Obama denies White House responsibility in national security leaks

President calls the suggestion that leaks originated from his staff 'offensive', while John McCain and others cry foul

Barack Obama has strongly denied the White House is responsible for a "cascade of leaks" about secret operations that have prompted accusations that American lives have been endangered for political gain.

Obama said he will "root out" those responsible for revelations in the press about a joint US-Israeli assault on Iran's nuclear programme using a computer virus known as Stuxnet, the role of the president in deciding a "kill list" of targets of drone strikes in Pakistan, and revelations about a CIA sting operation in Yemen that blocked an attempt to blow up a transatlantic flight.

"The notion that my White House would purposely release classified national security information is offensive. It's wrong," he said.

Senator  John McCain has  led accusations that the White House leaked the stories to make the president appear tough on national security.

Obama said his office has never tolerated leaks. "Since I've been in office, my attitude has been zero tolerance for these kinds of leaks and speculation," he said. "We have mechanisms in place where if we can root out folks who have leaked they will suffer consequences. In some cases, it's criminal. These are criminal acts when they release information like this. And we will conduct thorough investigations, as we have in the past."

The FBI is already investigating the source of the stories about the Iran virus and Yemeni bomb plot.

McCain has accused the administration of hypocrisy over its aggressive pursuit of lower-level functionaries accused of leaking classified information, and particularly its heavy-handed treatment of Private Bradley Manning – who faces a raft of serious charges including aiding the enemy – over allegedly supplying classified documents to WikiLeaks.

"The fact that this administration would aggressively pursue leaks perpetrated by a 22-year old army private in the Wikileaks matter and former CIA employees in other leaks cases, but apparently sanction leaks made by senior administration officials for political purposes, is simply unacceptable," he said this week.

McCain has said he will submit a resolution to the Senate calling for a special counsel to investigate the source of the leaks. The White House has rejected the move.

McCain has questioned why the Obama administration would be opposed if it is not responsible for the leaks. "Suppose nothing came out of the White House. Let's just suppose that," he told Fox News. "Why wouldn't the administration want a special counsel to investigate this because of the gravity and the size of this compromise of national security?"

The heads of intelligence committees in Congress say they plan to introduce new laws to prevent leaks of highly classified information.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/08/o...l-security