‘Zero Dark Thirty’ Leak Investigators Under Investigation for Leaks

Pentagon Moves Against Whistleblowing Unit

Accusation of a “double standard” on leaking have been long-standing across the Obama Administration, and particularly the Pentagon. The latest details on the Zero Dark Thirty investigation really take the cake.

Mark Boal, the writer/producer of the Zero Dark Thirty movie on Osama bin Laden’s assassination, was given access to classified data about the operation, and investigators at the Pentagon’s Inspector General (IG) office were assigned to find out who leaked that info.

The answer was Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, the IG report showed. No action was taken against Panetta, but the inspectors who discovered that fact are now under investigation themselves because Panetta’s guilt became public knowledge.

Though the IG report itself wasn’t classified, the Pentagon is said to be “aggressively” pursuing the investigators, trying to figure out which of them made the facts public knowledge.

The Obama Administration’s “Insider Threat” program equates telling the media about government misdeeds with spying for a foreign nation, and will likely harshly punish anyone implicated in the embarrassing leaks.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.