The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee today asked President Obama to make seven senior, high-profile administration officials available to be interviewed regarding national security leaks.
Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) wants his committee to be able to interview National Security Adviser Tom Donilon, former White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley, Vice Presidential National Security Adviser Tony Blinken, Deputy National Security Advisor Denis McDonough, Director for Counterterrorism Audrey Tomason, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism John Brennan, and Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism James Clapper.
They will be asked about leaks including the Stuxnet and Flame virus attacks involving Iran, operational details of the bin Laden raid, the “introduction of Seal Team 6 to Obama campaign film producers,” and the administration’s targeted killings, Smith said.
They will also need to be ready to provide information about leaks involving the disruption of an underwear bombing plot from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and the identity of the doctor who did DNA tests to locate Osama bin Laden.
“When our enemies know our secrets, American lives are threatened,” Smith told Obama.
Smith’s letter follows up on yesterday’s Crime Subcommittee hearing, where Smith, subcommittee Chairman Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), and Ranking Member John Conyers (D-Mich.) agreed to exercise the panel’s investigative power, including subpoenas if necessary, to get to the bottom of the sources of the recent leaks.
“The safety of Americans at home and abroad depends on the government’s ability to protect our nation’s secrets,” Smith wrote. “And the government’s ability to keep national security secrets depends on identifying the causes of the recent leaks and putting a stop to them.”
Last month, Attorney General Eric Holder appointed two U.S. attorneys to investigate the leaks. Even though Holder has maintained that they have the freedom to investigate independently, lawmakers have criticized the probe as too close to the White House.
Obama and Holder will just blame the Republicans in Congress of “racism” for looking into this. Forget about the fact that top secret information was knowingly handed to the press. Forget that it could also have cost the lives of many people. This is just a “racist” investigation designed to embarrass the president. If you think anything will come of this before election day, you’re dreaming. These people make Nixon look like the most honest man in the world. It’s shameful that the mainstream media isn’t digging deeper into this mess and it’s about time they did (not that they ever will).
Nixon knew JFK was marked for death. That’s why Nixon conceded the fraud.
Now the paranoia makes sense.
Some of them, if not all of them (to some degree at least) are complicit in the leaking of classified material for purely political gain on behalf of the Narcissist in Chief. Not acceptable. Somebody must be held accountable.
Isnt John Brennan a convert to Islam?…..would explain a few things
I agree with LibertyShip: If you think anything will come of this before election day, you’re dreaming. And then if Mitt wins, no one will prosecute a leaker because they’d be accused of raaaaacism.
So one again–for what seems like the thousandth time–government officials break the law with impunity. Literally, no one can touch them.
Outrageous.
They can be touched. They can be really touched. Question is who is gonna drop the dime?
Re NSA Donilon:
(begin quote)
In 1996, he became assistant secretary of state for public affairs. He visited more than 50 countries in those positions and worked on several major foreign policy initiatives, including the Balkans peace negotiation, the expansion of NATO and the relationship between the U.S. and China.
Donilon left the State Department three years later to accept an executive vice president position at Fannie Mae. He remained at the mortgage company for six years (1999-2005), during which he was accused of exaggerating the health of Fannie Mae’s balance sheet and trying to thwart an investigation into accounting irregularities. Not only did he interfere with an audit by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO, but also tried to launch a separate investigation into OFHEO itself. During the years 2000-2003 he received more than $7 million in compensation in the form of cash payments and stock awards.
He left Fannie Mae in 2005 to return to O’Melveny, and provided advice to powerful clients like Goldman Sachs and Citigroup.
He also was chosen as a member of the House and Senate Majority’s National Security Advisory Group, which assesses U.S. performance on national security issues.
Donilon was invited to join Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign, but chose instead to help his old friend Joe Biden seek the nomination, by serving as an adviser on Iraq.
(end quote)
***
There’s plenty more at the link. I stopped at ‘Biden/Iraq’ as good a place as any, and wanted to remind of Biden’s proposal (Donilons?) to tri-sect the nation. Keep in mind, Fannie Mae and Goldman Sachs, in the years where the gutting of our economy was initiated led by those two entities.
***
note in the above quote: … worked on several major foreign policy initiatives, including the Balkans peace negotiation, the expansion of NATO and the relationship between the U.S. and China …
…that what came of all that was the crib-death of Russian democracy via the Balkan War vs national-security election of Putin, and the massive tech and dollar transfers to China; IOW the elements of the huge step forward –and our own rapid step backward –in the geopolitical and military and economic power and influence of the three nations.
***
What is i believe huge in the resume is not even mentioned in the link purporting to be comprehensive. Find it here, from 2009, scroll down a little way until the name comes up. Keep today’s headlines in mind –the European crisis, London LIBOR scandal, the JP Morgan true loss from ‘London Whale’ to be announced tomorrow.
***
There’s more than just what i’ve referred to –but can’t write a book in the comments.
Would like to pose this question: What in the name of God Almighty is this man doing as our National Security Advisor?
…but, no need to answer that –i’m deeply afraid i already know.
Let’s see what kind of “pretzel logic” the pretender uses to cover this with “Executive Privelege”. Eventually somebody in this rats’ nest will figure out exactly how many years in the pen they are actually elgible for (treason IS still a crime even in these twisted times) and will roll over on the next RAT up the ladder. (I know, I know its’ just a dream, but maybe dreams can still come true)
Clapper never seems to know anything about national security so that would be a waste of time for the House. He’s the Oval Office jester, it seems. Then we have Brennan. Real winner there. It seems as if Obama appointed every doofus he could round up. One looks pretty smart when surrounded by dumbchits.