Apr 21 2006
NSA Leak Investigation Nabs First Criminal
*** Welcome Michelle Malkin readers! Make sure to check out the links coming in to the comments to see what other bloggers are saying on this matter. ***
Update: Keep an eye on the comments for links coming in from readers and other blogs. This comment a Free Republic is also quite intriguing. Note: BTW, the facetious side of me get’s me in trouble constantly. The Mollohan update was definitely part tongue in cheek. I believe I said it was a wild coincidence. Go figure.
Addendum: Mac Ranger predicted these would be coming.
Update: More details are coming out. Now the news is claiming the CIA officer in question was one Mary McCarthy from the CIA’s Inspector General’s office – the supposed watchdog for illegal activities inside the agency.
NBC News identified the accused officer as Mary McCarthy, and said she worked in the CIA Inspector General’s office before being “marched out” of the spy agency on Thursday.
Also, the Department of Justice said they have DOZENS of leak investigations ongoing. This number is much larger than than any I have heard to date, and is, sadly, stunning. But back to McCarthy. I did find this interesting bio for one Mary McCarthy, CIA Officer:
Mary McCarthy, a CIA officer,is currently a visiting fellow at The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Prior to joining CSIS in August 2001, Mary O. McCarthy was a senior policy adviser to the CIA’s deputy director for science and technology. Until July 2001, she served as special assistant to the president and senior director for intelligence programs on the National Security Council (NSC) Staff, under both Presidents Clinton and Bush. From 1991 until her appointment to the NSC, McCarthy served on the National Intelligence Council. She began her government service as an analyst, then manager, in CIA’s Directorate of Intelligence, holding positions in both African and Latin American analysis. From 1979 to 1984 she was employed by BERI, S.A., conducting financial, operational, and political risk assessments for multinational companies and banks. Previously she had taught at the University of Minnesota and was director of the Social Science Data Archive at Yale University. She is the author of Social Change and the Growth of British Power in the Gold Coast (University Press of America, 1983). McCarthy has a B.A. and M.A. in history from Michigan State University, an M.A. in library science from the University of Minnesota, and a Ph.D. in history from the University of Minnesota.
This Mary McCarthy had a very sensitive position at near the top of the government. And I found this in the 9/11 Report where she is sited in discussions during the Clinton years. In section 4.2 of the report, on page 117, we find this:
Two days before the embassy bombings, Clarke’s staff wrote that Bin Ladin “has invested in and almost certainly has access toVX produced at a plant in Sudan.â€43 Senior State Department officials believed that they had received a similar verdict independently, though they and Clarke’s staff were probably relying on the same report. Mary McCarthy, the NSC senior director responsible for intelligence programs, initially cautioned Berger that the “bottom line†was that “we will need much better intelligence on this facility before we seriously consider any options.†She added that the link between Bin Ladin and al Shifa was “rather uncertain at this point.â€
This confirms the contents of the bio above. On Page 210 she is mentioned as one of the people working with Condi Rice to plan for dealing with the Taliban before 9-11:
In March 2001, Rice asked the CIA to prepare a new series of authorities for covert action in Afghanistan. Rice’s recollection was that the idea had come from Clarke and the NSC senior director for intelligence, Mary McCarthy, and had been linked to the proposal for aid to the Northern Alliance and the Uzbeks.
In what is becoming a bad trend for Mary, she is now linked with Sandy Berger and Richard Clarke. Especially this strange reference (again from the 9-11 report):
9. See Joint Inquiry briefing by Mike, Sept. 12,2002.For briefings to the NSC,see NSC email,Clarke to Berger, “Threat Warning: Usama bin Ladin,†Mar. 7, 1998; Mary McCarthy interview (Dec. 8, 2003); CIA memos, summary of weekly Berger/Tenet meeting, May 1, 1998.
She apparently came to the defense of Richard Clarke once. If she is one in the same, this person has betrayed a lot of people with her actions. Maybe she will be turning on some compatriots. Addendum: more bio information here (note: please reference this site if you are using my work in your news products. Be professionally courteous). The other item to watch is the fact she sent memos to Berger and Clarke – maybe her name is on Berger’s infamous memos!
