CounterterrorismKing urges full FBI investigation into AQAP operation leaks
In a letter to FBI director Robert Mueller, King asks that investigation encompass “everyone who had access to this vital information”; King says at least three aspects of the leak are highly disturbing: “(a) the lives of a unique intelligence source and others may have been jeopardized; (b) the operation had to be aborted before its potential was maximized; and (c) critical intelligence relationships have been damaged”
Two weeks after news organizations began reporting detailed and highly classified information about a reported anti-terror operation involving al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Representative Peter T. King (R-New York), chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security, formally requested that FBI director Robert Mueller launch a full inquiry of the widely reported leaks of the information in the case. King also requested that the investigation encompass the Intelligence Community, the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, federal law enforcement, and the White House, including the National Security staff.
In a letter to Mueller yesterday, King wrote: “The information regarding this intelligence matter was handled in the most restricted manner possible by the Intelligence Community and the White House which means the leak would have to have emanated from a small universe. That makes this leak all the more distressing and is why I so strongly believe that an investigation of a security breach of this magnitude must encompass everyone who had access to this vital information.”
King writes that three implications of these leaks are highly disturbing: “(a) the lives of a unique intelligence source and others may have been jeopardized; (b) the operation had to be aborted before its potential was maximized; and (c) critical intelligence relationships have been damaged.”
King notes another alarming aspect of the affair: “The information regarding this intelligence matter was handled in the most restricted manner possible by the Intelligence Community and the White House which means the leak would have to have emanated from a small universe. That makes this leak all the more distressing and is why I so strongly believe that an investigation of a security breach of this magnitude must encompass everyone who had access to this vital information.”
Yesterday, King told ABC News that Congress was left in the dark about the operation. He said this was “almost unprecedented,” but that it would help narrow the possibilities of who could have disclosed the classified information.
“Nobody in Congress knew about it, so we start off with that,” King told ABC News. “Even the Speaker of the House [John Boehner] didn’t know about it. It’s almost unprecedented. Even with bin Laden, my understanding is certain members of Congress were told about it months in advance, the killing of bin Laden, and I know the speaker is generally briefed on critical intelligence on a regular basis…but in this case no one was briefed.”
“I have no idea where it’s coming from,” he confessed. “It had to be somebody who knew the entire situation, and again it’s a very small universe.”
“This [mole] was such a really unprecedented penetration — a very rare penetration of al Qaeda and al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula,” King told ABC News. “This really was criminal, and I use the term criminal, but this really was. To put the source at risk, to force the aborting of the operation, to preventing us getting more information than we would have gotten, but also to create real distress with partners that we were involved with in this operation.”
“Ultimately there could have been a way found to get him out…to create a situation where he doesn’t necessarily have to blow his cover,” he added. “Certainly the allies using him and others had not decided at all to admit that they had a source in there. You could have had cover stories, you could have had something done…there could have been ways to have extricated that person without giving up his identity.”
