CIA leaker underlines point made before

I have made the point before that in a bureaucracy the various governmental agencies consist of people of all political perspectives. It is likely not feasible to get rid of all the people from each department every 4 or 8 years and replace them with known loyalists. The concept that all people in the department are interested in successfully fulfilling their responsibilities either because it is the right thing or out of loyalty is ludicrous. There are those who do not have the work ethic and skill sets to produce excellence for an administration they agree with, while the motivation of those in disagreement can be severely compromised.

One thread that I keep seeing again and again is the thorn in George Bush's side from former Clinton appointees. We have seen it among some of the famous criticizing generals and the latest is this CIA leaker, Mary McCarthy. According to this filed report:

National Security Advisor Samuel R. Berger announced today the
appointment of Mary O'Neil McCarthy as Special Assistant to the
President and Senior Director for Intelligence Programs. Mrs. McCarthy
succeeds Rand Beers.


Mary McCarthy had been Director of Intelligence Programs on the
National Security Council Staff since July 1996. Previously, Mrs.
McCarthy served as the National Intelligence Officer for Warning from
1994-1996 and as the Deputy National Intelligence Officer for Warning
from 1991-1994. She began government service in 1984 as an analyst in
the Directorate of Intelligence of the Central Intelligence Agency.

So basically this person working in the CIA that decided to leak classified information to the Washington Post was appointed by Sandy Berger during the Clinton Administration. These leaks are regarding alleged secret prisons in Europe:

The leak pertained to stories on the CIA’s rumored secret prisons in Eastern Europe, sources told NBC. The information was allegedly provided to Dana Priest of the Washington Post, who wrote about CIA prisons in November and was awarded a Pulitzer Prize on Monday for her reporting.

Of course there are recent reports questioning the validity of this report on secret prisons. So Mary McCarthy may not only be leaking classified information, but actually leaking false information. If that turns out to be the case, I wonder what will happen to the Pulitzer Prize awarded for this story.

It must be quite humorous to the individual both working for an administration and working to undermine that administration at the same time. To me, however, this is a very low individual with no character. If one cannot work for an administration, they should resign and do something else. I think once the person is caught as in this case, I am sure the humor ends.

The underlying point to this post is to recognize that in today's hostile political climate there are with certainty individuals within the government departments that are acting in a manner with the goal of making the administration look bad. This CIA appointee is just the tip of the iceberg. The CIA, the FBI and the State Department are likely in deep need of the "shakeup" the media keeps harping on in Bush's cabinet.