Update: Could there be a connection between the CIA firing and and the news that a key Democrat Hill Representative from West VA resigning his poston the House Ethics Committee? Coincidence? Seems like it. Except for the fact one name keeps propping up in the NSA leak investigation: one Senator Rockefeller from West VA. Probably just coincidence…
Update: Here is the just released Washington Post story on the news (which is interesting because they should know who the agent was that leaked to their reporter). We can understand some interesting dynamics on how this news from yesterday did not really break until this afternoon:
The termination of the unidentified officer was announced to CIA employees yesterday after an internal investigation of the leaks. The terminated officer failed a polygraph examination, according to an agency official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Notice a whole day went by without a leak. Maybe the signal being sent is finally being recieved?
Update: I should have been clear in my comments to the NY Times leak. That story started a broad investigation that came to include the CIA prison story as well. I did not intend to imply the firing was due to the NSA leak. I simply was pointing out the NSA leak started the investigation into many recent leaks.
Update: Fox has extended it’s original story (h/t Wizbang) and has more details in implications for a prosecution:
A senior law enforcement official said the person fired failed a polygraph test, which was given as part of the agency’s internal investigation into media leaks. As to which or how many questions the person failed, the official said they didn’t know.
On the subject of potential prosecution, the official said if the person admitted to leaking classified information, it would be almost negligent not to prosecute them for breaking the law. Failing a polygraph in and of itself does not qualify a person for prosecution but an admission does.
And Fox News is confirming the story is that this was related to the CIA Prison stories:
A second law enforcement official confirmed said the CIA officer had provided information that contributed to a Washington Post story last year saying there were secret U.S. prisons in Eastern Europe.
More when it comes out!
Update: As others have posted while I was in a meeting, apparently the leak was associated with the CIA secret prison story in the Washington Post. Jim at Protein Wisdom noted that criminal charges for the media should not be thrown out casually. He is correct of course. But in the NSA leak the NY Times went to the government and was warned. My guess is the Washington Post checked with the Feds and were given the same fair warning.
And the CIA is warning ‘This is just the beginning’. Hopefully there are a couple of Senators taking note as well.
End Update
In the aftermath of the NSA leak to the NY Times (who also were able to totally screw up the entire story EXCEPT the classified details useful to terrorists to avoid detection here in America) there was talk of investigations and high placed targets.
Well apparently the investigation nabbed its first criminal as Fox News is reporting on the firing of a CIA officer for leaking to the press highly classified material:
CIA officials will not reveal the officer’s name, assignment, or the information that was leaked. The firing is a highly unusual move, although there has been an ongoing investigation into leaks in the CIA.
One official called this a “damaging leak” that deals with operational information and said the fired officer “knowingly and willfully” leaked the information to the media and “was caught.”
I am heading to a meeting, so more on this later. But I hope this leads to criminal charges for the CIA leaker and identification and charges against any reporter the leaker tried to get to publish this information. We need to know who in the media is willing to trade in our national security for their pulitzers.
I can see cleary now….
*Clearly*
Calling Mr. Wilson, Rockefeller, et al
Fired!…
Looks like the investigation into the NSA leaks has led to an arrest….
So… our government creates secret illegal prisons where people are tortured; our government breaks the law in order to spy on Americans; our government claims the right to use war powers against its own citizens even as it admits that the War on Terror is not a real war.
And you’re outraged not at the torture and lawbreaking and spying, but the fact that some patriotic citizens in the federal agencies had the courage to reveal the fact that these things were going on.
You are, apparently, so blindingly trusting of this government that you will grant them full authority to decide who is and isn’t a “terrorist”; what treatment is acceptable for people they deem terrorists; and what laws they will and will not follow. But real Americans don’t think that way. True American patriots are suspicious of government power and expect their government to follow the law.
Ms. McCarthy is a true American patriot. You, like the Bush Administration, are against everything America stands for.
A CIA Leaker Meets Her Fate…
Meetings all day and a rare night out equals a neglected blog, and thus, I haven’t even had time to mention the fired CIA leaker story. Fortunately, as is often the case, AJ has covered it so well that I need only, really, point you to his fine…
PATRIOTACTIN has the right idea. This police-state mentality pervading American culture is cowardly, sadistic, and profoundly un-American. Blogs like this seem to exist, if you’ll pardon the expression, for masturbation. It’s not only this one, but the point is that people huddle in these new chat rooms in order to validate their own opinions. Once again, being American is about being an individual, about speaking one’s mind, and encouraging others to do the same.
