Another White House Leak?

Who would believe a thing like that?

U.S. intelligence officials will investigate allegations that the government improperly leaked a secretly obtained Osama bin Laden video, alerting al-Qaeda to a security gap in the terrorist group's internal communications network that it was able to shut, an intelligence spokesman said yesterday.

Ross Feinstein, a spokesman for the director of national intelligence, said officials are looking into the leak allegation by the SITE Intelligence Group, which passed the video on to the White House and the director of national intelligence's office before its leak.

"At this point, we don't think there was a leak from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence or the National Counterterrorism Center," Feinstein said.

  WaPo

So who from the White House could it have been then? And why would they do that? Hmmmm?

SITE founder Rita Katz told The Post that her company covertly obtained an early copy of a bin Laden video message in early September, then shared the video with senior administration officials on Sept. 7 on the condition that it not be distributed or made public before its official release.

Soon afterward, the video was downloaded by dozens of computers registered to government agencies. Within hours, SITE's copy of the video was leaked to television news networks and broadcast worldwide.

Gee, for some reason, we just can’t seem to catch that bin Laden fella.

SITE said in the Post article that it had obtained the video ahead of its planned al Qaeda release and given two senior Bush administration officials access to it on condition they not reveal they had it until the official release.

[…]

"Techniques that took years to develop are now ineffective and worthless," SITE founder Rita Katz told the Post.

[...]

The White House denied it had leaked the video but said the issue was a cause for concern and an investigation would be needed to determine what happened.

  Reuters

Yeah, move over Scooter.

Two senior Bush administration officials. Will we get their names?

Update: Yes.

Leaked Report to "Lock In" the Bad News

"Bring me the head of whoever leaked this one!" Bush can be heard to be screaming in the halls of the White House.

Iraq has failed to meet all but three of 18 congressionally mandated benchmarks for political and military progress, according to a draft of a Government Accountability Office report. The document questions whether some aspects of a more positive assessment by the White House last month adequately reflected the range of views the GAO found within the administration.

The strikingly negative GAO draft, which will be delivered to Congress in final form on Tuesday, comes as the White House prepares to deliver its own new benchmark report in the second week of September, along with congressional testimony from Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker. They are expected to describe significant security improvements and offer at least some promise for political reconciliation in Iraq.

[...]

A GAO spokesman declined to comment on the report before it is released. The 69-page draft, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post, is still undergoing review at the Defense Department, which may ask that parts of it be classified or request changes in its conclusions.

[...]

Asked to comment on the GAO draft, White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said, "General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker are there on the ground every day in Iraq, and it's important to wait to hear what they have to say."

  WaPo

And so, after the "Petraeus" report, Bush is going to ask for $50 billion more to press the war in Iraq, and Congress will give it to him.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Justice

It's nice to see that the DoJ is still pursuing the matter of who let the cat out of the bag about the WH's illegal wiretapping program.

The home of a former Justice Department lawyer was searched last week to try to determine who leaked details of a warrantless eavesdropping program to reporters, Newsweek magazine reported Sunday.

The agents, who had obtained a classified search warrant, took Thomas Tamm’s desktop computer, two laptops belonging to his children and some of Tamm’s personal files [...]

  Kansas City.com

Newsweek (August 13 issue) quoted Gonzo as saying, "This is really hurting national security; this has really hurt our country." Much more than the outing of a covert CIA agent investigating WMDs, apparently, since the DoJ isn't too keen on finding that leaker.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

CYA

Shortly after the 9/11 attacks, President George W. Bush issued an order to the Central Intelligence Agency, Department of Defense, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the State Department, and his cabinet members that severely curtailed intelligence oversight by restricting classified information to just eight members of Congress.

"The only Members of Congress whom you or your expressly designated officers may brief regarding classified or sensitive law enforcement information," he writes, "are the Speaker of the House, the House Minority Leader, the Senate Majority and Minority Leaders, and the Chairs and Ranking Members of the Intelligence Committees in the House and Senate."

[...]

[W]hat was said to be an effort to protect the United States became a tool by which the Republican chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee Pat Roberts (R-KS) ensured there was no serious investigation into how the administration fixed the intelligence that took the United States to war in Iraq or the fabricated documents used as evidence to do so.

Coupled with limited access to intelligence documents, RAW STORY has found that Roberts and a handful of other strategically-placed Washington players stymied all questions into pre-war intelligence on Iraq and post-invasion cover-ups, including the outing of a CIA covert agent, by using targeted leaks and artfully deflecting blame from the White House.

[...]

Tom Reynolds, spokesman for the ranking Democrat on the House Select Committee on Intelligence, Jane Harman (D-CA), downplayed the significance of the order, saying members continued to have access. He acknowledged, however, that the "gang of eight" had higher-level clearances.

The spokesman for the Senate Intelligence Committee deferred comment to the White House; the White House did not return requests for comment.

  Raw Story article

Every successfullly dysfunctional entity must have its enablers.

Buttie and the Brain

“We can’t have leaks of classified information. It’s not in our nation’s interest.” - President George W. Bush, 10/9/01

That's when he pulled the classified intelligence clearance of 92 Senators.

At a minimum, will Slimeybottom (that's Turdblossom to you) lose his clearance over the Plame leak?

Don't hold your breath.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.