Judicial Watch: "Disclosures of Zero Dark Thirty Leaks Spur Criminal Referral."

Judicial Watch: "Disclosures of Zero Dark Thirty Leaks Spur Criminal Referral."(JW).

Holder Justice Department Has Sat on Criminal Referral to Investigate Undersecretary of Defense Michael Vickers for Improper Leak – Referral Made Prior to 2012 Election.

(Washington, DC) — Judicial Watch announced today that it has filed a reply brief with the United States District Court for the District of Columbia seeking access to the names of the five Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) bin Laden raid operatives disclosed by the Obama Department of Defense (DOD) and the CIA to Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal, the filmmakers behind the critically acclaimed and controversial film Zero Dark Thirty, which concerns the capture and killing of 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden. Judicial Watch’s brief was filed as news reports emerged indicating that the Inspector General made a criminal referral to the Obama Justice Department in September 2012 regarding Undersecretary Michael Vickers, who was alleged to have improperly leaked the name of at least one operative to the filmmakers.
Documents previously uncovered by Judicial Watch reveal that the Obama administration sought to have “high visibility” into bin Laden-related projects, and granted Boal and Bigelow unusual access to agency information in preparation for their film.
However, Obama administration officials also disclosed in sworn court documents related to this lawsuit that the sensitive information released to Bigelow and Boal could cause an “unnecessary security and counterintelligence risk” if released to the public. The admission seems to contradict the public statement by Obama White House spokesman Jay Carney regarding the controversy: “We do not discuss classified information,” Carney told reporters.
As reported by McClatchy, Undersecretary for Defense Michael Vickers is now at the center of the Zero Dark Thirty leak scandal under investigation by the Inspector General, which led to a criminal referral to the Holder Justice Department in September 2012:

Pentagon investigators concluded that a senior Defense Department official who’s been mentioned as a possible candidate to be the next CIA director leaked restricted information to the makers of an acclaimed film about the hunt for Osama bin Laden, and referred the case to the Justice Department, according to knowledgeable U.S. officials.

The Justice Department received the case involving Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Michael Vickers in September, but so far it’s declined to launch a criminal prosecution, said two senior U.S. officials who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

“The documents we uncovered implicate the White House, the CIA, and the Pentagon in the bin Laden movie leaks. The fact that the Holder Justice Department sat on a criminal referral until after the election is utterly disgraceful. This story is about to get even worse for this administration,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “In the meantime, we will continue to fight the Obama administration’s stonewalling on this scandal in federal court.”Read the full story here.