Washington, D.C. \u2014 This week\u2019s revelation about the president\u2019s authorizing covert action in Syria should not have come as a surprise to anyone. On Wednesday, August 1, CNN carried a breathless report sourced to \u201cU.S. officials\u201d that our beloved Nobel Peace Prize recipient in the Oval Office \u201chas signed a covert directive authorizing U.S. support for Syrian rebels battling President Bashar al-Assad.\u201d According to the story, which was picked up by dozens of other outlets within hours, \u201cThe secret order, referred to as an intelligence \u2018finding,\u2019 allows for clandestine support by the CIA and other agencies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Given the torrent of self-adulatory leaks since the O-Team arrived in Washington three and a half years ago, this should have been the non-story of the month. But the mainstream media fell for it faster than Missy Franklin could swim 100 meters. That\u2019s just what the O-Team wanted \u2014 and has come to expect.<\/p>\n
It turns out the story is true. Obama did sign a \u201cfinding\u201d \u2014 a document required by the 1974 Hughes-Ryan Amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act. The Nixon-era law compels a president to notify Congress that he has formally authorized a \u201ccovert\u201d U.S. intelligence activity that goes beyond the collection of information, and that the activity is important to U.S. national security.<\/p>\n
As a result of Hughes-Ryan, Congress set up \u201cpermanent select committees\u201d in the House and Senate and committed to protect sensitive sources, methods, identities and operational details that would put Americans and\/or our allies at risk. Both committees were provided special access facilities where classified material could be discussed, debated and stored. Members of the committee staffs are subject to background investigations and granted security clearances.<\/p>\n
In the 38 years since Hughes-Ryan and the \u201cpresidential finding\u201d process was instituted, not a single year has passed without the unauthorized disclosure of very sensitive national security information. Just months after the procedures were put in place, the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times carried articles describing a CIA covert operation to recover and exploit a sunken Soviet nuclear submarine in the Pacific. Later that year, the names of dozens of CIA personnel working undercover overseas were published. Shortly thereafter, Richard Welch \u2014 the CIA station chief in Athens, Greece \u2014 was murdered.<\/p>\n
Stanislav Lunev, a Soviet military intelligence officer who defected to the United States in 1992, wrote in his memoir, \u201cThrough the Eyes of the Enemy,\u201d \u201cI was amazed \u2014 and Moscow was very appreciative \u2014 at how many times I found very sensitive information in American newspapers.\u201d The Soviet Union is gone. But the leak problem isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
Radical Islamic terrorists now benefit in the same way as our Cold War adversaries. In 1998, major U.S. media outlets revealed that the National Security Agency was able to monitor Osama bin Laden\u2019s conversations on his satellite telephone. Within days, bin Laden stopped using the phone, and less than three years later, nearly 3,000 people died in the 9\/11 attacks. The carnage at the World Trade Center, at the Pentagon and in a farm field in Somerset County, Pa., hasn\u2019t deterred leakers, either.<\/p>\n
On June 8 of this year, Attorney General Eric Holder pledged that the Obama administration would investigate and bring leakers to justice. And now, we have yet another leak, this one about a presidential finding to provide \u201ccovert support\u201d to the Syrian opposition. So much for swift justice.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s amazing about this revelation is that there is nothing covert about what little the United States is doing to support opponents of al-Assad\u2019s brutal regime in Damascus. In fact, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced it all publicly on April 1, in Istanbul, Turkey \u2014 April Fools\u2019 Day here at home. \u201cI detailed measures that the United States is taking,\u201d she said, and went on to describe everything that has been written and said about the presidential finding: financial aid, communications support, training, medical aid and humanitarian aid for refugees.<\/p>\n
This begs the question: If this presidential finding was issued months ago, why leak it now? Four reasons are evident:<\/p>\n
First, the White House wants to deflect blame for not doing enough to prevent al-Assad \u2014 and anyone else in the neighborhood \u2014 from using Syria\u2019s stores of chemical or biological weapons.<\/p>\n
Second, they knew in advance that Kofi Annan, the United Nation\u2019s \u201cpeace planner,\u201d was about to step down \u2014 and blame everyone for his failure.<\/p>\n
Third, the O-Team doesn\u2019t want us dwelling on our appalling lack of human intelligence about what\u2019s really happening on the ground in Syria and who is likely to take over when this civil war is over.<\/p>\n
But most telling of all is the inescapable conclusion that leaks have become the new normal for the White House and our media. A leak of \u201cclassified information\u201d gets play \u2014 but a press release about helping the rebels won\u2019t. A press conference requires straightforward answers to questions. Leaks don\u2019t.<\/p>\n
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