The CIA said last night said it has fired an intelligence officer for leaking classified information that sources said contributed to a Washington Postreport about alleged secret CIA prisons in Eastern Europe.
NBC News identified the accused officer as Mary McCarthy, and said she worked in the CIA Inspector General's office before being "marched out" of the spy agency on Thursday.
CIA spokesman Tom Crispell said the agency could not comment on the NBC report, citing privacy law.
Public records showed McCarthy, a veteran CIA officer, had served as a special assistant to former President Bill Clinton and President George W. Bush from 1996 to 2001. She was a senior director for intelligence programs on the White House National Security Council staff and testified to the commission that investigated the September 11th attacks on the United States.
Earlier, the CIA said the dismissal of a CIA officer over a media leak was extremely rare and resulted from a three-month-old in-house investigation aimed at agency operations that had been the subject of recent media leaks.
Sources familiar with the case said the firing stemmed from the Washington Post'sreporting about secret CIA prisons for terrorism suspects in November. The coverage sparked an international outcry over US detainee policies and also won a Pulitzer Prize, America's leading journalism award.
The CIA would not say what the leak involved, and declined to identify the officer or describe the officer's duties at the agency, saying that such disclosures would violate the Privacy Act of 1974.
"This CIA officer acknowledged having unauthorized discussions with the media in which the officer knowingly shared classified intelligence, including operational information," CIA spokeswoman Michele Neff said.
Ms Neff said the officer's actions violated a secrecy agreement that CIA employees sign when they begin working for the agency.
The Washington Postreported that the CIA operated a network of secret prisons for terrorism suspects in countries overseas, including Eastern Europe.
The report spawned a number of investigations in Europe that have yet to produce definitive evidence that the secret prisons existed.
It was not clear whether the dismissed CIA officer could face charges as part of a Justice Department investigation that a US official said has been launched into the prisons leak. A Justice Department spokesman had no comment.