little to nothing about the array of personal information that is being sold over the Internet on a daily basis which is just as personal or more personal than what the NSA sought through monitoring phone numbers of certain individuals with contacts to known terrorists. Instead, they engage in spin tactics and scar tactics meant to undermine a sitting president during a time of war and, even more disturbing, undermine intelligence programs the president has implemented in order to protect Americans against the very enemy we are fighting.