Oops -- a spy name gets out

from  nashuatelegraph


Monday, June 2, 2014 

Telegraph Editorial

In the history of our republic prior to 2009, the federal government brought criminal charges against three journalists for cases involving leaks, according to a New York Times story published last Wednesday.

The Obama administration, by contrast, has brought eight charges against reporters, according to the Times. It has sought the phone records and email files of government employees suspected of talking to reporters, and is regarded as the most paranoid administration since the Nixon regime when it comes to investigating leaks, according to a study published last fall.

One administration target has been a New York Times reporter who is under subpoena to testify about a case involving a former CIA official. That issue is on appeal to the Supreme Court, which is being asked to decide whether the reporter must be compelled to testify, or if he is protected by the First Amendment.

Attorney General Eric Holder sat with a group of journalists last week to discuss the administration’s track record with regard to press freedoms and to speak generally about the administration’s approach to leak investigations.

“As long as I’m attorney general, no reporter who is doing his job is going to go to jail. As long as I’m attorney general, someone who is doing their job is not going to get prosecuted,” the Times quoted Holder as saying.

Not to venture too far afield, but it seems that Holder’s Justice Department has taken much the same approach when it comes to the government’s view toward the investment banksters on Wall Street who brought the country to the brink of economic ruin in 2008. We’re against the death penalty, but it didn’t escape our notice that a man believed to be Iran’s wealthiest citizen was put to death recently for his role in a $2.6 billion bank fraud. In this country, such creative thinkers not only don’t get prosecuted by the government, they get year-end bonuses.

Perhaps the Obama administration, rather than going after journalists or the occasional Wall Street miscreant upon which they happen to stumble, should spend more time examining their own practices.

For instance, a week ago Sunday the White House inadvertently disclosed the name of the CIA station chief in Afghanistan on the occasion of the president’s Memorial Day weekend visit to that country. “Station chief” is spyspeak for “top spy,” and the name and job description of the operative was included on a list circulated to about 6,000 reporters. It was removed from a later replacement list that the White House press office sent out, but by then the damage was done.

The administration has, predictably, ordered a review of how the error happened.

The good news is, there’s nothing to suggest that the disclosure was as insidious as when officials in the George W. Bush administration purposely outed Valerie Plame as a CIA spy in 2003. That was an act of political retaliation to punish her ambassador husband for his criticism of Bush administration policies in Iraq.

The bad news is, it might have been an act of incompetence the likes of which the public has come to expect from the Obama administration.

Maybe they should have just leaked the name to The New York Times. At least those people know how to keep secrets.