Rand Paul continued to make his case for revoking former CIA Director John Brennan’s security clearance in a Thursday Breitbart op-ed, citing a 2012 leak that “helped compromise” an operation in Yemen and risked an agent’s life.
Stating that Brennan is “no stranger” to the problem of “vital, secret details” being leaked by security clearance-holding television commentators, Paul hearkened back to 2012.
The Kentucky Senator claimed that Brennan, then Obama’s top White House adviser on counter-terrorism, gave classified information to a group of former Obama advisers turned TV commentators about a Yemen terror plot that Washington had “inside control” of through a double-agent.
After Brennan’s briefing, one of the call’s participants, Richard Clarke, went on ABC and broadcast the government implying that there was a Western spy inside the Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula bomb-making group.
John Brennan’s careless leak to former intelligence officials turned television commentators helped compromise an operation and risk the life of a double agent, and who knows what other objectives it also hindered or outright prevented. This is exactly why former intelligence officials who are now talking heads on television should not continue to have a security clearance.
Reuters reported in 2012: “At stake was an operation that could not have been more sensitive — the successful penetration by Western spies of AQAP, al Qaeda’s most creative and lethal affiliate. As a result of leaks, the undercover operation had to be shut down.”
Earlier this week, Paul tweeted that he would ask President Trump to revoke Brennan’s security clearance. (RELATED: Rand Paul Goes After Brennan: ‘Revoke John Brennan’s Security Clearance!’)
Is John Brennan monetizing his security clearance? Is John Brennan making millions of dollars divulging secrets to the mainstream media with his attacks on @realDonaldTrump ?
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) July 23, 2018
Today I will meet with the President and I will ask him to revoke John Brennan’s security clearance!
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) July 23, 2018