Israel Matzav

Surprise: White House was source of Stuxnet leaks

The sources for a book by New York Times reporter David Sanger regarding the development of the Stuxnet computer worm by the United States and Israel, and for a New York Times story by the same reporter that was based on the book, were senior members of the White House staff, according to a report in Monday's Washington Times (Hat Tip: Shy Guy via Jawa Report).

The scores of State Department emails from the fall of 2011 to the spring of 2012 do not reveal which officials told Mr. Sanger, but they do show an atmosphere of cooperation within the administration for a book generally favorable toward, but not uncritical of, President Obama. For example:

“I’m getting a bit concerned about the pace of our interviews — or lack of pace, to be more precise — for the book,” Mr. Sanger said in an email Oct. 30, 2011, to Michael Hammer, a senior State Department public affairs official. “The White House is steaming away; I’ve seen [National Security Adviser Thomas E.] Donilon many times and a raft of people below. Doing well at the Pentagon. But on the list I sent you starting on Sept. 12 we’ve scheduled nothing, and chapters are getting into final form.”

Mr. Sanger’s book debuted in June 2012 and brought an immediate call from Republicans to investigate the leaks. They charged that administration officials jeopardized an ongoing secret cyberattack by tipping off Iran’s hard-line Islamic regime about war plans.

They also charged that Obama aides were leaking sensitive materials on other issues, such as the Navy SEAL-CIA raid to kill Osama bin Laden, to burnish Mr. Obama’s credentials as commander in chief as the 2012 election approached.

...

Mr. Sanger wrote a June 1, 2012, article on Stuxnet that was adapted from his book, which debuted later that week. In the story, he quoted “participants” in White House meetings on whether to continue attacking Iran with Stuxnet, which somehow had broken free into the Internet.

“At a tense meeting in the White House Situation Room within days of the worm’s ‘escape,’ Mr. Obama, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and the director of the Central Intelligence Agency at the time, Leon E. Panetta, considered whether America’s most ambitious attempt to slow the progress of Iran’s nuclear efforts had been fatally compromised,” the story said. “Should we shut this thing down?” Mr. Obama asked, according to members of the president’s national security team who were in the room.”

Republicans said those passages alone are evidence that Obama aides broke the law by publicly disclosing a covert program. With the story and book in print, State Department public affairs on June 7 sent to department officials a transcript of a floor speech delivered by Sen. John McCain that week. The Arizona Republican accused the administration of deliberately leaking secrets to portray Mr. Obama as a “strong leader on national security issues” in an election year.

“What price did the administration apparently pay to proliferate such a presidential persona highly valued in an election year?” he said. “Access. Access to senior administration officials who appear to have served as anonymous sources divulging extremely sensitive military and intelligence information and operations.”

...

Asked on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on June 3, 2012, whether the administration leaked to him to bolster the president’s image, Mr. Sanger said:

“I spent a year working the story from the bottom up, and then went to the administration and told them what I had. Then they had to make some decisions about how much they wanted to talk about it.

“All that you read about this being deliberate leaks out of the White House wasn’t my experience. Maybe it is in other cases,” he said. “I’m sure the political side of the White House probably likes reading about the president acting with drones and cyber and so forth. National security side has got very mixed emotions about it because these are classified programs.” Said Mr. McCain: “I don’t know how one could draw any conclusion but that senior members of this administration in the national security arena have either leaked or confirmed information of the most highly classified and sensitive nature.”

I think there was more to this than Obama trying to portray himself as a strong President on national security. Around the time that the administration started leaking seriously to Sanger (note the December 2011 date above - Stuxnet was discovered in late 2010), the Senate rejected Obama's attempts to stop sanctions against Iran 100-0. It was known that Obama was pressuring Israel (and continues to pressure Israel to this very day) not to attack Iran. It was known that the Obama was having problems raising campaign funding from Jewish donors. This wasn't just about portraying Obama as strong on national security. It was also about portraying Obama as pro-Israel and as willing to do something to stop Iran.

It was an attempt to fool people. And it worked.

Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Iranian nuclear threat, National Security, Stuxnet

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:29 AM