A friend defends fired CIA officer

WASHINGTON — The CIA officer fired last week for unauthorized contacts with the media denies allegations that she provided information leading to the Washington Post's award- winning story on secret CIA detention centers, according to a friend speaking on her behalf.

"She was not the source for that story," said Rand Beers, who has talked with his former colleague, Mary McCarthy, a veteran intelligence analyst.

Beers headed intelligence programs at the National Security Council during the Clinton administration. He said McCarthy authorized him to make the brief statement, but he declined to discuss the issue further.

Senior Bush administration officials have vowed to make clamping down on leaks of classified information a top priority — to the dismay of whistleblower advocates who find merit when the disclosures unveil wrongdoing.

Stephen Kohn, chairman of the National Whistleblower Center, said he believes McCarthy could have a strong case to contest her firing.

"If she was blowing the whistle on something that's illegal, it's our position you cannot classify the illegal conduct of government. You can't say that's a secret," Kohn said.

In a message distributed to the agency work force Thursday afternoon, CIA Director Porter Goss expressed his deep concern over the "critical damage being suffered" from media leaks and informed his staff of the firing of an unidentified official.

"A CIA officer has acknowledged having unauthorized discussions with the media, in which the officer knowingly and willfully shared classified intelligence, including operational information. I terminated that officer's employment with the CIA," Goss said.

In January, Goss directed the CIA's security office to conduct polygraph examinations on officers involved in certain sensitive intelligence programs. He said criminal reports were also filed with the Justice Department on "the most egregious media leaks that contained classified intelligence and national security information."

The Post's Dana Priest won the Pulitzer Prize for a package of stories that included a report about a covert prison system created by the CIA. Citing multiple sources, the story said there were facilities in eight countries, including a Soviet-era compound in Eastern Europe. Senior government officials have said the report did significant damage to national security.

Former colleagues close to McCarthy, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the legal sensitivity of her case, said they had seen her go to lengths to protect classified information on numerous occasions.