President Obama is crying foul against allegations that White House officials leaked classified information to the media for political gain, insisting that the White House would never “purposely” pass on classified secrets. The Hill reports:
“The notion that my White House would purposely release classified national security information is offensive,” Obama said. “It’s wrong, and people I think need to have a better sense of how I approach this office, and the people around me approach this office.” …
Obama said the White House has “mechanisms in place” to “root out” people who leak national security information.
“When this information or reports, whether true of false, surface on the front page of newspaper — that makes the jobs of folks on the front lines tougher, and it makes my job tougher, which is why my attitude has been zero tolerance for these type of leaks and speculation,” Obama said.
As Politico’s Josh Gerstein suggests, the “purposely” qualifier sounds like an escape hatch. Obama didn’t deny that the White House released the information, just that it was not done intentionally or with a purpose in mind.
Meanwhile, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers is hinting he has information the administration had relaxed rules on classified information for some in the media:
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) stopped short of asserting that the leaks were politically motivated, but he said the administration had decided to share some classified information with the media.
“The committee has materials suggesting that agencies were instructed to expand the scope of classified information they gave to the press. We know in some cases someone from a segment of the media was present in a classified setting,” Rogers said.
Republicans are continuing to call for an independent investigation, and the normally tough-on-leakers Obama administration is still stonewalling the idea.
"Obama didn’t deny that the White House released the information, just that it was not done intentionally or with a purpose in mind." n nWell, that's a good point. The Obama Administration has certainly raised purposeless activity to a high art…
There it is … the great defense of the incompetent. Well, it'll appeal to his supporters anyway, and isn't that what it's all about.
I think that the President gave himself another escape hatch. He said that his office would never leak classified information. As I understand it, the president has the ultimate authority to declassify anything or give clearance to anyone he wants. In other words, he can say that his office declassified the "leaked" information, which would make it legally not leaked.
and this investigation into who leaked the classified information will be a facade.
Count on them going after whistle blowers. That's a given.
No, they won't because that would indict obama directly. Besides, for almost 2 weeks these leaks are free floating and, not a peep from the admin.; it was also reported that the reporters on the leak got the ok from the white house to publish. nWhy stonewall on a special investigator, if there is no guilt?
That will be the only way we get the information.
Strange how highly classified and sensitive information somehow makes its way to the NY Times but Obama's college transcripts and client lists haven't seen the light of day.
Being offended is the typical liberal reaction to the plain truth. n nLet's get a special prosecutor immediately. I nominate Ken Cuccinelli and recommend that he be given a billion-dollar budget to track down every lead, rumor, college transcript and sealed divorce record of this administration. n nHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHa!
Sheriff Arpaio's the man for the job.
Please tell the "historic" president that it is not "my White House", but the nation's, and that he is living there temporarily, hopefully very temporarily, at least not longer than Jan 2013.
I'm offended that he thinks the public is so gullible as to believe his administration isn't leaking this stuff like a sieve.
Obama administration is leaking that information in order to make their man-child look better during the campaign season, which for them was the entire "term in office". And part of that likely resulted in a security being blown for SEAL Team 6 and several of their members being killed.
This is very strange. It looks like the WH leaked a lot of sensitive info, and yet Obama denies it. That doesn't add up. If he is telling the truth, that means that the NY Times must have hacked into the CIA's computers. There's a story here.
Okay, so they wouldn't release classified information on purpose. But they might have released classified information for no purpose at all. How is that suppose to generate confidence? We have an administration who might at any time take action unintentionally and inexplicably. What more damage might be done in the next seven months? For those who treat elections as though they are of no consequence, this administration should be for decades a study of what can happen when someone is elected despite lacking experience and record of accomplishment. And when someone is less than fifty but has already written two autobiographies, perhaps that should be a clue that their administration will be more about itself to the detriment of the rest of us.
Two words: Valarie Plame. Scooter Libby went to jail for that and he wasn't even the person who leaked her name. But the POTUS did the honorable thing and said whomever had done anything wrong will go to jail.. Is Obama doing that? Why not?
I don't have much faith in Voodoo Science (aka psychology) and tend to take a very pragmatic look at things. Obama is a boy playing with toys — a sophomoric and immature adult-sized child. n nIn many ways he is a victim of Affirmative Action — he simply rode the wave all the way. He was in high school 4 years after the worst of the Bussing stuff (Boston circa '74-'75), he did the same thing in college and law school. He has never had to struggle, never had to make a stand for anything, never suffered through adversity. He is still a child.
If he is so confident that the leaks did not come from the White House then why is he opposed to the appointment of a special prosecutor?
Possibly because he knows what *ELSE* a special prosecutor might stumble into?
Facts do matter and the most interesting aspect of the STUNEX virus was the safeguards that kept it from spiraling out of control. It only replicated itself a specific number of times, etc. It may have infected other computers, but it didn't *do* anything to them — it was very VERY carefully targeted at what it was intended to do. n nNow would anyone have had a problem if the Mossad had physically gone in and wired up all those centrifuges with C-4 and touched them all off in one giant orgy of destruction? Of course not — and that is quite a bit different from some of the stuff the ChiComs are doing.