Rep. King: Obama Using Leaks to Build Image; Try to be Like John Wayne

[Dusty]

These are serious allegations, albeit unsurprising.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/06/10/rep-king-leaks-came-from-white-house-obama-trying-to-be-like-john-wayne/

A top House Republican on Sunday rejected President Obama's claim that recent security leaks did not come from the White House, accusing the president of using the leaks -- which detailed the administration's counterterror programs -- to "build up his reputation" before November.

"He's trying to be like George Patton or John Wayne," Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., told Fox News.

The gloves-off accusations from the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee follow Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to appoint two U.S. attorneys to investigate possible unauthorized leaks of classified information.

Since that announcement Friday, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have called on the prosecutors to get to the bottom of recent newspaper stories that contained sensitive information on top-secret programs. They included reports on the campaign of cyber-warfare against Iran, the U.S. drone program and a foiled terror plot from an Al Qaeda affiliate.

Obama on Friday assailed as "offensive" and "wrong" the idea that his White House would "purposely release" classified security information.

But King, speaking with Fox News, said the leaks had to have come from the president's inner circle.

"This is the most shameful cascade of leaks I've ever heard or seen in government," he said. "It's clear from those stories this came right from the White House, came right from the National Security Council, came right from the Situation Room. ... It has to lead to people very high up in the administration in his White House."

King, R-N.Y., alleged that the leaks must have been "approved from the top," and accused the president of grandstanding in an election year.

"I give him credit for a lot that he's done on overseas terrorism. There's no need, though, to put the nation's security at risk by trying to build up his reputation for the presidential election in November," he said.

Other lawmakers were not so quick to link the leaks right back to the White House, but said the investigation must be allowed to proceed unfettered by election-year politics.

"This needs to be fair. It shouldn't be a partisan thing. This should really be about catching the folks who are leaking some very damaging national security information," Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said on CBS' "Face the Nation."

"If it goes to the NSC or (Department of Defense) or FBI, then they have to go there," he said.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on the same program that she hopes the two attorneys appointed to probe the matter "get to a relatively quick disposition."

She said she does not believe the White House leaked any information in order to make the president look good.

Meanwhile, Obama's top campaign strategist adamantly defended the president.

"I can't say that there weren't leaks. There were obvious leaks, but they weren't from the White House," David Axelrod said on ABC's "This Week." He said the president understands that "when he commits people to missions, that their lives are at stake, and the safety of Americans are at stake -- and the last thing that he would countenance or anybody around him would countenance are leaks that would jeopardize the security of Americans on these secret missions, and the success of those missions."

He said he's confident the probe will not show White House involvement.

Some Republican lawmakers have questioned whether the attorneys assigned by Holder will be able to act independently of the Obama administration. King added his voice to those skeptics Sunday, questioning what kinds of powers those attorneys might have should they come across wrongdoing.

Holder, though, said Friday that the attorneys are authorized to prosecute violations and that the probe could reach into the Obama administration.

"I have every confidence in their abilities to doggedly follow the facts and the evidence in the pursuit of justice wherever it leads," he said, after assigning the investigation to Ronald Machen, a U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, and Rod Rosenstein, a U.S. attorney for Maryland.

Snip

[Dusty]

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-new-york-times-journalist-defends-national-security-leaks-20120610,0,693454.story

Two stories published by the New York Times, which exposed the extent of U.S. involvement in cyber attacks against Iran and the White House’s secret 'Kill List,' have sparked scrutiny over the last week amid allegations that administration officials had leaked classified information for political gain.

The debate continued Sunday as Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) reiterated calls for a special prosecutor to take charge of leak investigations and as a reporter who wrote one of the stories said he doubted that any politically motivated leaks were involved.

David Sanger, chief Washington correspondent for the New York Times, appeared on CNN’s “Reliable Sources” to defend his reporting on U.S. involvement in deploying the Stuxnet computer virus against Iran.

Sanger said that during 18 months of reporting for his book “Confront and Conceal: Obama’s Secret Wars and Surprising Use of American Power,” he obtained information from the ground up. He said he had serious doubts as to whether there were any political motivations behind the leaks.

“Did I talk to a lot of people in the administration? Of course,” he said, as would be expected when writing a book about national security.

Sanger contended that how Obama conducts himself in the theater of international military action is key for the public to know, and is a necessary story for the media to report on, regardless of the secrecy associated with national security issues.

“Can we debate them out in the open? Of course,” he said.

McCain dismissed Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder’s appointment of two federal prosecutors to oversee the investigation.

