Re: Republicans Outmaneuvered by Obama and Holder

Attorney General Eric Holder assigned two prosecutors to look into
classified document leaks that fed two New York Times articles this
past week, further heightening the profile of a debate between
Democrats and Republicans about secrecy and the press.

In a press release published on Friday, the U.S. Attorney General said
U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Ronald C. Machen Jr. and
U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein would
lead separate FBI investigations into who may have given reporters top
secret information about national security operations.

"I have every confidence in their abilities to doggedly follow the
facts and the evidence in the pursuit of justice wherever it leads,"
Holder wrote.

Some critics have accused the Obama administration for leaking the
information to help Obama's re-election prospects, an allegation the
president called "offensive" on Friday.

The controversy unfolded when the New York Times ran two articles
about the United States' national security operations. In one story,
Jo Becker and Scott Shane take a close look at President Obama's hands-
on approach to counter-terrorism and details aabout a so-called "Kill
List" that's at the heart of the United State's drone strikes.

Another article is an excerpt from David Sanger's new book, "Confront
and Conceal: Obama's Secret Wars and Surprising Use of American
Power," and it describes Obama's plan to accelerate cyber-attack on
Iran's nuclear program.

The United States' use of drones to execute al-Qaeda officials, as
well as its use of the Stuxnet computer work to weaken or destroy
Iran's nuclear program, have long been open secrets. Just earlier this
week, the Pentagon confirmed that a predator drone in Pakistan killed
the terror group's second-in command, Yahya al-Libi.

But the White House and Congress are furious over the possibility of
unauthorized disclosures of top secret information. A group of
Congressmen, including Republican Sen. John McCain, condemned the
national security leaks and launched an investigation into their
source on Wednesday, the Huffington Post reported.

Thanks to the upcoming election, the controversy has also launched a
partisan debate about whether or not a Washington insider is leaking
information to help Obama beat Republican candidate Mitt Romney in the
fall. As the New York Times summarizes in an article about the
controversy and backlash, the issue has "Congressional Republicans
accusing the Obama administration of leaking classified information
for political advantage and Democrats lodging their own protests about
high-level disclosures."

"It is difficult to escape the conclusion that these recent leaks of
highly classified information, all of which have the effect of making
the president look strong and decisive on national security in the
middle of his re-election campaign, have a deeper political
motivation," Sen. McCain, who sits on the Senate Armed Services
Committee, said, according to the New York Times.

When asked what he thought about the document leaks, Obama said it was
"offensive" for people to assume or believe one of his aides was
responsible.

"The notion that my White House would purposefully release classified
national security information is offensive, it's wrong," Obama said in
a press briefing on Friday, shortly before Holder launched the federal
investigation.


