Someone in the halls of government is leaking U.S. government secrets. Now, Republicans are pointing fingers at the White House and President Obama is demanding answers.
Over the past several months, government secrets were leaked to the media, including reports on U.S. cyber warfare against Iran, procedures for targeting militants for drone attacks and the existence of a double agent who penetrated a militant group in Yemen. Republicans have also blamed the Obama administration for disclosing details of the Navy SEAL team that killed Osama bin Laden last year.
Sen. John McCain, senior Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, has been leading the charge against the White House.
“Our intelligence people say this is the worst breach they’ve ever seen,” McCain said in an interview this weekend. “It’s very clear that this information had to come from this administration. It couldn’t have come from anywhere else. This needs a special counsel – someone who is highly independent of the Justice Department.”
President Obama reacted with fierce opposition that his administration is at fault for the leaks. “The notion that my White House would purposely release classified national security information is offensive,” he said on Friday.”
Attorney General Eric Holder announced late Friday that he has appointed two chief federal prosecutors to lead an investigation into the leaks. U.S. Attorneys Ronald Machen Jr. of Washington, D.C., and Rod Rosenstein of Maryland, will be “fully authorized to prosecute criminal violations discovered as a result of their investigation,” Holder said.
But Mike Rogers, chairman of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, is not at all satisfied with Holder’s plan.
“Many asked the question, me included: ‘Can you have the U.S. attorney, assigned through the attorney general, investigate something that is clearly going to be at the most senior levels of all of the executive branch?” Rogers said.