Nice work on the in-depth analysis. Blame it on Clinton! That seems to be the go-to move for deniers of the Criminal in Chief school these days. Look, it is not about politics. You all know that, and so do I. So why do I write this? Better question: Why do you need the validation that you seek by posting here? This case is about a public servant who had a crisis of conscience, and blew the whistle (insert Slick Willy jokes here). It is likely that she broke the law. However, are we so cowed, so broken and brought to heel, that we are unable to acknowledge that she did so for a good reason? That she knew it would mean her ass, but she did it anyway? Every time we collectively punish people for speaking out against blatant injustice, we bend over that much further for tyranny.
Patriot Actin’, you sho’ is actin’! Since you acknowledge you’re actin’, can I question your patriotism?
Why do you even believe the prison story at this point? Two of your no-doubt-beloved European investigations found no trace of it. It clearly came from a criminal leaker, and could very well be the misinformation that lead to your heroine’s exposure as that leaker. That is how you catch a turned spy/leaker…you feed them specific misinformation. If that misinformation shows up…it was them. It is very very difficult to prove something true came from a specific person, who knows how many other people know about it or how? Something made up…you can trace its progeny. And what is scary is that considering she was in the IG…she should have known that.
She was in a position to scuttle investigations into other leaks…the question I have is…did she? If she is willing to criminally leak national security related classified material, I certainly don’t trust her to effectively perform her investigative role on other leaks. Is she one of the main reasons so many at CIA have been able to conduct their leak war with impunity? My guess is that it certainly plays a role, and there are a whole bunch of people who are having night sweats now. And I am glad. Bring on the prosecutions for the criminals. And if found guilty by our criminal justice system, throw away the key.
Hegel,
Is it my fault she worked for Clinton and those connections were the ones in the 9-11 Report and showed up on a Google search?
And, as might have been expected, as the NY Times reported today:
“Public records show that Ms. McCarthy contributed $2,000 in 2004 to the presidential campaign of John Kerry, the Democratic nominee.”
Via Drudge.
Dude, McCarthy joined the CIA in the ’80s, when Bush I was President.
Most of the CIA employees, whoever they may support for President, are basically apolitical when it comes to doing their jobs: they serve America, not any political party. (Unlike our current President, who cares more about the interests of his party than the interests of his people.) The federal employees coming out against Bush are often people who were once considered apolitical or even conservative: most of those retired Generals, Richard Clarke, Alberto Mora, Paul Pillar. Hell, even Joe Wilson, the right’s bete noir, honorably served Bush I.
You might want to ask yourself why Bush II has turned so many federal employees against him, to the point that they feel compelled to speak out or even risk their jobs or a prison term. Could it be that Bush II has done things that are so bad — so illegal, so un-American — that these people had to speak out?
You know you’ve made the big time when the moonbats come out in force to attack you. Go, AJ!
You sit here and say she is a so called patriot, I think not. Partison free, I think not. She knew the role of her position and she abused it. Further, this idea that somehow people of your ilk are true American patriots is a joke.
I will continue to support this President in fighting Al Qaeda, NSA wiretappings, and the other necessary intelligence efforts to undermine the enemy. While I do not condone torture, no one knows if this story is true, and if it is, no one knows if torture was carried out in these so called prisons. What is more is if these prisons were setup to hold high enemy targets and to properly investigate any future plots, I simply do not have a problem with that whatsoever, for a few of reasons. One, these fundamentalist killers are just that, killers. Two, they may very well hold information that may in fact, save lives. Three, these people are not some innocent bystander I’m almost certain of that.
The President must continue to bring justice to these perpetrators of fundamentalist murder. If the enemy is calling, well someone better be listening that is all I have to say about that. Patriots do not sit by the way side and invite the enemy into this country with open arms nor do they act on behalf of them either. These people are thugs and killers, and you cannot negotiate with them. They would carry out there fundamentalist plots to the dying breath. These people do not want peace on earth that is the bottom line. We will be attacked again that is almost without doubt, and I just pray the men and women in our intelligence community do what is right to bring these killers to justice. The World was on the brink in 1936, and I fear we are coming upon the brink once again. As it was in 1936, zealotry through Nazism was the drive for hate and now we see that same kind of hate showing its terrible face in the World, once again.
