Idiot U.S. Navy Official Blabs About Prepping For War With Iran

Vice Adm. Mark Fox

February 12, 2012 - As if we haven't had an abundance of security leaks from low-ranking aides and bureaucrats over the years, all gleefully published by the fifth column mouthpiece mainstream media, along comes this imbecile: Vice Admiral Mark Fox, commander of the 5th Fleet. Adm. Fox is flapping his loose lips about U.S. military preparedness for any possible conflict with Iran.

ABC News is running an AP story today that Fox, who is the top U.S. Navy official in the Persian Gulf and commander of the 5th Fleet, "said Sunday he takes Iran's military capabilities seriously but insists his forces are prepared to confront any Iranian aggression in the region."

That's good to know, I suppose. Fox, reports AP, spoke at the naval force's Bahrain headquarters that the Navy has "'built a wide range of potential options to give the president' and is 'ready today' to confront any hostile action by Tehran."

What the hell? Why are we broadcasting our battle readiness status? It gets worse...

"He did not outline specifically how the Navy might answer an Iranian strike," the AP report says, "or an effort to shut the entrance to the Persian Gulf, though any response would likely involve the two U.S. aircraft carriers and other warships cruising the waters off Iran." (That's my emphasis added.)

Adm. Fox told reporters that the U.S. Navy attempt to stop Iranian from putting mines in the Strait of Hormuz or Persian Gulf as an “act of war” the international community wouldn’t tolerate, the U.S. Navy’s top Gulf commander said, according to a Bloomberg report.

WHY is the commander of the 5th Fleet saying this? First of all, you always want to keep your foes in the dark regarding what capabilities you would bring to a fight. Secondly, this kind of talk could be seen as provocative by Iran. Unless we want to fight them, why piss them off any more than we need to?

"We've developed very precise and lethal weapons that are very effective, and we're prepared," Fox said. "We're just ready for any contingency."

Good to know, Admiral. Now shut your big mouth..

Former CIA Officer, HuffPo Contributor, Charged With Violating Espionage Act

John Kiriakou, left, and his attorney John Hundley, leave
federal court in Alexandria, VA. Photo: Jacquelyn Martin/AP 
Source: The Guardian (UK)

January 23, 2012 - Former CIA officer John Kiriakou was arrested and accused of leaking classified information to reporters.

The Justice Department today charged Kiriakou, 47, with leaking classified information to reporters repeatedly, "including the identity of a covert officer and details about the capture of terrorism suspect Abu Zubaydah," the U.S. Justice Department said.

The Justice Department's actions agains Kiriakou, notes Don Grandoni at The Atlantic Wire, is "the second time this month the agency is sending the message that it doesn't like its ex-agents to be talking to reporters." However, added Grandoni, "the leaks do involve the identities of two CIA officiers."

A federal grand jury charged Kiriakou with one count of violating the Intelligence Agencies Protection Act, two counts of violating the Espionage Act and one count of lying to the CIA about his actions.

NBC reported today that Kiriakou surrendered to the FBI this morning. "In an initial court appearance in Alexandria Monday afternoon," wrote NBC's Michael Isikoff, "Kiriakou waived a preliminary hearing and was released on a $250,000 bond after surrendering his passport and agreeing to stay in the Washington area and not to contact any witnesses in the case. His lawyer, Plato Cacheris, did not immediately respond to a request for comment."

The "Lawfare" blog notes today that Kiriakou, 47, of Arlington, VA, "was a CIA intelligence officer between 1990 and 2004, serving at headquarters and in various classified overseas assignments. He is scheduled to appear at 2 p.m. today before U.S. Magistrate Judge John F. Anderson in federal court in Alexandria." Lawfare also posted the full criminal complaint against Kiriakou (filed today in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia).

Kiriakou has been a busy journalist himself. In addition to being a frequent contributor to The Huffington Post. According to his bio post at HuffPo, "John Kiriakou is an intelligence and counterterrorism consultant for ABC News and a former senior investigator for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, focusing on the Middle East, South Asia, and international terrorism."

Kiriakou also co-authored a book (with Bruce Riedel and Michael Ruby) called "The Reluctant Spy: My Secret Life in the CIA's War on Terror." In fact, much of what Kiriakou is charge with involves the time during which he was writing it. (See a video interview of Kiriakou about his book at booktv.org.)

NBC Washington notes that the U.S. Attorney's office "also said that while Kiriakou was writing his book, he lied to agency investigators in an attempt to secure permission to write about a confidential surveillance technique. Kiriakou wanted to include information about the 'magic box,' a device that could locate any switched-on cell phone, and allegedly told investigators lies about his knowledge of the device and whether or not it was confidential."

Oddly, his bio at HuffPo omits the fact that his tenure with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was actually as an investigator for Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) between 2009 and 2011. It's also odd that his HuffPo bio does not mention that he is one of their own frequent contributors.

Related articles

• Ex-CIA Agent Charged With Leaks (myfoxphoenix.com)
• Former CIA Officer Charged With Leaking Classified Info To Press (legaltimes.typepad.com)
• Canadian naval officer arrested, charged with espionage (news.nationalpost.com)
• US soldier in Alaska arrested, accused of espionage (colonel6.com)
• Iran Gives Death Sentence to American Accused of Spying (theatlanticwire.com)

Traitors, Spies Lose Web Site

A web site called wikileaks.org was just shut down by a California court. According to a report in USA Today: A federal judge in San Francisco has shut down a Web site that posted more than a million government and corporate documents from whistleblowers and others alleging criminal acts worldwide. The BBC says tonight that "The site was founded in 2006 by dissidents, journalists, mathematicians and technologists from the US, Taiwan, Europe, Australia and South Africa. It so far claims to have published more than 1.2 million documents." One of the documents they leaked was one that purported to detail the daily activities at Guantanamo. Back in the good old days, the Americans involved with this would have been shot for treason and/or imprisoned for acts of sedition. I truly miss those days, and truly wish that these folks could legally be shot for, well, treason. I'm not sure what else to call it. Look up the terms "treason" and "sedition," and tell me how they are not guilty: Treason, sedition mean disloyalty or treachery to one's country or its government. Treason is any attempt to overthrow the government or impair the well-being of a state to which one owes allegiance; the crime of giving aid or comfort to the enemies of one's government. Sedition is any act, writing, speech, etc., directed unlawfully against state authority, the government, or constitution, or calculated to bring it into contempt or to incite others to hostility, ill will or disaffection; it does not amount to treason and therefore is not a capital offense. (Source)