Handling of Leak Stirs Talk of Double Standards [View All]

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-leak6oct06,1,7759995.story?coll=la-home-leftrail

The Bush administration, which has responded swiftly and angrily to suspected leaks of classified information by officials in other branches of government, is now under fire for being slow to react to an apparent breach by one of its own.

In numerous instances since Sept. 11, the Bush White House has been quick to condemn others for failing to safeguard national secrets. Officials have scolded lawmakers for their allegedly loose tongues, fired off memos to military commanders seen as too cozy with the media, and backed up those admonitions with calls for investigations or threats to curtail access to classified data.

Indeed, even as the FBI opened a probe of the administration last week, lawmakers and staffers on Capitol Hill were entering their second year in the crosshairs of a separate FBI investigation launched after the White House complained that congressional sources were to blame for classified al-Qaida communications finding their way into the media.

Given that track record, many people in Washington, D.C., have been mystified that the White House didn't respond publicly until last week to a leak dating back to mid-July, when a syndicated columnist "outed" a clandestine CIA officer and attributed the information to "senior administration officials." It only reacted after news reports that the CIA formally requested a criminal investigation.