On Jun 12, 11:51 am, Keith In Tampa <keithinta...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Good thought provoking article.  If Holder and the Justice Department don't
> go after whoever leaked the latest sensitive information that was
> undoubtedly leaked by White House officials, then they need to let that
> private accused of leaking to WikiLeaks go.
>
> McCain is clearly a RINO!
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Tue, Jun 12, 2012 at 6:46 PM, Travis <baconl...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Wimps and rinos.  Is there any other kind of Republican in Congress these
> > days?
>
> > **
> >             New post on *therightplanet.com*
> > <http://www.therightplanet.com/?author=2>  Republicans Outmaneuvered by
> > Obama and Holder<http://www.therightplanet.com/2012/06/republicans-outmaneuvered-by-ob...> by
> > Sard <http://www.therightplanet.com/?author=2>
>
> > *By: Cliff Kincaid*
> > Accuracy in Media<http://www.aim.org/aim-column/republicans-outmaneuvered-by-obama-and-...>
>
> > Senator John McCain, who lost to Obama in 2008 in part because he did not
> > want to challenge Obama's personal character or loyalty to the U.S., is now
> > upset over what he calls<http://www.mccain.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressOffice....>"…a disturbing stream of articles" that cite "leaked classified or
> > highly-sensitive information…" in an "effort to paint a portrait of
> > President Obama as a strong leader on national security issues…"
>
> > McCain's statements, like his 2008 presidential campaign, are careful not
> > to personally accuse Obama himself of any wrongdoing. McCain's statements
> > refer repeatedly to the "Obama Administration" or just the
> > "administration," rather than the President himself. At best, he says that
> > Obama is ultimately "responsible" for the leaks. Obama denies the White
> > House leaked anything and finds the charge that anyone did so "offensive."
>
> > The senator went on to say, "The fact that this Administration would
> > aggressively pursue leaks perpetrated by a 22-year old Army private in the
> > 'WikiLeaks' matter and former CIA employees in other leaks cases but
> > apparently sanction leaks made by senior Administration officials for
> > political purposes is simply unacceptable. It also calls for the need for a
> > special counsel to investigate what happened here."
>
> > Here, the senator makes two questionable assumptions: that the
> > administration is determined to aggressively pursue the WikiLeaks matter,
> > and that "senior Administration officials" are behind the recent leaks, not
> > Obama himself.
>
> > In the first place, government prosecutors have ruled out the death
> > penalty in the case of Army intelligence analyst Bradley Manning, the
> > source of the classified WikiLeaks material. This is strange because the
> > leaks constitute the largest release of classified information in history.
> > The trial of Manning, regarded as a hero by the radical left, has been
> > repeatedly delayed and now won't occur until November. Then, after the
> > election, it wouldn't be surprising to see the government dropping some of
> > the charges against him.
>
> > Second, Attorney General Eric Holder has not brought charges against
> > Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who allegedly received the stolen
> > documents from Manning and was therefore part of a conspiracy to commit
> > espionage. Like Manning, Assange is a hero to much of Obama's political
> > "progressive" base.
>
> > McCain's decision to accuse administration officials, rather than Obama
> > himself, of the leaks to The New York Times, is an assumption that enables
> > the senator to avoid questioning Obama's personal patriotism. McCain fought
> > for his country in wartime but politically he wants to "play nice."
>
> > Nobody doubts that McCain, who was tortured by the communists when he was
> > a POW during the Vietnam War, believes in his country. But his decision to
> > give Obama the benefit of the doubt makes no sense, especially because the
> > Obama campaign has been caught lying about such relatively minor matters as Obama's
> > membership in the New Party<http://www.trevorloudon.com/2012/06/barack-obamas-ties-to-the-marxist...>,
> > a vehicle designed for a Trojan Horse takeover of the Democratic Party in
> > Chicago. Obama's ally in this effort was Rep. Danny Davis, who recently accepted
> > an award<http://rebelpundit.com/2012/03/obama-ally-rep-danny-davis-receives-aw...>from the Communist Party USA. This followed the campaign's claim that
> > Obama's childhood mentor, Communist Party operative Frank Marshall Davis,
> > was just a civil rights activist. Obama called him just "Frank" in *Dreams
> > from My Father*, leaving it to anti-communist investigators—not the
> > FBI—to discover his true identity.
>
> > McCain requested a special counsel independent of the Justice Department
> > to investigate the leaks. Holder outflanked McCain, appointing<http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2012/June/12-ag-736.html>U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Ronald C. Machen Jr. and U.S.
> > Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein to conduct the
> > inquiry and "follow all appropriate investigative leads within the
> > Executive and Legislative branches of government." Since not even McCain
> > has suggested the President personally did the leaking, it cannot possibly
> > be appropriate to investigate Obama himself. As a result, Obama is, once
> > again, off the hook. Congress will hold hearings but they will go nowhere
> > because the administration will claim an investigation is already underway.
>
> > McCain never learns—or doesn't want to learn. When HBO's "Game Change"
> > came out, conservatives attacked the film for its distorted portrayal of
> > McCain running mate and GOP 2008 vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin.
> > That was legitimate criticism, and McCain defended his former running mate
> > and attacked the film. But the film was accurate, as far as we can
> > determine, in depicting McCain as a candidate who did not want to take the
> > gloves off when attacking Obama. "This is not the campaign I wanted to
> > run," McCain says, when some of his supporters in a crowd scene label Obama
> > a socialist or a Muslim and cry out that "He hangs out with people who hate
> > our country!" It was Palin, not McCain, who took the fight to Obama over
> > his "palling around with terrorists" such as Bill Ayers and Bernardine
> > Dohrn.
>
> > Before the 2008 election, we wrote a column titled "Who Vetted Obama?"
> > that asked <http://www.aim.org/aim-column/who-vetted-obama/> two simple
> > questions: When did the FBI investigate Obama? And who vetted him? The FBI
> > did not investigate Obama, and the media did not "vet" him, something that
> > angered the late Andrew Breitbart and made him want to pick up where the
> > news media failed to tread.
>
> > We noted, "Obama has a 30-year history of associating with unsavory
> > characters, beginning with communist Frank Marshall Davis and continuing
> > with Jeremiah Wright and communist terrorists Bill Ayers and Bernardine
> > Dohrn, which should disqualify him from getting a security clearance in the
> > government that he wants to run."
>
> > Four years later, we find McCain and many Republicans making the same
> > mistake they made then—assuming that Obama is above the fray and should be
> > shielded from any personal charges. Mitt Romney seems to be following in
> > McCain's footsteps, refusing to label Obama a socialist. On the other hand,
> > the Obama campaign does not shy away from calling Romney a "capitalist," as
> > if that is a dirty word.
>
> > The media, who receive the leaks that make Obama look good, have a vested
> > interest in not investigating their source. In the strange-but-true
> > department, American national security suffers but Obama comes across
> > looking like someone committed to the security of America and its allies.
> > According to the latest Fox News poll<http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/06/08/once-helpful-national-secu...>,
> > Obama beats Romney by 11 points on handling of foreign policy and 13 points
> > on dealing with terrorism. The leaks have served their purpose.
>
> > The fact is that the FBI does not vet presidential candidates for national
> > security purposes. There was no FBI investigation into Obama's own
> > background, associations, loyalty, and overall fitness for office. The FBI
> > only probes those being considered for some federal positions under the
> > president. It is not clear, however, if Van Jones was ever investigated. If
> > so, he got the job anyway, and then-Fox News personality Glenn Beck and
> > blogger Trevor Loudon discovered the truth, not the FBI.
>
> > Former FBI agent Max Noel told me that the Bureau used to investigate
> > candidates for federal employment by analyzing Character, Associates,
> > Reputation, and Loyalty to the United States. The first letters in those
> > words make up the acronym CARL. By the standard of "A"
> > alone—Associates—Obama flunks.
>
> > Obama was never investigated by the FBI, however. He captured the
> > presidency and, with the help of the media, continues to outflank his
> > Republican opponents, McCain then and Romney now.
>
> > *Cliff Kincaid is the Director of the AIM Center for Investigative
> > Journalism and can be contacted at cliff.kinc...@aim.org<Cliff%20Kincaid%20is%20the%20Director%20of%20the%20AIM%20Center%20for%20Investigative%20Journalism%20and%20can%20be%20contacted%20at%20cliff.kinc...@aim.org.>
> > .*
>
> > *h/t: Noisy Room<http://noisyroom.net/blog/2012/06/11/republicans-outmaneuvered-by-oba...>
> > *
>
> >   *Sard <http://www.therightplanet.com/?author=2>* | June 12, 2012 at
> > 10:41 am | Categories: American Sovereignty<http://www.therightplanet.com/?cat=905245>,
> > Communications
>
> ...
>
> read more »

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