{"id":14256,"date":"2012-06-14T07:20:05","date_gmt":"2012-06-14T11:20:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=14256"},"modified":"2012-06-14T07:20:05","modified_gmt":"2012-06-14T11:20:05","slug":"a-slightly-different-take-on-the-recent-national-security-leaks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=14256","title":{"rendered":"A Slightly Different Take On The Recent National Security Leaks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andrew McCarthy posted an article at PJMedia<\/a>\u00a0about the recent leaks<\/a> of classified information<\/a> and the search for the source of the leaks. He points out that a special prosecutor may not be the answer to solving the problem of who is leaking and stopping the leaks.<\/p>\n

Mr. McCarthy explains why pursuing the leaks as a criminal matter is probably not a good idea:<\/p>\n

The lesson here \u2014 of far more\u00a0political<\/em>\u00a0than\u00a0legal\u00a0<\/em>significance \u2014 is that President Obama<\/a> is a reckless custodian of the nation\u2019s secrets. That is yet another good reason why it is so important to defeat him come November. The rest \u2014 who said what \u2014 is details. It\u2019s the guy in the Oval Office who sets the tone. And that guy, by the way, is fully empowered to declassify whatever information he chooses to declassify, no matter how sensitive, no matter how damaging its disclosure. So if it turns out that Obama effectively approved the leaks, they are probably not actionable disclosures of classified information anyway.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I will admit–that is an angle I had not considered.<\/p>\n

Mr. McCarthy further reminds us:<\/p>\n

\u00a0If the president decides to make information public, it is public \u2014 no matter how classified it was before, and no matter who in the government thinks the publicizing of it is a bone-headed move. The president gets to do that \u2014 and that\u2019s part of why it matters who the president is.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Classified information belongs to the executive branch. Under the Constitution, the executive power is vested in a single official, the president. As Justice Scalia pointed out in his classic dissent in\u00a0Morrison<\/em>\u00a0v.\u00a0Olson<\/em>, this does not mean some of the executive power; it means\u00a0all<\/em>\u00a0of the executive power. The president can make a bad de-classification decision, but it is his decision to make.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It does matter who the President is.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Enhanced<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Andrew McCarthy posted an article at PJMedia\u00a0about the recent leaks of classified information and the search for the source of the leaks. He points out that a special prosecutor may not be the answer to solving the problem of who … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[97,3240,3241,1924],"class_list":["post-14256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-barack-obama","tag-classified-information","tag-leak","tag-leaking-classified-information"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14256"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14257,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14256\/revisions\/14257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}