The CIA has fired an employee for leaking classified intelligence to the media. Former intelligence officials say the information concerned alleged secret prisons the agency had established in Eastern Europe.
The spy agency refused to reveal the name of the person in question, or what they're believed to have leaked. But reports from the Associated Press identify CIA veteran Mary McCarthy. The AP cited a source as saying that McCarthy worked for the agency's inspector general.
The firing was announced Friday by CIA Director Porter Goss.
CIA spokesman Tom Crispell says an internal investigation has been underway since January, and that an Agency officer has confessed to passing classified information to reporters, including operational details.
Former intelligence officials say there has been a push to find out the original sources on two stories that made headline news recently. The Washington Post reported last fall that the CIA ran secret flights and detention centers in Europe. And a New York Times investigation uncovered domestic wiretapping by the National Security Agency. The authors of the stories won Pulitzer prizes this week.
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