CIA Officer Is Fired for Media Leaks; The Post Was Among Outlets That Gained Classified Data
The CIA fired a long-serving intelligence officer for sharing classified information with The Washington Post and other news organizations, officials said yesterday, as the agency continued an aggressive internal search for anyone who may have discussed intelligence with the news media.
CIA officials said the career intelligence officer failed more than one polygraph test and acknowledged unauthorized contacts with reporters. The “officer knowingly and willfully shared classified intelligence, including operational information” with journalists, the agency said in a statement yesterday.
The CIA did not reveal the identity of the employee, who was dismissed Thursday, but NBC News reported last night she is Mary McCarthy. An intelligence source confirmed that the report was accurate.(so a leaker confirmed this?)
McCarthy began her career in government as an analyst at the CIA in 1984, public documents show. She served as special assistant to the president and senior director for intelligence programs at the White House during the Clinton administration and the first few months of the Bush administration. She later returned to the CIA. Attempts to reach her last night were unsuccessful.
The CIA’s statement did not name the reporters it believes were involved, but several intelligence officials said The Post’s Dana Priest was among them. This week, Priest won the Pulitzer Prize for beat reporting for articles about the agency, including one that revealed the existence of secret, CIA-run prisons in Eastern Europe and elsewhere.
CIA Director Porter J. Goss told the Senate intelligence committee in February that the agency was determined to get to the bottom of recent leaks, and wanted journalists brought before a federal grand jury to reveal their sources. Regarding disclosures about CIA detention and interrogation of terrorist suspects at secret sites abroad, Goss, the former chairman of the House intelligence committee, said that “the damage has been very severe to our capabilities to carry out our mission.”The CIA has filed several reports to the Justice Department since last fall regarding the publication of classified information and has launched its own internal inquiries which include administering polygraphs to dozens of employees. The intelligence agency is sharing its findings with the Justice Department but is continuing to pursue some avenues of investigation on its own.
“It’s up to the Justice Department to decide whether they want to pursue investigations separately,” an intelligence source said.
The Justice Department is conducting several leak inquiries, including one into reports last December in the New York Times about a secret domestic surveillance program by the National Security Agency. Officials said it is possible the department could file criminal charges in connection with that investigation and others, but it is unclear whether the department is also investigating the disclosures about CIA-run prisons.
Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse declined to comment yesterday. “We do not confirm investigations on intelligence-related matters,” he said, because of the information’s sensitivity.
Intelligence officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, (again with the anonymous sources)said the dismissed officer identified by others as McCarthy has not been charged with any crime and is not believed to be the subject of a Justice Department investigation.
The officer’s employment was terminated for violating a secrecy agreement all employees are required to sign when they join the agency. The agreement prohibits them from sharing classified information with unauthorized individuals.
A related link: TEXT: BERGER APPOINTS MCCARTHY SPECIAL ASSISTANT FOR INTELLIGENCE
Why bother investigating her? She’s already admitted to leaking classified information to the press. What she needs is to be advised of her Miranda rights and taken to the FBI for in processing on grounds of treason. Sadly since she has over 20 years in government service, she’s probably eligible to collect a government pension. Considering it was in the mid 80s that government employees were given the option of opting out of the Social Security program and having their Social Security contributions placed in private accounts, she will probably have a substantial pension coming unless they convict her of a felony. She should as a minimum lose all of her pay and retirement benefits. I personally believe that she needs to be placed on the Club Fed retirement plan. Let her spend the next 20 years wearing an orange jumpsuit.
There is of course another route to take. They could simply post her to a dirt hole in Afghanistan to analyze horse manure for indications of where the horse had been grazing. It would be useful in determining which horses had been grazing in Taliban occupied areas. After a few years of that, she’d probably Vince Foster herself saving the government the trouble.
She and any other intentional leakers should be prosecuted and punished to the absolute fullest extent possible. So Draconian that it serves as an example. And isn’t it ironic how this story, a leak that caused real damage, is ignored by the Left, while the phony Plamegate issue was trumpeted ad nauseum?
And there are dopes that are still unaware that the whole secret CIA prisons story was fake. When I was at the anti-Bush protests Friday (see my report in the Bush bend not break thread) there was some dope glibly waving a “Stop the Secret Detentions” sign. That story has now become so embedded in the collective hate-Bush Leftist consciousness that the facts no longer matter. They just keep repeating it regardless, and it continues to support their conclusions and opinions (you see SF Liberal, here’s an example of a FACT, it cannot be disputed).
This is certainly treason, and should be investigated and prosecuted as such. The reporter’s Pulitzer Prize is real dandy, too, now that the story is known to be based on a lie. It is about as valuable as Jimmy Carter’s Nobel Peace Prize, now that in retrospect we see that Carter’s gift of the Iran problem to us and the world is shaping up to be the threat it is.
this is a funny story:oops: most of our so called classified info has for many years now been handed over to the red Chinese’s:oops: and many others if you know what i mean?
so what this story is really telling you is some high placed people are mad because no one was paying for the info, after all can any of you remember when we didn’t have a spy inside the CIA? So ask you she was doing it, she maybe the good guy in all of this?
No Surrender no retreat, “the system is totally corrupted”, by our owner’s who want us dead.:roll: just look at the history of the CIA With all its little people selling us out and look at who is behind the sell out.:wink:
but i say cut her head off on TV.
FAO: “What she needs is to be advised of her Miranda rights and taken to the FBI for in processing on grounds of treason.”
Robert: “She and any other intentional leakers should be prosecuted and punished to the absolute fullest extent possible.”
Fred: “cut her head off on TV.”
FROM THE ARTICLE:
“McCarthy has not been charged with any crime and is not believed to be the subject of a Justice Department investigation.”
Did you guys even finish reading the article???
I think we were referring to what should happen…
Actually, if I were King of the USA, I would give her 20 years in a Federal prison, plus forfeiture of her Gov’t pension.
SF Robert is right. We were addressing what should happen. Not what will happen. There are simply too many Janet Reno appointees in the Justice Department to actually expect her to receive the proper treatment. They’ll indict Scooter Libby for not remembering which date he told who what, but let a traitor who seriously damaged our national security get away scott free.
If I were Porter Goss, with the EU finding no evidence of the prisons actually existing, I’d come out with a denial claiming the whole story was fabricated to find who in the CIA IG office was leaking information to the press. With the EU findings, the Washington Post and the Pulitzer Prize committee will both end up with egg on their faces.
I find it interesting that I haven’t heard the fact that Clinton actually started the rendition program as a means to be able to interrogate prisoners without having to answer to congress for offended anyone sensibilities by being a bit rougher than suits the average American liberal.