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Fired CIA Agent is Mary McCarthy

The New York Times reports the identity of the fired senior CIA employee who disclosed information on the CIA's secret prisons to WaPo reporter Dana Priest.

The C.I.A. would not identify the leaker, but several government officials said it was Mary O. McCarthy, a veteran intelligence analyst who until 2001 was senior director for intelligence programs at the National Security Council, where she served under Presidents Clinton and Bush. . At the time of her dismissal, Ms. McCarthy was working in the agency's inspector general's office, after a four-year stint at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based organization that examines global security issues.

Agent McCarthy apparently 'fessed up after failing a lie detector:

She was given a polygraph examination, confronted about answers given to the polygraph examiner and confessed, the government officials said. On Thursday she was stripped of her security clearance and escorted out of C.I.A. headquarters.

As to the subject matter:

Intelligence officials speaking on the condition of anonymity said the dismissal resulted from "a pattern of conduct" and not from a single leak, but that the case involved in part information about secret C.I.A. detention centers that was leaked to The Washington Post.

This is all part of Bush's latest plan to get heavy with leakers:

The dismissal of Ms. McCarthy provided fresh evidence of the Bush administration's determined efforts to stanch leaks of classified information. The Justice Department has separately opened preliminary investigations into the disclosure of information to The Post, for its articles about secret prisons, as well as to The New York Times, for articles last fall that disclosed the existence of a warrantless domestic eavesdropping program supervised by the National Security Agency. Those articles were also recognized this week with a Pulitzer Prize, awarded to two New York Times reporters.

Right-wing bloggers will no doubt make this a focal point of the story:

Public records show that Ms. McCarthy contributed $2,000 in 2004 to the presidential campaign of John Kerry, the Democratic candidate.

But, isn't the bigger issue why is it okay for Bush and Cheney to decide to instantaneously declassify portions of the NIE report so Libby could leak it to Miller, or Rice to leak classified information to AIPAC lobbyists (which she denies) but not okay for a whistleblower to leak to a reporter?

< Rice Subpoenaed in AIPAC Lobbyists' Case | Worst President Ever? >
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    Re: Fired CIA Agent is Mary McCarthy (none / 0) (#1)
    by squeaky on Fri Apr 21, 2006 at 09:05:12 PM EST
    This is all part of Bush's latest plan to get heavy with leakers:
    I am falling over laughing.

    Re: Fired CIA Agent is Mary McCarthy (none / 0) (#2)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Fri Apr 21, 2006 at 09:42:18 PM EST
    Betcha we'll soon see a fresh wave of resignations at the CIA, both in protest of this firing, and also to be freer to whistleblow.

    Re: Fired CIA Agent is Mary McCarthy (none / 0) (#3)
    by demohypocrates on Fri Apr 21, 2006 at 10:02:04 PM EST
    Re: Fired CIA Agent is Mary McCarthy (none / 0) (#4)
    by demohypocrates on Fri Apr 21, 2006 at 10:08:18 PM EST
    I would think it below the belt for TL to publish accusations as fact:
    President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney authorized Cheney's top aide to launch a counterattack of leaks against administration critics on Iraq by feeding intelligence information to reporters, according to court papers citing the aide's testimony in the CIA leak case.


    Re: Fired CIA Agent is Mary McCarthy (none / 0) (#5)
    by pax on Fri Apr 21, 2006 at 10:34:03 PM EST
    Isn't it a violation of some sort of personnel laws/regs to leak a fired employees name?

    Re: Fired CIA Agent is Mary McCarthy (none / 0) (#7)
    by roger on Sat Apr 22, 2006 at 03:13:14 AM EST
    Demo, Read your own link, ignored evidence is not "no" evidence. Conflicting evidence is not "no" evidence.

    Re: Fired CIA Agent is Mary McCarthy (none / 0) (#8)
    by scribe on Sat Apr 22, 2006 at 03:55:04 AM EST
    demohyp: Frankly, you're just making up your position as you go. If they are not finding anything, it's because they don't want to. The EU inquiry is being stalled by (a) the refusal of governments to cooperate and (b) the way one of the German delegates, a CDU/CSU member, is playing Senator Roberts/Graham/Cormyn/Coburn to the committee's other delegates. Indeed, that German delegate (who is relatively senior and kind of one of the members in charge) told Al-Masri (who was rendered by Ghost Air to Bagram, Afghanistan and held and tortured for several months, before being dumped on a Balkan hillside) that he was lying and making it all up and that there was no way the delegate would believe anything al-Masri had to say. Old news BTW - al-Masri testified two or three weeks ago. The point is twofold. First, the EU doesn't want to find anything because the respective governments' intelligence services and the governments themselves are deeply involved in this (beyond tolerating; they're participating). This is becoming particularly clear as to the German intelligence service - there is a strong push from the Left Party on a parliamentary inquiry there, and an equally strong push-back from the government and the BND. It looks like BND is hip-deep in this swamp. Second, there is a strong undercurrent of anti-Arab/Muslim racism still strongly present in Euro societies. The latter leads to such as the French riots of last summer and the Mohammed cartoon uproar. Moreover, the racism leads the Euros to approve (on some level) of W's ass-whooping, much as the more refined members of 40s-50s Mississippi society would give only mild tongue-clucking criticism (if any) of the Klan's latest lynching. However, the Euros know where this is going and they don't like it. Listening to their voices discussing, e.g., the anti-cartoon rioters (on their public affairs programs), and the fear (and associated racism) in their voices is palpable. demohyp, it's easy to be a troll. You might even be proving that. It is much harder to try to find a way out of the stupidity trolls (and those who feed them their memes) would lead society into.

