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Top senators are calling for a hearing on the "continuing leaks of classified information" allegedly from the White House after a recent media report detailed a U.S. cyber warfare targeting Iran's nuclear facilities.
A report in
The New York Times on Friday provided classified details of the U.S cyber attack.
Since the beginning of his term, President Barack Obama secretly ordered cyber attacks targeting computers that run Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities, the Times reported, attributing the information to the program's participants.
Senators John McCain and Dianne Feinstein, a Republican and a Democrat respectively, discussed the possibility of holding hearings to address the leak of information.
"I am pleased to report that chairman Carl Levin has agreed to hold a hearing on these leaks in the Senate Armed Services Committee," McCain said in a statement Tuesday.
McCain said the alleged leaks are detrimental to U.S. security and accused the White House of releasing the information to boost the president's political standing ahead of the November election.
"With the leaks that these articles were based on, our enemies now know much more than they even did the day before they came out about important aspects of the nation's unconventional offensive capability and how we use them," McCain said in remarks on the Senate floor.
"Such disclosures can only undermine similar ongoing or future operations and, in this sense, compromise national security. For this reason, regardless of how politically useful these leaks may be to the president, they have to stop."
Feinstein decried the leaks too, saying she discussed the possibility of a joint hearing with Levin, chairman of the senate committee.
"Today, I sent a classified letter to the president outlining my deep concerns about the release of this information," Feinstein said Tuesday. " I made it clear that disclosures of this type endanger American lives and undermine America's national security."
White House deputy press secretary, Josh Earnest, has said the administration is committed to withholding classified information.
"I'm saying that I'm not in a position to talk to you about any of the details that were included in the story," he said. "But I am telling you that this administration -- well, that it's our view, as it is the view of everybody who handles classified information, that information is classified for a reason; that it is kept secret, it is intended not to be publicized because publicizing it would pose a threat to our national security."
McCain and Saxby Chambliss, a top Republicans who serves on the intelligence committee, cited other recent leaks, including the release of information on the administration's efforts to expand drone programs on militants in Yemen. The public airing of the Yemen plot angered intelligence and national security officials.
"Let me be clear: I am fully in favor of transparency in government -- I have spent my entire career in Congress furthering that principle," McCain said.
"But what separates these sorts of leaks from, say, the whistle-blowing that fosters open government or a free press is that these leaks expose no violations of law, abuses of authority, or threats to public health or safety. They are merely gratuitous and utterly self-serving."
Chambliss called for a probe on the "pattern" of leaks.
A "Leak?" Just pissing on us.
Not a "Classified Information" Leak, instead, they're just - as per usual - taking a leak on the American and Western Populace. More like a propaganda stunt to get re-elected. Duh. And also a little false BS to keep all eyes off the ball, whatever it is and wherever it be...
"Our" government - I believe - has previously claimed that cyber-attacks would constitute an act of war justifying any and all retaliation. I assume that American exceptionalism is in work via tacit denial here.
Also, Stuxnet, was it at Fukushima?
R.C.