Policy & Strategy

The Topline: As Congress prepares to tackle new laws to curb national security leaks, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper beat them to the punch Monday, announcing the first steps he was taking to root out leakers.

Clapper announced Monday that he was adding a question to the polygraph test for intelligence officials who deal in classified information that would ask specifically about giving classified information to the media. He also said he wanted the Intelligence Community Inspector General to take on leak investigations the Department of Justice does not, and is reviewing the procedures the intelligence agencies have in place monitoring officials’ contact with the press.

The measures will provide evidence for the Obama administration to try to show that it’s taking the recent series of national security leaks seriously as it faces criticism from Republicans over the leaks.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who has been the chief critic of the leaks, has accused the White House of leaking for political gain, and said the Justice Department cannot conduct an independent investigation. He’s sponsored a nonbinding Senate resolution with 28 Republicans on board that calls for a special counsel to investigate the leaks. McCain also accused President Obama of hypocrisy for supporting special counsel investigations as a senator.

Obama called McCain’s political charges “offensive.”

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Press secretary Carney said Obama was committed to the Arab Spring as Rep. Allen West called for slashing Egypt's aid.

Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) over the weekend said the United States should cut off foreign aid to Egypt and denounce the results of the country’s presidential election.

“I call upon President Barack Obama to cut off American foreign aid to Egypt, denounce the results of this election, repudiate the Muslim Brotherhood, and all radical Islamist political entities,” the freshman congressman wrote on his Facebook page.

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Officials will be asked if they have disclosed information to members of the media under one directive.  

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.) might not expect a vote on the Law of the Sea Treaty until after the November elections, but that isn’t stopping him from presenting his full-fledged case for the treaty. 

Kerry is bringing some big guns in for his committee’s fourth hearing in the past two months on the long-stalled treaty. The latest hearing will focus on the business community, which has mostly come out in support of the sea treaty.

The witness list for Thursday’s hearing is filled with top executives: the Chamber of Commerce’s Thomas Donohue, Verizon Communication’s Lowell McAdam, American Petroleum Institute’s Jack Gerard and National Association of Manufacturer’s Jay Timmons.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said it was “time to move on” from Pakistan’s demand that the United States apologize for accidentally killing 24 troops along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, an incident that’s imperiled U.S.-Pakistan relations.

"We've made clear what our position is, and I think it's time to move on,” Panetta said in an interview with Reuters on Thursday.

“If we keep going back to the past, if we keep beating up each other based on past differences, we'll never get anywhere," he said.

The State Department's designation Thursday of three members of Nigeria's Boko Haram group as terrorists immediately sparked renewed complaints that the Obama administration hasn't placed the entire outfit on its terror list. 

“The legal ramifications of this designation only affect dealings with three designated individuals, and not the wider Boko Haram organization, which is growing in intent, capability and targeting capacity,” Reps. Peter King (R-N.Y.) and Patrick Meehan (R-Pa.) said in a statement. “A conservative estimate of Boko Haram’s size would be a couple hundred, making three members symbolic, but not sufficient.”

King and Meehan, respectively the chairmen of the House Committee on Homeland Security and its counterterrorism subpanel, have twice requested that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton designate the whole group as a terrorist outfit.

President Obama “was really stating the obvious” when he told Russian leader Dmitri Medvedev that he'd have “more flexibility” to deal with Russia's concerns on missile defense after the election, the State Department's top arms-control official told Congress on Thursday.

“He was stating that during this 2012 election year — it's an election year both in the Russian Federation and in the United States of America — it's not going to be a year for breakthroughs,” Assistant Secretary for Arms Control, Verification and Compliance Rose Gottemoeller said at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing. “And so he was saying this will be a year that we get the technical experts together, we'll have some discussions about what cooperation may be possible [in the future].”

The March 26 episode has dogged the administration ever since, with some Republicans accusing Obama of having a “secret deal” with Russia to curtail plans for a missile defense shield in Europe. The criticism was back in force Thursday as senators weighed the effects of the New START nuclear disarmament treaty 18 months after passage.

“We cannot afford to be in the business we are in, on this committee or as a country, and be counting one representation for meeting commitments while on the other side we're seeing a wink and a nod to the other side,” said Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.). “We've made a treaty not just with the Russian Federation but with the American people.”

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta offered his condolences and "best wishes" to the newly selected Crown Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud on the death of the Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, while leading a delegation to Saudi Arabia this week.

The House Armed Services chairman said Congress isn’t “mature enough” to reach a deal that would reverse sequestration.