WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A group of former U.S. intelligence and Special Forces operatives is set to launch a media campaign, including TV ads, that scolds President Barack Obama for taking credit for the killing of Osama bin Laden and argues that high-level leaks are endangering American lives.
Leaders of the group, the Special Operations OPSEC Education Fund Inc,
say it is nonpartisan and unconnected to any political party or
presidential campaign. It is registered as a so-called social welfare
group, which means its primary purpose is to further the common good and
its political activities should be secondary.
In the past, military exploits have been turned against
presidential candidates by outside groups, most famously the Swift Boat
ads in 2004 that questioned Democratic nominee John Kerry's Vietnam War
service.
The OPSEC
group says it is not political and aims to save American lives. Its
first public salvo is a 22-minute film that includes criticism of Obama
and his administration. The film, to be released on Wednesday, was seen in advance by Reuters.
"Mr. President, you
did not kill Osama bin Laden, America did. The work that the American
military has done killed Osama bin Laden. You did not," Ben Smith,
identified as a Navy SEAL, says in the film.
"As a citizen, it is my civic duty to tell the
president to stop leaking information to the enemy," Smith continues.
"It will get Americans killed."
An Obama campaign
official said: "No one in this group is in a position to speak with any
authority on these issues and on what impact these leaks might have,
and it's clear they've resorted to making things up for purely political
reasons."
Obama has
highlighted his foreign policy record on the campaign trail, emphasizing
how he presided over the killing of bin Laden, as well as how he ended
the war in Iraq and set a timeline for winding down the war in
Afghanistan.
However, Obama has come under sharp attack from
Republican lawmakers who have accused his administration of being behind
high-level leaks of classified information.They have pointed to media reports about clandestine drone attacks, informants planted in al Qaeda affiliates and alleged cyber-warfare against Iran that Republicans say were calculated to promote Obama's image as a strong leader in an election year.
The White House has denied leaking classified information.
The president of
Special Operations OPSEC Education Fund Inc, Scott Taylor, is a former
Navy SEAL who in 2010 ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination
for a congressional seat in Virginia.
Calling itself "OPSEC" for short - which in spy jargon
means "operational security" - the anti-leak group incorporated last
June in Delaware, a state that has the most secretive corporate
registration rules in the U.S.It also set itself up as a nonprofit organization under section 501(c)4 of the U.S. Tax Code, allowing it to keep donors' identities secret. Spokesmen for the group declined to discuss its sources of financing.
Several group representatives say their main motivation for setting up OPSEC was dismay at recent detailed media leaks about sensitive operations.
In an interview, Taylor denied OPSEC had any political slant. He described the group as a "watchdog organization" but added that the current administration "has certainly leaked more than others."
OPSEC spokesmen
said the group has about $1 million at its disposal and hopes to raise
more after the release of its mini-documentary, entitled "Dishonorable
Disclosures," which aims, in spy-movie style, to document a recent spate
of leaks regarding sensitive intelligence and military operations.
Following the
film's release, OPSEC's spokesmen said, the group expects to produce TV
spots on the anti-leak theme that will air in a number of states,
including Virginia, Florida, Ohio, Colorado, North Carolina and Nevada -
key battleground states.
Fred Rustmann, a former undercover case officer for the
CIA who is a spokesman for the group, insisted its focus on leaks was
"not a partisan concern." But he said the current administration had
been leaking secrets "to help this guy get re-elected, at the expense of
peoples' lives.... We want to see that they don't do this again."
Chad Kolton, a
former spokesman for the office of Director of National Intelligence
during the George W. Bush administration who now represents OPSEC, also said the group's message and make-up are nonpolitical.
"You'll see
throughout the film that concern about protecting the lives of
intelligence and Special Forces officers takes precedence over
partisanship," he said.
Responding to criticism about the president taking credit for the bin Laden
raid, an Obama campaign official pointed to an interview with CNN last
month in which Admiral Bill McRaven, commander of the raid, said: "At
the end of the day, make no mistake about it, it was the president of
the United States that shouldered the burden for this operation, that
made the hard decisions, that was instrumental in the planning process,
because I pitched every plan to him."
"I think Admiral
McRaven knows more about the President's role in the bin Laden operation
than this group," the campaign official said.
(Additional
reporting by Lauren French and Alexander Cohen in Washington. Editing by
Claudia Parsons and Ciro Scotti)
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