When the House Intelligence Committee voted yesterday to release a classified memo, we were bombarded by stories like the one in the Journal today. “We have crossed a deeply regrettable line in this committee where for the first time in the 10 years or so that I’ve been on the committee, there was a vote to politicize the declassification process of intelligence and potentially compromise sources and methods,’ said Rep. Adam Schiff, (D., Calif.), the top Democrat on the panel.”
This is the kind of rhetorical statement that leaves me cold. It is a lie. In the book that this site was named after, I talked about the examples that allowed the Obama Administration to divulge secrets by the dozens, including the famous Stuxnet story, and a raft of others which were given straight to the New York Times, by-passing the Congressional process for release of anything. Admiral James Cartwright was prosecuted and convicted, even though I’m sure he was not the person who directed it. President Obama pardoned him as one of his last acts. That was largely overshadowed by the commutation of Chelsea Manning,
So, hypocrites abound here, and the damage is clear on both sides. The Russians may have promoted the release of the memo, and criticized it at the same time. That stirs up trouble on both sides and makes it harder to govern. Politicians on both sides, some of whom put party politics over national security, are glad to help out. There is nothing new about that.
No comments:
Post a Comment