    Re: Fired CIA Agent is Mary McCarthy (none / 0) (#9)
    by john horse on Sat Apr 22, 2006 at 05:11:53 AM EST
    You have to put this in context. The Bush administration has been conducting a purge of intelligence analysts. Now this would not necessarily be a bad thing if the analysts being forced out were the ones responsible for promoting some of the faulty intelligence that Bush used to justify the invasion of Iraq. However, they are not doing that. Instead they are trying to get rid of those analysts who do not show enough political loyalty, in other words, they want to reward the very syncophants who will give Bush what he wants to hear even if it is unreliable and leads to disastrous consequences like Iraq. For the Bush administration political loyalty trumps everything else, including loyalty to one's country. I can think of some people who have been punished for speaking truth to power during the Bush administration. Can anyone think of a single person who has been in any way punished for passing along the bad intelligence that helped get us into the Iraq mess?

    Re: Fired CIA Agent is Mary McCarthy (none / 0) (#10)
    by scarshapedstar on Sat Apr 22, 2006 at 06:31:50 AM EST
    Oh, for those innocent days when we only fired CIA agents for being gay.

    Re: Fired CIA Agent is Mary McCarthy (none / 0) (#11)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Apr 22, 2006 at 07:02:09 AM EST
    I would like to be a fly on the wall in a meeting between Mary, Karl, libby the VP and Bush. I guess we could call it the bad leakers calling the good leaker bad moment.

    Re: Fired CIA Agent is Mary McCarthy (none / 0) (#12)
    by jimakaPPJ on Sat Apr 22, 2006 at 07:44:00 AM EST
    Libby Sosume - I hope you are correct. I also hope that the investigations continue and they charge those still there, and those who have resigned, with any crimes they may have committed. John Horse writes:
    they are not doing that.
    How do you know? Someone leaking to you? scribe writes:
    However, the Euros know where this is going and they don't like it. Listening to their voices discussing, e.g., the anti-cartoon rioters (on their public affairs programs), and the fear (and associated racism) in their voices is palpable.
    Recognizing that you have a sizeable and growing minority in your country that has not assimilated and is demanding that their religious laws trump your secular laws is not racist. It is realistic and should be welcomed by reasonable people. Can this Moslem minority be assimilated? I don't know. Based on actions by some of the educated Moslems - London bombings, NC SUV attacks, etc. - I don't know. Certainly the failed economies of Europe as a whole appear incapable of providing any real future for the young Moslems who thus become cannon fodder for the radicals. As for the cartoons, that was abject surrender by the west, and was proof to the radicals that they can dominate the west merely by turning the west's failed politically correct actions against it. Palcewski - Like it or not, the President has the right to declassify anything he wants to declassify. BION, he doesn't have to ask a GS10 clerk what he can do. He does have to ask the American people. Bush has. Twice.

    Re: Fired CIA Agent is Mary McCarthy (none / 0) (#13)
    by squeaky on Sat Apr 22, 2006 at 09:37:21 AM EST
    PPJ-
    Recognizing that you have a sizable and growing minority in your country that has not assimilated and is demanding that their religious laws trump your secular laws is not racist. It is realistic and should be welcomed by reasonable people.
    Were you around in 1930's Germany? If not you would have fit in just fine. The 40' would have been tough for you know, with trials and all. BTW-This part you just made up for fun right?
    and is demanding that their religious laws trump your secular laws
    Helps fan the flames of hate, though. You and your syllogisms, correct structure, but still false.

    Re: Fired CIA Agent is Mary McCarthy (none / 0) (#14)
    by squeaky on Sat Apr 22, 2006 at 09:45:26 AM EST
    Larry Johnson speaks:
    The case against the CIA Intelligence Officer, Mary McCarthy, fired for her alleged role in leaking information about secret prisons to the Washington Post's Dana Priest smells a little fishy.
    Read the rest. He knew her and her position. She did not have access to that material.

    Re: Fired CIA Agent is Mary McCarthy (none / 0) (#15)
    by squeaky on Sat Apr 22, 2006 at 09:46:56 AM EST
    Here is the link. TPM Cafe