A former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is under
investigation for allegedly leaking classified information about a covert cyber
attack on Iran's nuclear facilities, according to media reports.
Retired Marine Gen. James "Hoss" Cartwright has
been told he is a target of the probe, NBC News and The Washington Post
reported Thursday. A "target" is someone a prosecutor or grand jury
has substantial evidence linking to a crime and who is likely to be charged.
The Justice Department referred questions to the US
attorney's office in Baltimore, where a spokeswoman, Marcia Murphy, declined to
comment.
The investigation of the leak about the Iran cyber attack is
one of a number of national security leak investigations that have been started
by the Obama administration, including ones involving The Associated Press and
Fox News.
In June 2012, the New York Times reported that Cartwright
was a crucial player in the cyber operation called Olympic Games, started under
President George W. Bush.
Bush reportedly advised President Barack Obama to preserve
Olympic Games.
According to the Times, Obama ordered the cyberattacks sped
up, and in 2010 an attack using a computer virus called Stuxnet temporarily
disabled 1,000 centrifuges that the Iranians were using to enrich uranium.
Congressional leaders demanded a criminal probe into who
leaked the information, and Obama said he had zero tolerance for such leaks.
Republicans said senior administration officials had leaked the details to
bolster the president's national security credentials during the 2012 campaign.
The Times said Cartwright was one of the crucial players who
had to break the news to Obama and Vice President Joe Biden that Stuxnet at one
point had escaped onto the Internet.
An element of the program accidentally became public in the
summer of 2010 because of a programming error that allowed it to escape Iran's
Natanz plant and sent it out on the Internet, the Times reported. After the
worm escaped onto the Internet, top administration officials met to consider
whether the program had been fatally compromised.
Obama asked if the program should continue, and after
hearing the advice of top advisers, decided to proceed.
Cartwright, a four-star general, was cleared in February
2011 of misconduct involving a young aide. An anonymous accuser had claimed
Cartwright acted inappropriately during a 2009 overseas trip on which the aide
traveled as a military assistant. Several sources confirmed that the former
aide was a young woman.
The Pentagon inspector general quickly cleared Cartwright of
the most serious allegations, which involved claims that he may have had an
improper physical relationship with the woman.
The report did find that Cartwright mishandled an incident
in which the aide, drunk and visibly upset, visited his Tbilisi, Georgia, hotel
room alone and either passed out or fell asleep on a bench at the foot of his
bed. Cartwright denied any impropriety and was later cleared of all wrongdoing.
Cartwright, once considered the leading candidate to become
Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, resigned from the military in August 2011.
NBC said Cartwright did not respond to request for comment
and that his attorney, former Obama White House counsel Greg Craig, said he had
no comment.
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