“Mr. Holder’s credibility with Congress, there is none. We continue to have this problem with him withholding information on Fast and Furious, which resulted in the killing of a border patrol agent in Arizona. He is close to being held in contempt,” McCain said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), chairman of the House committee investigating the Fast and Furious operation – an effort to track gun purchases by Mexican drug cartels that lost track of many of the weapons – has proposed holding Holder in contempt. Democrats have dismissed the effort as political grandstanding.

“This information had to have come from the administration. It couldn’t have come from anywhere else,” McCain said, referring to details in Sanger’s book. "]"The president may not have done it himself, but he’s certainly responsible as commander in chief.”

Snip

[greenberetTFS]

"O" and John Wayne don't belong on the same line actually,he couldn't make a pimple on the Duke's ass..........:eek:

BigTeddy :munchin

[cbtengr]

Regardless of where the leaks are coming from (the White House) they have to stop. We the people do not need to know the details, we just need to know that our government is doing all it can to keep us safe. Screw O's image, in the end it's gonna be " its the economy stupid." And a thousand other reasons this guy and his crowd have got to go.

[Destrier]

You know, the Dem's are also coming out against him. Wouldn't it be interesting to see them use this to bail on him before the election.

[Sarski]

"He's trying to be like George Patton or John Wayne," Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., told Fox News.


I don't mean any disrespect to the office of the POTUS, but I was thinking the image presented was more like that of Pee Wee Herman.:D

[Dusty]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mkx2m4s97Q&feature=related

[greenberetTFS]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mkx2m4s97Q&feature=related

OK,I'm going to let you'all have some fun.........;) As a younger man in my late 30's-early 50's I was often told and occasionally been mistaken for Alex Karras,at airports,restaurants,even just meeting people for th first time,honestly........:p Seeing that show brought it all back...........:D

Big Teddy :munchin

[cedsall]

Two stories published by the New York Times, which exposed the extent of U.S. involvement in cyber attacks against Iran and the White House’s secret 'Kill List,' have sparked scrutiny over the last week amid allegations that administration officials had leaked classified information for political gain.

I'm pretty sure the keeping of "kill lists" was already revealed in the book "Top Secret America" http://http://www.amazon.com/Top-Secret-America-American-Security/dp/0316182214

It was somewhere in the last few chapters.

[Streck-Fu]

More leaks....OPSEC must be a Broadway musical by now.....LINK (http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-israel-developed-computer-virus-to-slow-iranian-nuclear-efforts-officials-say/2012/06/19/gJQA6xBPoV_print.html)
U.S., Israel developed computer virus to slow Iranian nuclear efforts, officials say
By Ellen Nakashima, Greg Miller and Julie Tate, Tuesday, June 19, 3:07 PM
The United States and Israel jointly developed a sophisticated computer virus nicknamed Flame that collected critical intelligence in preparation for cyber-sabotage attacks aimed at slowing Iran’s ability to develop a nuclear weapon, according to Western officials with knowledge of the effort.

The massive piece of malware was designed to secretly map Iran’s computer networks and monitor the computers of Iranian officials, sending back a steady stream of intelligence used to enable an ongoing cyberwarfare campaign, according to the officials.

The effort, involving the National Security Agency, the CIA and Israel’s military, has included the use of destructive software such as the so-called Stuxnet virus to cause malfunctions in Iran’s nuclear enrichment equipment.

The emerging details about Flame provide new clues about what is believed to be the first sustained campaign of cyber-sabotage against an adversary of the United States.

“This is about preparing the battlefield for another type of covert action,” said one former high-ranking U.S. intelligence official, who added that Flame and Stuxnet were elements of a broader assault that continues today. “Cyber collection against the Iranian program is way further down the road than this.”

Flame came to light last month after Iran detected a series of cyberattacks on its oil industry. The disruption was directed by Israel in a unilateral operation that apparently caught its U.S. partners offguard, according to several U.S. and Western officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

There had been speculation that the United States had a role in developing Flame, but the collaboration on the virus between Washington and Israel has not been previously confirmed. Commercial security researchers last week reported that Flame contained some of the same code as Stuxnet. Experts described the overlap as DNA-like evidence that the two sets of malware were parallel projects run by the same entity.

Spokespersons for the CIA, the NSA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, as well as the Israeli Embassy in Washington, declined to comment.

The virus is among the most sophisticated and subversive pieces of malware exposed to date. Experts said the program was designed to replicate across even highly secure networks, then control everyday computer functions to send a flow of secrets back to its creators. The code could activate computer microphones and cameras, log keyboard strokes, take computer screen shots, extract geolocation data from images and send and receive commands and data through Bluetooth wireless technology.

