MICHELLE BLOCK, host:
Today's CIA watchers are trying to reconcile two very different accounts of why a CIA official lost her job last week. The CIA says it stands by its statement that the official was fired after admitting to leaking classified intelligence to the media. Now a lawyer for the officer, Mary McCarthy, has come forward to say she did no such thing, and the lawyer says his client was not the source for a Pulitzer Prize-winning news story on secret prisons run by the CIA. That's contrary to reports on this program yesterday.
With many of the details of the affair still classified, reporters are trying to make sense of the different accounts, among them, our own Mary Louise Kelly.
MARY LOUISE KELLY reporting:
Mary McCarthy was just ten days away from retiring from the CIA forever when she found out she was being fired. McCarthy is 61. Her lawyer, Ty Cobb, said she had long planned to leave her post in the agency's inspector general's office to pursue a new career in family law. He says McCarthy still intends to do this and that she hopes the current news frenzy will blow over. But Cobb says his client does want to make one thing very clear.
Mr. TY COBB (McCarthy's attorney): Ms. McCarthy did not leak classified information and she did not have access to the information that the agency attributes to her.
KELLY: Cobb says McCarthy does admit talking to reporters, occasionally without telling her superiors. That's a violation of CIA rules.
Mr. COBB: She was a very popular and active official at the agency and had frequent contacts with reporters, the vast majority of them clearly authorized. But, I'm not aware that CIA officials are terminated routinely for undisclosed news contacts.
KELLY: Ty Cobb says the key point here is that while McCarthy did talk to reporters, she never told them classified information. That directly contradicts the CIA's version of events. Agency spokesman Paul Gimigliano says an official was fired after acknowledging willingly sharing classified information including operational details.
The CIA has been careful not to identify McCarthy by name, but intelligence officials say she is the person in question. One official adds that the dismissal reflects punishment for "a pattern of activity, not one isolated leak."
So, what's going on here? One possible explanation comes from Suzanne Spaulding, who for 20 years has worked on intelligence issues in senior posts on Capitol Hill and at the CIA.
Ms. SUZANNE SPAULDING (Intelligence expert, Washington): We know very little in the way of facts, but it may be that there is a disagreement about whether information that was conveyed was, in fact, classified. Knowing Mary McCarthy, I'm more inclined to think that whatever information she may have discussed falls into a, perhaps a grayer area.
KELLY: Spaulding never worked directly with Mary McCarthy, but their paths crossed regularly over decades of public service. Spaulding is one of many former colleagues who say they can't reconcile the Mary McCarthy they know with someone who would leak national security secrets. Another is Rand Beers. He was McCarthy's boss at the National Security Council. Beers says he's been in contact with McCarthy several times a day since the news broke of her dismissal. He says McCarthy is frustrated at not being able to tell her side of the story.
Mr. RAND BEERS (National Security Council): She is in the awkward position that there could be some criminal proceedings. She is not supposed to talk about classified information, obviously. So, how she can mount a defense is a problem and she has to sit there and see all of the reporting that is suggesting without a doubt that she has done something wrong.
KELLY: McCarthy's lawyer, Ty Cobb, says she's planning no legal action and that they've heard nothing from the Justice Department about any possible criminal prosecution.
Meanwhile, an intelligence source tells NPR the CIA investigation into leaks is ongoing.
Mary Louise Kelly, NPR News, Washington.
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