The morning Wall St Journal has an op ed piece by John Bolton condemning the NIE that let Iran off the hook, and the leaking thereof to the press. Far as Bolton is concerned, that NIE totally stopped all efforts to apply diplomatic pressure or sanctions to Iran over the Iranian nuclear weapons program. He feels the intelligence/state dept bureaucracy pulled off a publicity coup that forced US foreign into their dovish path. I tend to agree with John Bolton, the bureaucrats are seizing power that rightfully belongs the the elected administration and the elected Congress.
Bolton pointed me toward the Senate intelligence committee hearing on C-Span as I write this. We got thru the senator's opening remarks and now Mike McConnell, the Intel Czar is on. He just told us that large numbers of Al Queda operatives have been "neutralized". Mike obviously needs a dictionary. The word should be "killed".
Then we had McConnell, Hayden, Fort, Mueller, and Maples (Intel Czar,CIA, State Dept,FBI, and DIA) give a five minute pep talk. Randall Fort, the State Dept guy, came across as the complete bureaucrat, saying absolutely nothing but taking five minutes of fancy words to do it. The military officers (Hayden McConnell and Maples) were better public speakers.
Questioning finally came around to John Bolton's Wall St Journal piece. They never mentioned either Bolton's name or the Wall St Journal, but it was clear what they were talking about. McConnell stepped up to the plate and accepted responsibility for it. He beat around the bush, never really closed on why it was released/leaked, and why it let Iran off t he hook. He did admit that if he had the chance to do it over he might have phrased it a little differently.
2 comments:
what i don't understand is why people who get caught leaking intelligence that compromises national security are getting away with a slap on the wrist where i come from that's called treason and is call for an execution
Good question. Partly it is hard to obtain solid evidence. So far the leakers have been smart enough not to do it in front of a camera. So the prosecution would have to rely upon witness testimony, and neither the leaker or the leakee is likely to testify. And who else would know anything about it?
Assuming a case was brought, the prosecution and the administration will still have heavy sledding. The leakers will have political support and msm support. Look at the Valerie Plame leak case. It took years, generated tons of unfavorable publicity, and wound up hanging the vice president's chief of staff (a good guy). The leakers leak for political reasons. The politicians will defend "their" leakers.
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