Following up on an item from yesterday, I continue to be fascinated (and more than a little disgusted) by the White House’s negligence on the Plame leak. The revelations from yesterday confirmed our worst fears — and then some.
Let’s be clear about the big picture. When it comes to handling of classified information, there are a series of administrative rules that govern federal agencies, including the White House. These are not optional. They can’t be ignored for political convenience. They are not suggestions for employees to consider.
One of them is Executive Order 12958, which includes specific requirements that must be followed to prevent leaks from occurring and for investigating and responding to leaks after they occur. Includes all kinds of provisions, including a mandatory investigation, and revoked security clearances for those who mishandle — accidentally or deliberately — classified information.
Officials from the Bush White House, after the Plame scandal broke, insisted that existing rules were being followed. Bush said he was anxious to get to the bottom of what happened. The White House declared, “There is a process that the administration has in place to address the leak of classified information.” The president’s chief spokesperson assured the nation, “There is a process that the administration has in place to address the leak of classified information. Make no mistake about it, the President has always held the view that the leaking of classified information is a very serious matter. And the process was followed.”
There’s no way around the simple fact that White House officials were lying, blatantly and without shame. But even more importantly, we learned yesterday that these same officials were legally obligated to follow administrative rules, but decided to ignore them altogether. There was a process in place, but Bush’s aides decided not to follow it.
Late yesterday, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) asked White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten to explain why.
James Knodell, Director of the Office of Security at the White House, testified at the hearing about White House procedures for safeguarding classified information. During his testimony, Mr. Knodell made some remarkable statements about how his office handled the disclosure of Ms. Wilson’s covert status. Specifically, Mr. Knodell testified:
* The Office of Security for the White House never conducted any investigation of the disclosure of Ms. Wilson’s identity;
* Under the applicable executive order and regulations, your senior political advisor, Karl Rove, and other senior White House officials were required to report what they knew about the disclosure of Ms. Wilson’s identity, but they did not make any such report to the White House Office of Security; and
* There has been no suspension of security clearances or any other administrative sanction for Mr. Rove and other White House officials involved in the disclosure.
According to Mr. Knodell, the explanation for the lack of action by the White House Security Office was a White House decision not to conduct a security investigation while a criminal investigation was pending. Mr. Knodell could not explain, however, why the White House did not initiate an investigation after the security breach. It took months before a criminal investigation was initiated, yet according to Mr. Knodell, there was no White House investigation initiated during this period.
Mr. Knodell also testified that it would be inappropriate to allow an individual who was a security risk to retain his or her security clearance while a criminal investigation is pending. As members of the Committee pointed out, a criminal investigation can last years, and it would jeopardize national security not to investigate the officials implicated in the leak and suspend their security clearances if there were reason to suspect their involvement. Mr. Knodell did not dispute this point.
The testimony of Mr. Knodell appears to describe White House decisions that were inconsistent with the directives of Executive Order 12958, which you signed in March 2003. Under this executive order, the White House is required to “take appropriate and prompt corrective action” whenever there is a release of classified information. Yet Mr. Knodell could describe no such actions after the disclosure of Ms. Wilson’s identity.
Taken as a whole, the testimony at today’s hearing described breach after breach of national security requirements at the White House. The first breach was the disclosure of Ms. Wilson’s identity. Other breaches included the failure of Mr. Rove and other officials to report their disclosures as required by law, the failure of the White House to initiate the prompt investigation required by the executive order, and the failure of the White House to suspend the security clearances of the implicated officials.
To assist the Committee in its investigation into these issues, I request that you provide the Committee with a complete account of the steps that the White House took following the disclosure of Ms. Wilson’s identity (1) to investigate how the leak occurred; (2) to review the security clearances of the White House officials implicated in the leak; (3) to impose administrative or disciplinary sanctions on the officials involved in the leak; and (4) to review and revise existing White House security procedures to prevent future breaches of national security.
I realize that once the general public hears the phrase “Executive Order 12958,” their eyes glaze over, but this isn’t complicated: There was a leak of classified information; White House officials were obligated to take certain steps in response; the Bush gang didn’t care.
There’s no defense to explain this away. The Bush gang has been caught red-handed.