Story of the Day:CIA Agent Fired for Exposing Secret Gulags

The Associated Press reported today that CIA Director Porter Goss has fired veteran CIA agent Mary McCarthy.

It opens: "In a highly unusual move, the CIA has fired an employee for leaking classified information to the news media, including details about secret CIA prisons in Eastern Europe that resulted in a Pulitzer Prize-winning story, officials said Friday."

Well, it may be a "highly unusual move," but hardly surprising and unusual in the context of previous reports about ongoing activities within the CIA. From the op-ed column "And Now They're Coming for You" (published here March 5):

Attempting to crack down on leaks, the Bush administration is now amping up the fascism. When it comes to threatening and actively pursuing those who would tell the truth, The Washington Post reports:

"The efforts include several FBI probes, a polygraph investigation inside the CIA and a warning from the Justice Department that reporters could be prosecuted under espionage laws."

CIA Director Porter Goss, the Bush lackey brought in post-9/11 under the guise of improving our national intelligence, "has been conducting numerous interviews and polygraph examinations of employees in an effort to discover whether any of them have had unauthorized contact with journalists."

That was then, and this is now. Back to today's AP story:

"The Post's Dana Priest won a Pulitzer Prize [aided by McCarthy's leaked information] this week for her reporting on a covert prison system set up by the CIA after Sept. 11, 2001, that at various times included sites in eight countries. The story caused an international uproar, and government officials have said it did significant damage to relationships between the U.S. and allied intelligence agencies."

This article's headline should read:

CIA Agent Fired for Disclosing Secret Foreign Gulags

"The damage has been very severe to our capabilities to carry out our mission," Goss told Congress in February.

Yes, your mission. A mission that would compel you to fire an American law enforcement official for helping to uncover secret prisons. In reality, torture chambers where human beings - untold numbers of them completely innocent - are held indefinitely, without legal recourse, to suffer atrocities, even death, in the name of freedom and democracy.

Mission accomplished.

CIA Fires Employee for Alleged Leak, by Katherine Shrader
The Associated Press