Using U.S. Intelligence To Promote Political Agendas

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Politics By Other Means -- Mark Moyar, Wall Street Journal

Last week, on the eve of publication of David E. Sanger's "Confront and Conceal: Obama's Secret Wars and Surprising Use of American Power," the New York Times ran an excerpt that detailed secret American cyberattacks on Iran. Sens. John McCain and Saxby Chambliss promptly demanded an investigation, charging that this and other recent leaks of secret information were coming from administration officials more concerned about the president's re-election than about the nation's security.

Robert Mueller, the FBI director, has indeed opened an investigation. It will be interesting to see how it plays out if, as seems probable, some of the leaks came from senior White House officials. Mr. Sanger's book and Daniel Klaidman's "Kill or Capture: The War on Terror and the Soul of the Obama Presidency" divulge the details of top-level deliberations—details that were almost certainly known only to the administration's inner circle. The leaked information, moreover, fits suspiciously well into the tough-on-defense narrative that Barack Obama's re-election team is crafting.

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My Comment: For a book review, there is a lot of information in this post making it my must read for today. As to what is my take .... I have noticed that in recent reports and leaks on President Obama's war policy and intelligence objectives there has been a lack of military and CIA sources .... as outlined in Mr. Sanger's book and and in Daniel Klaidman's book "Kill or Capture: The War on Terror and the Soul of the Obama Presidency" .... the details devulged could only come from President Obama's inner circle.