Calls grow for outside probe of U.S. national security leaks | ReutersWASHINGTON, June 7 (Reuters) - Congressional intelligence committee leaders turned up the heat on the White House over alleged national security leaks on Thursday, with the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee suggesting she might be willing to join Republican demands for an investigation by a special counsel.
Senator Dianne Feinstein, the committee's Democratic chairwoman, told reporters she needed more time to consider Republican demands - voiced earlier this week by Senator John McCain and committee vice chair Saxby Chambliss - for a special counsel to probe how highly sensitive secrets were disclosed to news media.
The Intelligence Committee chiefs and other legislators have called for urgent investigations into recent media disclosures on U.S. cyber warfare against Iran, procedures for targeting militants with drones, and the existence of a double agent who penetrated a militant group in Yemen.
McCain has suggested that some of the leaks may have been calculated to boost the election prospects of President Barack Obama - something White House spokesmen emphatically deny. Feinstein cautioned that she was still pondering the "special counsel" idea for the current leak inquiries because "A special prosecutor can take years. We don't have years. We need to legislate and we need to do things quickly."
She suggested she might propose legislation to give inspectors general of government departments more investigatory authority.
Historically, some special counsels, such as the prosecutor who conducted a lengthy leak-related investigation that led to the conviction of a top aide to former Vice President Dick Cheney on obstruction and perjury charges, have been accused of pursuing witch-hunts.
Feinstein and Chambliss joined the House Intelligence committee's Republican chairman Mike Rogers and ranking Democrat C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger at an unusual Capitol Hill news conference following a closed-door meeting on the leaks issue with James Clapper, Director of There were fresh indications on Thursday that even if Attorney-General Eric Holder does not formally appoint a special counsel, the Justice Department could create some kind of special chain of command to handle leak inquiries.
At the news conference, Rogers said portions of the Justice Department's National Security Division (NSD) had removed themselves from elements of at least one current leak investigation.
Rogers later issued a statement clarifying that he did not mean to suggest wrongdoing by Justice Department officials, but was merely pointing out the hazards of a Justice Department-led investigation of the leaks.
I was really surprised to find out about the instance of Israel and the US and the cyber attack on Iran's nuclear program. It was actually detailed as to how they did it.
So the question is--did the Obama administration deliberately leak this information to the media in an effort to boost him up? John McCain thinks so.
Your thoughts?
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