The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform’s hearing with Valerie Plame Wilson produced plenty of fascinating insights, but my personal favorite was the grilling Dr. James Knodell, Director of the Office of Security in the White House, took from Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.).
First, a little background. There’s a provision known as Executive Order 12958 prohibits “any knowing, willful or negligent action that could reasonably be expected to result in an unauthorized disclosure of classified information.” Whether the leak is intentional or mere “negligence,” E.O. 12958 mandates that the administration take administrative actions against employees who violate these rules, and adjust procedures in order to prevent similar security breaches in the future. (It also mandates that a White House employee who believe he or she might have leaked classified information has an obligation to report it.)
Indeed, E.O. 12958 provides that when a violation or infraction of the administrative rules occurs, each agency must “take appropriate and prompt corrective action.” It’s not optional — under executive branch directives, it’s incumbent upon the White House to conduct an internal investigation of the security breach and take “prompt corrective action.”
That White House officials were involved in just such a leak is no longer open to debate. The question then becomes what kind of mandatory investigation the White House launched.
The answer: none.
Knodell was on hand to answer committee member’s questions. After some Q&A from Cummings, Knodell acknowledged that the Office of Security in the White House, which is directly responsible for responding to these kinds of leaks, conducted no investigation, prepared no report, and took no sanctions against anyone.
“So, it sounds to me like we had a breach on top of a breach,” Cummings told Knodell. “We had one situation where Ms. Valerie Plame Wilson’s identity and covert status was disclosed, and then within the very office in the White House, there’s no report, there’s no investigation, and there are no sanctions.”
Waxman jumped in.
Waxman: I just want to pin this point down. Do you know whether there was an investigation at the White House, after the leaks came out?
Knodell: I don’t have any knowledge of an investigation within my office.
Waxman: Ever?
Knodell: I do not.
Waxman: Because the president said he was investigating this matter. He was going to get to the bottom of it. You’re not aware that any investigation took place.
Knodell: Not within my office, sir.
Waxman: And if there was an investigation, what were you referring to? Mr. Fitzgerald’s investigation?
Knodell: Yes, the outside investigation.
Waxman: OK, that didn’t start until month and months later, and that had the purpose of narrowly looking to see whether there was a criminal law violated. But there was an obligation for the White House to investigate whether classified information was being leaked inappropriately, wasn’t there?
Knodell: (extremely long pause) If that was the case, yes.
I know this may seem like a minor point, but let’s be clear about what we’ve learned here. The White House office responsible for overseeing classified information knew that some administration officials were responsible for leaking classified information, and despite regulations mandating at least some kind of investigation, this office literally did nothing.
They didn’t care. They leaked classified information, exposed a covert CIA official, undermined national security, and then blew off every rule in the books about how to deal with just such an incident. As Hilzoy put it:
The point of investigating a leak of classified information is not just to assign blame; it’s also to figure out how to fix things so that no similar leaks ever happen again. The best possible spin one could put on this, for the White House, is that they were completely unconcerned with covert agents getting outed. The more likely story, of course, is that they knew perfectly well who had leaked the information, and didn’t want it investigated because they knew that the more details found their way onto paper, the worse it would be.
The Bush gang was obligated to keep classified information secret, and they failed to do their duty. They were obligated to report possible leaks, and they failed to do their duty. They were obligated to investigate what happened, and they failed to do their duty.
The mind reels.