James Knodell, Director of the Office of Security at the White House, testified at the
hearing about White House procedures for safeguarding classified information. During his
testimony, Mr. Knodell made some remarkable statements about how his office handled the
disclosure of Ms.'Wilson's covert status. Specifically, Mr. Knodell testified:
The Office of Security for the White House never conducted any investigation of the
disclosure of Ms. Wilson's identity;
Under the applicable executive order and regulations, your senior political advisor, Karl
Rove, and other senior White House officials were required to report what they knew
about the disclosure of Ms. Wilson's identity, but they did not make any such report to
the White House Office of Security; and
There has been no suspension of security clearances or any other administrative sanction
for Mr. Rove and other White House officials involved in the disclosure.
Mr. Knodell also testified that it would be inappropriate to allow an individual who was a
security risk to retain his or her security clearance while a criminal investigation is pending. As
members of the Committee pointed out, a criminal investigation can last years, and it would
jeopardize national security not to investigate the officials implicated in the leak and suspend
their security clearances if there were reason to suspect their involvement. Mr. Knodell did not
dispute this point.
The testimony of Mr. Knodell appears to describe White House decisions that were
inconsistent with the directives of Executive Order 12958, which you signed in March 2003.
Under this executive order, the White House is required to "take appropriate and prompt
corrective action" whenever there is a release of classified information. Yet Mr. Knodell could
describe no such actions after the disclosure of Ms. Wilson's identity.
Taken as a whole, the testimony at today's hearing described breach after breach of
national security requirements at the White House. The first breach was the disclosure of Ms.
'Wilson's identity. Other breaches included the failure of Mr. Rove and other offrcials to report
their disclosures as required by law, the failure of the White House to initiate the prompt
investigation required by the executive order, and the failure of the White House to suspend the
security clearances of the implicated officials.
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