Northwest Indiana Discussion

(The Washington Times) — The White House is standing by Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.’s decision to appoint two U.S. attorneys to investigate the recent spate of national security leaks, rejecting Republican arguments that only an outside counsel would be independent enough for such as task.

White House spokesman Jay Carney on Monday briefly said “there is no need for a special counsel” to look into the national security leaks, arguing that “these things have been consistently investigated” by the Justice Department.

“There are very capable people in the Department of Justice,” he said, referring all additional questions to the Justice Department.

Mr. Holder on Friday announced the decision to tap two U.S. attorneys to look into the leaks of classified material, but Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican and the leading critic of the national security breaches, immediately rejected the decision to allow the Justice Department to investigate the administration. . . .

After articles about a U.S. “kill list” governing drone attacks and another about U.S. cyber-attacks on Iranian computers appeared in the New York Times over the last few weeks, Mr. McCain began railing against the leaks, blaming them on administration officials trying to make Mr. Obama look like a tough, decisive leader ahead of the November election.

The president reacted to the accusations with indignation during a press conference with reporters Friday morning, just hours before Mr. Holder announced he had appointed two chief federal prosecutors to lead a pair of investigations into the leaks.

“The notion that my White House would purposely release classified national security information is offensive,” he said, pledging to get to the bottom of them.

Attorney General Eric Holder said on Friday he had assigned two U.S. attorneys to lead investigations into the possible leaking of state secrets.

“The unauthorized disclosure of classified information can compromise the security of this country and all Americans, and it will not be tolerated,” he said in a statement.

Holder assigned U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Ronald C. Machen Jr., a Democratic appointee, and U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein, a holdover GOP appointee, to lead the investigations.