Obama plays favorites, protects loose-lipped generals who leak top secret info

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Washington Times:

Analysts are questioning whether the White House is protecting one of its inner-circle members in a leak investigation, especially given the Obama administration’s demonstrated willingness to prosecute and imprison lower-level government employees for providing classified information to the press.

 

Retired Marine Corps Gen. James “Hoss” Cartwright was vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and somewhat of a White House fixture as a close military adviser to President Obama.

 

For over a year, he reportedly has been the target of a Justice Department criminal investigation. He is suspected of leaking to The New York Times highly classified details of a U.S. cyberwarfare program against Iran and its quest for nuclear weapons. Gen. Cartwright played a critical role in the covert action, whose weapon was a cyberworm called Stuxnet and whose code name was “Olympic Games.”

 

The Washington Post reported Wednesday that the probe has come to a halt because the White House fears prosecution would force the administration to disclose secret sources and methods.

 

Despite the slowdown, Mr. Obama has been the most aggressive president in history in hunting down and prosecuting government personnel who leak.

 

In six years, the Justice Department has prosecuted nine leakers: One Army soldier; two National Security Agency personnel; two FBI employees; one State Department contractor; two former CIA officers; and, just recently, one retired general. Six have been, or will be, sentenced to prison terms.

 

David H. Petraeus, like Gen. Cartwright a retired four-star general, received what some consider a slap on the wrist. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count for providing eight classified journals to his lover and biographer. He almost certainly will avoid prison.

 

The other eight have one thing in common: they are relatively low-ranking employees far from the centers of power and from connections to senior Obama aides.

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Some leakers are more equal than others...