WASHINGTON – In a highly unusual move, the CIA has fired an employee for leaking classified information to the news media, including details about secret CIA prisons in Eastern Europe that resulted in a Pulitzer Prize-winning story, officials said Friday.
The Associated Press has learned the officer was a CIA veteran nearing retirement, Mary McCarthy. Reached Friday evening at home, her husband would not confirm her firing.
In McCarthy’s final position at the CIA, she was assigned to its Office of Inspector General, looking into allegations the CIA was involved in torture at Iraqi prisons, a former colleague said.
Without identifying McCarthy by name, CIA Director Porter Goss announced the firing in a short message to agency employees circulated Thursday. Such firings are rare. And it is the first time since Goss took over in September 2004, vowing to clamp down on leaks, that he has dismissed an intelligence officer for speaking with reporters.
Agency spokesman Paul Gimigliano confirmed an officer had been fired for having unauthorized contacts with the media and disclosing classified information to reporters, including details about intelligence operations.
“The officer has acknowledged unauthorized discussions with the media and the unauthorized sharing of classified information,” Gimigliano said. “That is a violation of the secrecy agreement that everyone signs as a condition of employment with the CIA.”
Citing the Privacy Act, the CIA would not disclose any details about the officer’s identity or what she might have told the news media. However, a law enforcement official confirmed there was a criminal leaks investigation under way, but it did not involve the fired CIA officer.
The official said the CIA officer provided information that contributed to a Washington Post story last year disclosing secret U.S. prisons in Eastern Europe.
The Post’s Dana Priest won a Pulitzer Prize this week for her reporting on the covert prison system set up by the CIA after Sept. 11, 2001, that at various times included sites in eight countries.
Post Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr. said on the newspaper’s Web site, “We don’t know the details of why (the CIA employee) was fired, so I can’t comment on that. But as a general principle, obviously I am opposed to criminalizing the dissemination of government information to the press.”
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