GOP cherrypicks new CIA leak probe

[XXXMADAM]

Source: Examiner.com

The Central Intelligence Agency has requested a Department of Justice investigation into improper disclosure of information on its secret program to assassinate terrorists, which CIA Director Leon Panetta disclosed to Congress in July, reports Eli Lake and Sara Carter in the Washington Times.

Predictably, conservative politicians who whine when the Justice Department probes into the embarassing policy of CIA torture are gleeful when the Justice Department probes into torture tattle-tales, even though publicly available documents, not whistle-blowers, are to blame. Actual spies have little to say.

Intelligence community sources told the Times about the investigation, but neither CIA nor the Justice Department would confirm or deny that an investigation is underway.

The Times did not turn to intelligence professionals for their take on a possible leak investigation. Other than the unnamed intelligence officials who leaked that there is leak investigation, the Times did not cite any former or serving intelligence officials.

The Times focused instead on the reaction of conservative politicians known to oppose investigations of Bush administration intelligence policies, who are now cheering the leak investigation.

Senator Kit Bond (R-MO), ranking minority member of the Senate Intelligence Committee would not comment directly on any leak investigations to the Washington Times, but he did say that disclosures in recent weeks of intelligence sources and methods have resulted in "irreparable damage" to national security. Bond did not differentiate between information that might have been illegally leaked and information that has been disclosed lawfully via the Freedom of Information Act.

Bond also repeated assertions, put forth by Leon Panetta in a Washington Post op-ed last month, that allied intelligence services have criticized US intelligence for its failure to keep conscience-shocking intelligence programs secret. "Our allies ask us, 'How can we trust you to deal in classified matters in private, when the details are leaked to the press?" Bond said to the Times. ""Nobody has told me they won't cooperate, but they are asking the question."

Meanwhile, foreign allied security officials--many of whose organizations have faced their own scrutiny and top-level shakeups due to "war on terror" excesses--have not publicly called into question US leaks or investigative scrutiny.

Read more: http://www.examiner.com/x-13426-CIA-Examiner~y2009m9d4-GOP-cherrypicks-new-CIA-leak-probe

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