Did a little research on government leak laws last night. Came across two interesting articles:
Edward Snowdedn and the Selective Targeting of Leaks
http://blogs.reuters.com/jackshafer/2013/06/11/edward-snowden-and-the-selective-targeting-of-leaks/
> In 2010, NBC News reporter Michael Isikoff detailed similar secrecy machinations by the Obama administration, which leaked to Bob Woodward “a wealth of eye-popping details from a highly classified briefing” to President-elect Barack Obama two days after the November 2008 election. Among the disclosures to appear in Woodward’s book “Obama’s Wars” were, Isikoff wrote, “the code names of previously unknown NSA programs, the existence of a clandestine paramilitary army run by the CIA in Afghanistan, and details of a secret Chinese cyberpenetration of Obama and John McCain campaign computers.”
> The secrets shared with Woodward were so delicate Obama transition chief John Podesta was barred from attendance at the briefing, which was conducted inside a windowless, secure room known as a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility, or “SCIF.”
> Isikoff asked, quite logically, how the Obama administration could pursue a double standard in which it prosecuted mid-level bureaucrats and military officers for their leaks to the press but allowed administration officials to dispense bigger secrets to Woodward. The best answer Isikoff could find came from John Rizzo, a former CIA general counsel, who surmised that prosecuting leaks to Woodward would be damn-near impossible to prosecute if the president or the CIA director authorized them.
Two things stand out to me:
1."the existence of a clandestine paramilitary army run by the CIA in Afghanistan" [in 2010]
—Ned Price "travelled the world to deter and disrupt attacks, with some of his work being presented to the Oval Office at times.
—Ned Price's mentor was Jennifer Lynne Matthews, chief of the CIA base in Khost, Afghanistan, in 2009
–https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/948282878152060935.html
—"Matthews…had served for seven months at the helm of a CIA forward operating base in the turbulent Khost province"
–http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/07/AR2010060704790.html
—Ned Price lists "counterterrorism" as one of his field of expertise.
–Odds are pretty good that at some point, he was involved with that clandestine paramilitary army run by the CIA
-
"prosecuting leaks to Woodward would be damn-near impossible to prosecute if the president or the CIA director authorized them."
—This underlines the importance of POTUS removing Brennan, Clapper, Comey, and anyone else he suspected of leaking
–they all had "original classification authority"
The Leaky Leviathan: Why the Government Condemns and Condones Unlawful Disclosures of Information
–https://harvardlawreview.org/2013/12/the-leaky-leviathan-why-the-government-condemns-and-condones-unlawful-disclosures-of-information/
–pdf is attached
–lots of info on the difference between leaks and 'plants'
side note: I'm looking for an article I've read that describes how it's perfectly legal to 'guide' people to the truth in a roundabout manner