Rep. King Accuses White House of Leaking 'Secret Order' to Aid Syrian Rebels

by JIM KOURI, CPP August 11, 2012

Information regarding President Barack Obama signing a supposedly secret order to provide American support to Syrian rebels was leaked to "enhance" Obama's reputation, according to Rep. Peter King, the chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, during an interview Sunday on Fox News Channel.

King is alleging the source of recent news reports on a plan that should have remained secret is the Obama White House.

"The administration's leaks must stop before they further endanger the lives of men and women sent into harm's way on our nation's behalf," stated Rep. King.

"To me, all the evidence points towards the White House, and that compromises us because there were two other major allies involved with us in that, and there are tremendous hard feelings and a sense of betrayal from them," King said on Fox News.

News reports appeared in newspapers and aired in broadcast news stories on Thursday and Friday saying the President gave the go-ahead to provide Syrian rebels with "non-lethal" aid.

For example, Reuters reported that a U.S.-supported "secret command center" against the Assad regime is located in Adana, Turkey. The story is proof that the Obama administration has a serious problem with keeping secrets secret, said King.

In response to these latest leaks, King immediately wrote a memorandum to Robert Mueller, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, requesting that the FBI special agents already investigating security leaks add these new reports to their probe.

"These reported disclosures represent additional disturbing and irresponsible leaks of potentially classified information from this Administration," King stated in his letter to Mueller. "Obviously, the ongoing investigations have failed to deter further leaks."

King stated on Fox News: "The only thing I can think of this is an attempt to rehabilitate the president going into an election year to show that he's a tough guy. The president deserves credit for killing Osama bin Laden, but at that time they went beyond anything that had to be disclosed. I think it's to enhance his reputation and it's done in an irresponsible way."

"This series of leaks -- going back to when the Navy SEALs killed the world's number one terrorist leader, Osama bin Laden -- is by far more serious than the media circus of the Valerie Plame-CIA incident that forced the Bush administration to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the so-called outing of a CIA officer," said former NYPD police detective and military intelligence officer Sid Franes.

"And instead of outrage in the White House over these security breaches, all we get is finger-pointing and accusations about an alleged Republican witch hunt," said Franes.

The Obama administration has been enduring repeated criticism over not aiding the rebels against the corrupt and oppressive Assad regime. "What better way to get positive press than to create a secret plan that shows action on the part of Obama, and then leak it to news reporters who, for the most part, want to see Obama re-elected in November," said political strategist Mike Baker.