Leaks and the Leakers that Leak them…
CIA FIRES OFFICER MARY McCARTHY OVER ALLEGED LEAKPiece of advise for the Bushies……………FIRE ANY ONE THAT WORKED UNDER THE CLINTON ADMINISTRATION, I mean really. Strata-sphere has the straight dope here, an incredible post actually. The latest f…
This is my first post here, so forgive me if I’m telling everyone things they already know. I just read that Dana Priest’s husband is William Goodfellow, and a few red lights began flashing! Here is a little info that might be of interest:
Here is the link to my article concerning Fenton Communications that appeared in Front Page Magazine in 2004:
http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=14893
There is alot of info about CIP and it’s relationship to Fenton and the anti-war movement.
And now, a few more connections –Joe Wilson’s Shady Past with Fenton Communications. It is from an article that I was working on last fall, but didn’t have the time to finish. Hope it will help:
Joseph Wilson IV has been outed as a fraud who carried out a disinformation campaign in the pages of the NYT while he worked as John Kerry’s foreign policy adviser. However, little notice has been paid to his activities in the months following his notorious Niger trip in 2002 –specifically his association with the Iraq Policy Information Project.
According to a the Fenton Communications Web Page ( now only available through google cache), the Iraqi Policy Information Project was founded in the summer of 2002 to provide a “war room†for those opposed to the Bush administration’s Iraq policy. Indeed, the address and the contact phone number for IPIP are the same as those listed for Fenton Communications. The project was coordinated through the Center for International Policy, a non-profit organization known for its support for Fidel Castro. It is unclear whether IPIP is still in operation. Curiously, no information could be found about the group on CIP or Fenton Communication’s current web pages.
Fenton’s chief strategist for the IPIP was Ira Arlook, a former member of the radical Students for a Democratic Society, and a longtime left-wing political operative with a shady past. In 1996, as the National Director of the consumer rights group Citizen Action, Arlook was involved in the infamous Teamster money laundering scandal that funneled union funds into the coffers of both Democratic Party candidates and the re-election campaign of Teamster president Ron Carey. He is also the husband of Karen Nussbaum, a former member of the Clinton administration.
According to Fenton’s cached web page, Arlook, a Fenton Communications Vice President, has been a major player in a number of projects hostile to the Bush administration including Moveon.org and Win Without War. At IPIP, Joe Wilson was used to conduct “back ground briefings†in response to the president’s case for removing Saddam Hussein.
OK, let’s see where we are. The “pulitzer prize winning journo” Ms. Priest is married to CIP’s Goodfellow, gets her info from Mary McCarthy–major Kerry donor, Cinton/Berger apointee, expert at CSIS, who HAD TO KNOW JOE WILSON at NSA.
And then we add the shady unreconstructed sixties radicals at Fenton Communications–the same folks who brought us moveon.org and Cindy Sheehan– into the mix…
The pieces are all falling together…
I think what we’re dealing with is as close to an attempeted coup d’etat as we’ve seen in American History.
CIA fires information leak…
Good. It’s about time. I hope they prosecute her too. I have no tolerance for people who violate security. She knew the risks and the consequences.
CIA Officer Is Fired for Media Leaks
The CIA fired a long-serving intelligence o…
Check out this link where Ms. Priest discusses her husband, Mr. Goodfellow:
http://www.metroactive.com/metro-santa-cruz/03.01.06/priest-0609.html
Fenton set up Tides Foundation, a money laundering foundation through which Teresa Heinz funnels a lot of money. She and others give Foundation money they control to Tides which then distributes the dough to others making it harder to trace. Look for contributions from Tides in 2004==to CSIS and others and you may find out how the McCarthys suddenly were able to afford to give over 10K to the Dems in 2004.
From the NY Times, April 20th edition:
“BRUSSELS, April 20 — The European Union’s antiterrorism chief told a hearing on Thursday that he had not been able to prove that secret C.I.A. prisons existed in Europe.
“We’ve heard all kinds of allegations,” the official, Gijs de Vries, said before a committee of the European Parliament. “It does not appear to be proven beyond reasonable doubt.”
http://tinyurl.com/k8qko
That seems to make her a traitor, not a whistleblower.
