L'Affaire McCarthy

Andy McCarthy (no relation to Mary McCarthy) wonders why Ms. McCarthy isn't in handcuffs and doing the perp walk. Considering that she's already confessed to violating federal law, terms of her employment, and on multiple occasions at that, one has to wonder what else is going on. Yet, the fact that she's not been arrested suggests that someone in the FBI isn't taking this nearly as seriously as they should:

As a result of all this, McCarthy was fired, stripped of her security clearance, and escorted from the CIA's premises last Thursday. Yet, she has not been arrested.

More alarmingly, according to government officials who spoke to the Washington Post, she may not even be the subject of a criminal investigation. Indeed, unnamed Justice Department lawyers reportedly told the Times that McCarthy's "termination could mean she would be spared criminal prosecution."

This is hard to fathom. Federal law, specifically, Section 793(d) of Title 18, United States Code, clearly makes it an offense, punishable by up to ten years' imprisonment, for anyone who lawfully has access to national defense information — including information which "the possessor has reason to believe could be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation" — to willfully communicate that information to any person not entitled to have it.

McCarthy had access to classified information about our wartime national defense activities by virtue of her official position at the CIA. The compromise of that information appears to have been devastating to U.S. intelligence efforts — in wartime, no less. CIA Director Porter Goss testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee in February that the "damage" from leaks "has been very severe to our capabilities to carry out our mission." The unauthorized disclosures were also, patently, a boon to several foreign nations, which have used it to put immense pressure — under the guise of international law — on countries that heretofore have been willing to run the risk of helping the United States battle terrorists.

My guess is that she's cooperating with law enforcement to track down who else was leaking. If she's naming names, then the possibility exists that she's working out a deal for herself in exchange for getting others who might have also violated the law. Such a deal doesn't mean that she'll escape the perp walk or prison time, but it may reduce it to some degree.

Kim at Wizbang notes the lengths to which ABC is going to try and defend the indefensible.

Ed Morrissey notes that Porter Goss is taking the secrecy requirements for the Agency quite seriously. He's even making sure that the Inspector General at the CIA is polygraphed to make sure that he isn't among those leaking classified information. Even Goss himself was polygraphed. This is the right move. No one at the agency is above the law, and those who have broken the law must be prosecuted.

The crackdown on leaks at the Central Intelligence Agency that led to the dismissal of a veteran intelligence officer last week included a highly unusual polygraph examination for the agency's independent watchdog, Inspector General John L. Helgerson, intelligence officials with knowledge of the investigation said Sunday.
The special polygraphs, which have been given to dozens of employees since January, are part of a broader effort by Porter J. Goss, the director of the C.I.A., to re-emphasize a culture of secrecy that has included a marked tightening of the review process for books and articles by former agency employees.

As the inspector general, Mr. Helgerson was the supervisor of Mary O. McCarthy, who was fired Thursday after admitting she had leaked classified information to reporters about secret C.I.A. detention centers and other subjects, agency officials said.

Mr. Goss and the C.I.A.'s deputy director, Vice Adm. Albert M. Calland III, voluntarily submitted to polygraph tests during the leak investigation to show they were willing to experience the same scrutiny they were asking other employees to undergo, agency officials said. Mr. Helgerson likewise submitted to the lie-detector test, they said.

Of course, Democrats are braying that this smacks of a double standard. Problem is, that the law says otherwise. President Bush, VP Cheney, and those that they authorize to declassify information cannot leak said information if it has been declassified. It simply becomes unclassified information.

McCarthy has admitted to leaking classified information. That's a federal offense. That's why she should be prosecuted. That said, going after those at the Agency on purely partisan grounds is highly questionable.

And once again, it needs to be restated that Dana Priest's series on 'secret prisons' that won her a Pulitzer Prize has not been corroborated by anyone. In fact, it appears that they simply do not exist. Either that, or the CIA has done such an amazing job of covering its tracks, that this is nothing more than a smokescreen covering up actual detention facilities somewhere in the world where the Agency can obtain actionable intel that helps keep us safer from terrorist threats.

Meanwhile, Ace walks back one of his earlier posts that had McCarthy involved in Wilson's trip to Niger.

Others blogging: Patterico and AJ Strata.

UPDATE:
Andrea Mitchell is reporting that Mary McCarthy, via her lawyer, is categorically denying that she leaked these documents and there's this:

Of course, the CIA has said that the officer -- whom the agency wouldn't identify -- had "confessed" after being confronted with the results of a polygraph exam.

What about that? This is admittedly one-sided, but just for the record: a defense source tells NBC News that while McCarthy may have flunked her polygraph on the issue of having unauthorized contacts with reporters, she did NOT flunk the question about leaking information on the secret prison system.

CIA officials say that having unauthorized contacts with reporters is sufficient to be a firing offense, although friends of McCarthy say no one has ever been fired for that before.

The accused's lawyers are trying to spin the situation as well. That's to be expected. But one has to wonder how and why the initial reports would say that the officer confessed when confronted with the results of the test. Also, NBC News' sources are saying that "... while McCarthy may have flunked her polygraph on the issue of having unauthorized contacts with reporters, she did NOT flunk the question about leaking information on the secret prison system." Well, that remains to be seen.

Earlier coverage: Web of Leaks, Cronyism at the CIA, Friday Night Link Dump.