President Obama's head of intelligence says there's a "hemorrhage of leaks" going on in Washington, thanks to senior intelligence officials "who get their jollies from blabbing to the media." And it's so bad that it's making Obama anxious, causing shame in his intelligence operations.
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper met with Obama earlier this week and said he "was ashamed to have to sit there and listen to the president express his great angst about the leaking that is going on here in this town." Clapper revealed the situation at an intelligence reform conference in Washington this week.
[Read Cameron Lynch: Wikileaks Causes Bipartisan Outrage]
Of course, leaks are not new in Washington, and neither is anger in the Oval Office about intelligence leaks. Like Obama, former President Bush also got hot when information was leaked and his administration took the effort to sniff out leakers.
In Obama's case, he and Clapper are upset with the Web site Wikileaks which has released thousands of pages of classified information about the war in Afghanistan. The "Wikileaks episode," said Clapper, is a "big yellow flag. I think it's going to have a very chilling effect on the need to share."
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Jullou of AZ 3:01PM October 11, 2010