There's been a fair amount of chatter in D.C. lately about some leaks of national security information, which Republicans believe was politically motivated. President Obama was asked about it today, and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has been trying to turn this into a scandal, even going so far as to call for a special counsel investigation.
Funny, when the Bush/Cheney White House outed an undercover CIA agent during a war, McCain and other congressional Republicans seemed far less concerned about sensitive leaks.
In any case, Pete Hoekstra, a Republican U.S. Senate candidate in Michigan, decided to weigh in today with a tweet on the leak story.
The problem, of course, is that Hoekstra is probably the single worst person in the country to talk about leaks that compromise national security.
He'd probably prefer to forget, but when Hoekstra was in Congress, he was the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee. In one especially memorable incident, he confirmed to the Washington Post, on the record, that Nidal Malik Hasan had exchanged emails with Anwar al-Awlaki. As Rachel reported at the time, it was a problematic revelation -- that federal officials had kept secret for a reason.
Marc Ambinder followed up today with senior intelligence officials who said "there are concerns" about Hoekstra's loose lips. The Republican lawmaker, who was routinely briefed on some of the nation's most sensitive national security secrets, apparently tipped a radical cleric to surveillance efforts and inadvertently confirmed "a sensitive capability that the N.S.A. regularly employs to collect intelligence."
A former intelligence official privy to details of the NSA's programs said that it "would appear to be the case" that Hoekstra divulged too much information.
Wait, it gets worse.
In August 2007, Hoekstra wrote an op-ed condemning leaks, but the op-ed itself included a leak with classified information about U.S. intelligence budgets.
In November 2006, Hoekstra pushed the Bush administration to publish online a vast archive of Iraqi documents captured during the war. The idea was to let far-right bloggers "prove" that Saddam had WMD, but Hoekstra's plan led to the accidental release of secret nuclear research.
And in 2009, it was Hoekstra who was supposed to keep secret his itinerary in Iraq, but who instead broadcasted his whereabouts on Twitter.
Hoekstra, in other words, leaked like a sieve. This isn't a subject he should be eager to talk about.
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Obviously there's no penalty for leaking, so it shall continue.
Reason number 8475631465941 why Pete Hoekstra will never be elected to a statewide office - like US Senator - by us voters in Michigan.
The latest poll in Michigan shows Romney leads Obama in Michigan. Imagine that. When Romney's solution to the auto company crisis in 2008 would have lead to liquidation of the American auto industry. Let that sink in: the latest poll in Michigan shows Romney beating Obama.
Ever consider that poll could be an outlier? Besides, Stabenow polls well ahead of Hoekstra - 53 to 37.
Obviously there is also no penalty for hypocrisy, so it shall continue.
GOTP don't care about "secrecy" unless it's their secret they're trying to hide....
"It's secret for a reason"....
Maybe because it's illegal?...
Just a thought...
"Hoekstra, in other words, leaked like a sieve. This isn't a subject he should be eager to talk about."
Why shouldn't he talk about it? It's not like hypocrisy is going to harm the Republican brand when nobody calls them out on it. Hey, he got in a shot at Obama and there will be no penalty.
This is the way Republicans roll. And the way they win. Being a hypocritical dick works for Republicans.
Because they know Rule #1: It's OKay If You're A Republican. When in doubt, refer to Rule #1. :-/
Weird how often that phrase seems apropos in stories about Rape-Public-CONs.
:-(
Sad, but the agenda of stupid many times supersedes even the base elements of common sense, let alone the capacity of thought among some of our duly elected "decision-makers!" -Kevo
Hoekstra being a major, major leaker of intelligence has been a very open "secret" in the intelligence community (IC) for years. Yes, they (republicants) are still not ashamed.
Of course we must be mindful of how Obama kept the Osama mission secret and took a bunch of crap from the right afterwards.
The whole idea of secret operations is worrisome though. Bush was good at divulging secrets that aided his agenda even though said secrets were in fact misinformation designed to boost his desire to go to war.
Though there may be a need for secret ops there is also the need for we the people to know what is being done on our dime and in our name.This is the reason our founders insisted on freedom of the press but the right wants the press to be free to gossip and lie not to investigate and inform.
There are a few areas in which the Republican's case falls short in their allegations that President Obama's White House is leaking classified information. The first is the notion that authorizing cyberwarfare against Iran was done in the hope that disabling the centrifuges would buy time for sanctions to work. He had to placate Netanyahu and convince him that the US was doing everything it could do to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. If President Obama had cancelled operation "Olympic Games", it is possible that Israel would have struck Iran on their own, plunging us into a war with unforseen consequences.
That scenario makes Obama look strong? According to who?