Flame Out

As Eric Holder assures the American people that leaks of top secret information are being investigated by two competent employees working for Eric Holder, out comes another major story spilling national security secrets:

The United States and Israel jointly developed a sophisticated computer virus nicknamed Flame that collected critical intelligence in preparation for cyber-sabotage attacks aimed at slowing Iran’s ability to develop a nuclear weapon, according to Western officials with knowledge of the effort.

So who dumped this one? Notice they attribute it to 'western officials', which doesn't narrow it down to the US officials of any kind.  Later in the story they mention that spokespersons for several major alphabet agencies here and in Israel 'declined to comment'. That simply means they aren't going on record, not that one of their personnel didn't leak. Perhaps this latest Flame story will renew calls for an Independent Counsel to investigate. Perhaps pigs will fly across the moon.

It's amazing to see what the press will do to keep their man in office. Just yesterday MSNBC fraudulently cropped a story to make Mitt Romney look like a clueless clown, allowing premier NBC journalist Andrea 'everyone knew Plame was in CIA' Mitchell to suggest it may be Romney's 'supermarket scanner moment'.  Talk about blaming Bush, it's a generational slam!  This would be more believable coming from Maddow or Schultz, but Mitchell is just a step or two away from Brian Williams and the Peacock.  Oh well, we await the next round of media hijinks, probably to do with Obama's reset with the Rooskies at the G20.  Maybe they can blame the more recent Bush somehow.

MORE  6/20/12

The Times covers the main argument used by the Obama folks regarding their refusal to appoint an IC for the leak investigations--their zeal in prosecuting them to this point:

Under fire from Republicans who claim that the White House has leaked classified information to make him look tough, President Obama has pointed to his administration’s unmatched record in prosecuting leaks. The statistics are certainly on his side: six leak-related prosecutions in Mr. Obama’s first term, compared with three under all previous presidents combined.

The key question is how many of those investigations involved Obama administration figures? The answer is zero.  Had Bush prosecuted 60 bureaucrats for leaks before the Plame affair it wouldn't have mattered one hill of beans to the press because the leak was supposedly coming from the inside.  Such a simple concept.  Such a laughable alibi.