The letter pretty much sums it up. From Congressman Waxman to former Chief of Staff Andrew Card, by letter, today:
Following the hearing, my staff heard from multiple current and former security officials who work or worked at the White House Security Office. These security offrcials described a systemic breakdown in security procedures at the White House. The statements of these officials, if true, indicate that the security lapses that characterized the White House response to the leak of Ms. Wilson's identity were not an isolated occuffence, but part of a pattern of disregard for the basic requirements for protecting our national security secrets.
Each of the multiple security officers who spoke with my staff had firsthand knowledge of the irurer workings of the White House Security Office. Although they asked for anonymity to protect themselves from retaliation, they each gave consistent accounts. According to these security officers...
wait for it ...
-- The White House regularly ignored securÍty breaches. The security officers described multiple instances of security breaches that were reported to the White House Security Office by concerned officials, such as Secret Service agents, but ignored by the White House Security Office. Several of the security violations involved mishandling of "Sensitive Compartmentalized Information" (SCI), the highest level of classified
information, such as leaving SCI materials unattended in a hotel room.
-- The White House blocked security inspections of the West Wing. According to the security officers, they were prohibited from conducting unannounced inspections of West Wing offices, which undermined their ability to assess compliance and deter violations. In addition, they reported that the White House denied the Information Security Oversight Offrce of the National Archives permission to inspect the West Wing, despite the fact that Executive Order 12958 gives this Archives offrce the authority to inspect all executive branch offrces to ensure the effectiveness of security programs.
-- The White House condoned mismanagement at the White House Security Office. The security officers described the leadership of the White House Security Office as poor managers who habitually flouted basic security procedures and allowed other White House offrcials to do the same.
http://oversight.house.gov/...
Remember the (real) spy working inside Cheney's office? How hard did they work to smoke him out? Or did they?
It makes Craig Livingstone's activities in the Clinton White House look quaint.
And with Karl Rove and cronies lobbing all government e-mail outside of the official system and into RNC servers, you really do have to wonder if they've opened the US Government up to widespread foreign intelligence spying as I speculated about a month ago while the gwb43.com story was breaking.
Not a crew you can trust.