Sunday, April 23, 2006
John Kerry Defends CIA Leaker
Sen. John Kerry is defending CIA leaker Mary McCarthy, who was fired by the agency on Friday for revealing classified information about secret CIA interrogations of top al-Qaida suspects.
"If you're leaking to tell the truth, Americans are going to look at that [and] at least mitigate or think about what are the consequences that you, you know, put on that person," Kerry told ABC's "This Week."
"Obviously they're not going to keep their job, but there are other larger issues here," he insisted.
Kerry prefaced his remarks by noting: "Clearly, leaking is against the law. And nobody should leak. I abhor leaking. I don't like it."
But the 2008 presidential hopeful complained that sometimes "classification in Washington is a tool that is used to hide the truth from the American people."
Kerry said that he was "glad" the CIA leaker "told the truth," before adding: "But she's going to obviously - if she did it, if she did it - suffer the consequences of breaking the law."
Sen. John Kerry is defending CIA leaker Mary McCarthy, who was fired by the agency on Friday for revealing classified information about secret CIA interrogations of top al-Qaida suspects.
"If you're leaking to tell the truth, Americans are going to look at that [and] at least mitigate or think about what are the consequences that you, you know, put on that person," Kerry told ABC's "This Week."
"Obviously they're not going to keep their job, but there are other larger issues here," he insisted.
Kerry prefaced his remarks by noting: "Clearly, leaking is against the law. And nobody should leak. I abhor leaking. I don't like it."
But the 2008 presidential hopeful complained that sometimes "classification in Washington is a tool that is used to hide the truth from the American people."
Kerry said that he was "glad" the CIA leaker "told the truth," before adding: "But she's going to obviously - if she did it, if she did it - suffer the consequences of breaking the law."