Here’s a report on CIP from sourcewatch.org. Note all the funding that comes from Fenton Communications clients. The editor of the WP should have never ever let Dana Priest write that piece. Also, note that Melvin Goodman is a “senior fellow”. I don’t think the world has seen a disinformation campaign like this since Stalin.
Center for International Policy
From SourceWatch
Center for International Policy (http://www.ciponline.org/) (CIP) was “founded in 1975, in the wake of the Vietnam War, by former diplomats and peace activists. This mix of those from inside the government and those from outside by choice has shaped both our methodology and our agenda.
“The Center has led or played a vital role in an impressive number of citizens’ initiatives. Working closely with allies in Congress, including two members who were to become the Center’s co-chairs, Tom Harkin and Don Fraser, the Center campaigned to make sure that a government’s human rights record became a factor in allocating foreign aid. In the 1980s the Center staff became the Washington advocates for Costa Rican president Oscar Arias’s peace plan for Central America.
“In the 1990s the Center attracted a number of senior diplomats to its staff and expanded its agenda to include reform of the nation’s intelligence agencies. We continued to play an important role in Central America’s post-conflict reconciliation, the effort to end the counter-productive isolation of Cuba, and efforts to limit military assistance to the Western Hemisphere, especially Colombia.
“This work continues today, along with a robust program on security in south and northeast Asia, cutting-edge work on illegal financial flows, and a new effort to increase citizen participation in Central America.”
Funding Sources
“The Center for International Policy is proud to maintain a $1 million annual budget free of funding from the U.S. government, or any other government or political party. Supported only by individual donors and private foundations, the Center has stayed steadfastly true to its founding goals.
Foundations currently supporting the Center’s work include:
The CarEth Foundation
The Compton Foundation
The Educational Foundation of America
The Ford Foundation
The General Service Foundation
The Stewart R. Mott Charitable Trust
The Ploughshares Fund
The Christopher Reynolds Foundation
The Samuel Rubin Foundation
The Schooner Foundation
Staff
Robert E. White, president
William Goodfellow, executive director
Raymond Baker, senior fellow
Nicole Ball, senior fellow
Landrum Bolling, senior fellow
Parker Borg, senior fellow
Frick Curry, senior fellow
Kathleen Donahue, fellow
Craig Eisendrath, senior associate
Melvin A. Goodman, director of National Security Project
Selig Harrison, director of Asia Project
Adam Isacson, senior associate
Anya Landau, associate
Paul Lubeck, senior fellow
Nita Rous Manitzas, associate
James Mullins, senior fellow
Jennifer Nordin, director of Economic Studies
Beverly Orr, accountant
Stephen Rivers, consultant
Piper Benom Sherwood, director of development
Miranna Smith, director of operations
Wayne S. Smith, senior fellow
Sarah Stephens, director of Freedom to Travel Project
Tara Templin, associate for web development
Ingrid Vaicius, associate
Tracee Brown, fundraising and financial management coordinator
Board of Directors
Cynthia McClintock, professor, George Washington University, chairperson
Mario Baeza, investment banker, New York
Lowell Blankfort, newspaper publisher, San Diego
William Butler, chairman, executive committee, International Commission of Jurists
Thomas Cooper, president, Gulfstream International Airlines
Joan Dassin, international education consultant
Adrian DeWind, attorney, New York
Samuel Ellsworth, partner, Ellsworth-Howell, Alexandria, Virginia
Gerald F. Gilmore, ex-consultant, Third World, World Council of Churches
Jeffrey Horowitz, architect, Berkeley, California
Susan Horowitz, social worker, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Robert G. Kerrigan, attorney, Pensacola, Fla.
Sally Lilienthal, president, Ploughshares Fund, San Francisco
Conrad Martin, Fund for Constitutional Government
Stewart R. Mott, Board of Trustees, Fund for Constitutional Government
Paul Sack, businessman, San Francisco
Don Soldini, president, International Preferred Enterprises
Edith Wilkie, president, Peace Through Law Education Fund
Dessima Williams, visiting professor, Brandeis University; former ambassador of Grenada to the OAS
[edit]Contact
Center for International Policy
1717 Massachusetts Avenue NW
Suite 801
Washington, DC 20036
(202) 232-3317 / fax (202) 232-3440
cip@ciponline.org
URL: http://www.ciponline.org