White House rejects calls for special counsel for national security leaks

[apples]

The White House on Thursday rejected congressional calls for a special counsel to investigate a spate of recent national-security leaks described as among the worst lawmakers have ever seen.

Members of the House and Senate Intelligence committees have been particularly angered, prompting a rare show of bipartisan fire against the administration.

“Leaks jeopardize American lives,” Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said Thursday.

“I’ve been on the Intelligence Committee for 11 years and I have never seen it worse, I can tell you that,” Feinstein told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Wednesday in a separate interview.

Outrage has snowballed since Friday’s The New York Times story detailing the “Stuxnet” cyberattack against Iran, in which U.S. officials were cited as sources. Other leaks have led to stories about a terrorism “kill list” and a double agent in Yemen.

All three classified disclosures threaten national security, put U.S. interests at risk and reveal a disturbing trend in the intelligence community, according to lawmakers.

White House press secretary Jay Carney on Thursday said the president would not agree to appoint an independent counsel.

But Carney said the president took the issue of the leaks “very seriously.”

“This is something that the president insists, that his administration take all appropriate and necessary steps to prevent leaks of classified information or sensitive information that could risk our counterterrorism operations,” Carney told reporters on Air Force One, according to a transcript.

http://thehill.com/blogs/defcon-hill/policy-and-strategy/231581-white-house-rejects-special-counsel-to-investigate-leaks

[Doc]

Of course he did.....can't have anyone "independent" investigating how the WH conducts business.....

doc

[apples]

POTUS: W.H. leak accusations 'offensive'

"Whenever there is classified information that is put out into the public, we try to find out where that came from," he said.

Obama also rebutted the notion that the Times reports were somehow beneficial to him.

"When this information or these reports -- whether true or false -- surface, on front page newspapers, that makes the job of folks on the front lines tougher, and it makes my job tougher," he said. "Which is why, since I've been office, my attitude has been zero tolerance for these kinds of leaks and speculation."

The Obama administration has indeed shown a very low tolerance for leaks, having launched twice as many leak-related criminal prosecutions as all past administrations combined (though no action has been taken in response to the recent Times stories.)

"We have mechanisms in place where if we can route out folks who have leaked, they will suffer consequences," Obama said during the press conference. "In some cases these are criminal acts, and we will conduct thorough investigations, as we have in the past."

"We're dealing with issue that can touch on the safety and security of American people, our families or our American security personal, or our allies, and so we don't play with that," he went on to say. "It is a source of consistent frustration -- not just for my administration, but for previous administration -- when this stuff happens, and we will continue to let everybody know in government, or after they leave government, that they have certain obligations that they should carry out."

http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2012/06/potus-white-house-leak-accusations-offensive-125662.html

another day another lie from Obama.