The White House called on Missouri Sen. Kit Bond to apologize Thursday for saying the Obama administration had compromised national security by disclosing information about the interrogation of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, prompting a caustic retort from the senator.
Bond, the ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, wrote a letter to the president this week accusing the White House of sharing information that "reached the ears of our enemies abroad," when it confirmed that the accused Christmas Day bomber was cooperating with law enforcement. He claimed that he had been told to keep information about Abdulmutallab's interrogation strictly confidential.
"An apology on that is owed because it's not true," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said in his Thursday briefing. "The reason that charge is made is only to play politics."
Gibbs said members of Congress had been informed of Abdulmutallab's cooperation in a hearing and the administration had held a background call with reporters to "contextualize ... what this testimony meant."
"I think he owes an apology to the professionals in the law enforcement community and those that work in this building, not for Democrats and Republicans, but who work each and every day to keep the American people safe and would never ever, ever knowingly release or unknowingly release classified information that could endanger an operation or an interrogation," Gibbs said.
Bond responded by escalating the war of words.
"After telling me to keep my mouth shut, the White House discloses sensitive information in an effort to defend a dangerous and unpopular decision to Mirandize Abdulmutallab and I'm supposed to apologize?" he said in a statement to POLITICO. - Politico Story
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