Floor Statements
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FLOOR STATEMENT BY SENATOR JOHN McCAIN ON THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION’S NATIONAL SECURITY LEAKS
August 1, 2012
Washington, D.C. – The following are remarks as prepared for delivery by U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) on the floor of the U.S. Senate on the Obama Administration’s national security leaks:
“Mr. President, last Tuesday, in a speech before the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention, Governor Romney voiced his strong support for a full and prompt investigation of the recent national security leaks by an independent special counsel with, in his words, ‘explanation and consequence.’ In so doing, Governor Romney rightly referred to these leaks as ‘contemptible’ and a betrayal of our national interests. On the following day, at the Aspen Security Forum, the head of Special Operations Command, Admiral William McRaven, similarly observed that the recent national security leaks have put lives at risk and may ultimately cost Americans their lives unless there is an effective crackdown.
“With this in mind, I would like to discuss the investigation that the Justice Department is undertaking with regard to leaks that everyone has acknowledged have severely damaged our national security interests.
“A few weeks ago, The Washington Post reported that federal authorities have interviewed more than 100 people in the two ongoing leak investigations. And, citing ‘officials familiar with the probes,’ the Post described these interviews as ‘the start of a process that could take months or even years.’ According to anonymous ‘officials’ cited by the Post, ‘the pace of the investigations is partly driven by the large number of government officials who had access to the material that was disclosed and who now must be interviewed.’
“If this is true, this ‘crackdown’ is going nowhere fast.
“I, of course, can’t tell the Justice Department how to do their job. But, having conducted a few high-profile investigations myself into, for example, the Boeing tanker lease and Jack Abramoff’s misconduct, I am frankly puzzled that the Justice Department would start these investigations by interviewing the total universe of officials who had access to the leaked information – when the articles and books that publicized the leaked information specifically cited scores of closed, high-level meetings attended by a relatively small number of senior officials.
“Take, for example, what apparently happened during the 2009 G-20 economic summit – when, according to New York Times journalist David Sanger, ‘a senior official in the National Security Council’ tapped him on the shoulder and brought him to the presidential suite in the Pittsburgh hotel where President Obama was staying, and where ‘most of the rest of the national security staff was present.’ There, the journalist was apparently allowed to review satellite images and other ‘evidence’ that confirmed the existence of a secret nuclear site in Iran. Has the official who made that invitation to Mr. Sanger been identified and interviewed? Has every staffer in that room been interviewed? What do they know about what the reporter described or about any other similar communications of classified or national-security sensitive information to the media? How could something like that have happened without the National Security Advisor knowing anything about it? Has he been interviewed?
“My point is: with details like these about particular people and particular events, conducting an investigation from the ‘bottom-up’ instead of the ‘top-down’ just doesn’t make sense to me.
“Surely, the Justice Department isn’t planning to interview the more than 4.8 million federal government and contractor employees who have, or are eligible for, security clearances on these leaks, is it?
“There can be no doubt that undue delay in the criminal investigation of this matter would itself negatively impact our national security interests. How? Every day that goes by without the Justice Department’s getting to the bottom of what happened and holding people publicly accountable is another day that our allies and other friends who assisted us in the classified operations that were leaked will continue to second-guess our willingness to correct what happened and make sure that it never happens again. And this, I guarantee you, will factor in their willingness to help us similarly in the future. So, the opportunity cost of this investigation remaining incomplete is considerable.
“The investigations of all of the leaks must be done responsibly and credibly. But, we can’t expect the Administration to investigate itself impartially in the midst of an election on a matter as highly sensitive and damaging as this leaks case, especially when those responsible could themselves be members of the Administration. For this reason, the Attorney General must appoint an outside special counsel to independently investigate and, where appropriate, hold accountable those found responsible for these egregious violations of our national security.
“So, as we enter the summer recess period, I continue to call for the appointment of an independent special counsel in these matters. If the Attorney General fails to do so, when the Senate reconvenes, we may need to consider an ad hoc bipartisan congressional committee look into this matter – to find out who leaked this information; why they did so; and what should be done to prevent it from happening again.”
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