Flame was designed to do all this while masquerading as a routine Microsoft software update, evading detection for several years by using a sophisticated program to crack an encryption algorithm.

“This is not something that most security researchers have the skills or resources to do,” said Tom Parker, chief technology officer for Fusion X, a security firm specializing in simulating state-sponsored cyberattacks, who does not know who was behind the virus. “You’d expect that of only the most advanced cryptomathematicians, such as those working at NSA.”

Flame was developed at least five years ago as part of a classified effort code-named Olympic Games, according to officials familiar with U.S. cyber operations and experts who have scrutinized its code. The U.S.-Israeli collaboration was intended to slow Iran’s nuclear program, reduce the pressure for a conventional military attack and extend the timetable for diplomacy and sanctions.

The cyberattacks augmented conventional sabotage efforts by both countries, which included inserting flawed centrifuge parts and other components in Iran’s nuclear supply chain.

The best-known cyberweapon set loose on Iran was Stuxnet, a name coined by researchers in the antivirus industry who discovered the virus two years ago. It infected a specific type of industrial controller at Iran’s uranium enrichment plant in Natanz, causing almost 1,000 centrifuges to spin out of control. The damage occurred gradually, over months, and Iranian officials initially thought it was the result of incompetence.

The scale of the espionage and sabotage effort “is proportionate to the problem that’s trying to be resolved,” the former intelligence official said, referring to the Iranian nuclear program. Although Stuxnet and Flame infections can be countered, “it doesn’t mean that other tools aren’t in play or performing effectively,” he said.

To develop these tools, the United States relies on two of its elite spy agencies. The NSA, known mainly for its electronic eavesdropping and code-breaking capabilities, has extensive expertise in developing malicious code that can be aimed at U.S. adversaries, including Iran. The CIA lacks the NSA’s level of sophistication in building malware, but is deeply involved in the cyber campaign.

The agency’s Information Operations Center is second only to the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center in size. The IOC, as it is known, performs an array of espionage functions, including extracting data from laptops seized in counterterrorism raids. But the center specializes in computer penetrations that require closer contact with the target, such as using spies or unwitting contractors to spread a contagion on a thumb drive.

Both agencies analyze the intelligence obtained through malware such as Flame, and have continued to develop new weapons even as recent attacks have been exposed.

Flame’s discovery shows the important role of mapping networks and collecting intelligence on targets as the prelude to an attack, especially in closed computer networks. Officials say gaining and keeping access to a network is 99 percent of the challenge.

“It is far more difficult to penetrate a network, learn about it, reside on it forever and extract information from it without being detected than it is to go in and stomp around inside the network causing damage,” said Michael V. Hayden, a former NSA director and CIA director who left office in 2009. He declined to discuss any operations he was involved with during his time in government.

The effort to delay Iran’s nuclear program using cyber-techniques began in the mid-2000s, when President George W. Bush was in his second term. At that point it consisted mainly of intelligence gathering to identify potential targets and develop tools to disrupt them. In 2008, the program went operational and shifted from military to CIA control, former officials said.

Despite their collaboration on developing the malicious code, the United States and Israel have not always coordinated attacks. Israel’s April assaults on Iran’s oil ministry and oil export facilities caused only in minor disruptions. The episode led Iran to investigate and ultimately discover Flame.

“The virus penetrated some fields — one of them was the oil sector,” Gholam Reza Jalali, an Iranian military cyber official, told Iranian state radio in May. “Fortunately, we detected and controlled this single incident.”

Some U.S. intelligence officials were dismayed that Israel’s unilateral incursion led to the discovery of the virus, prompting counter measures.

The disruptions led Iran to ask a Russian security firm and a Hungarian cyber lab for help, according to U.S. and international officials familiar with the incident.

Last week, researchers with the Kaspersky Labs, the Russian security firm, reported their conclusion that Flame — a name they came up with — was created by the same group or groups that built Stuxnet. Kaspersky declined to comment on whether it was approached by Iran.

“We are now 100 percent sure that the Stuxnet and Flame groups worked together,” said Roel Schouwenberg, a Boston-based senior researcher with Kaspersky Labs.

Kaspersky also determined that the Flame malware predates Stuxnet. “It looks like the Flame platform was used as a kickstarter of sorts to get the Stuxnet project going,” Schouwenberg said.



Staff writer Joby Warrick contributed to this report.