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Deputy National Security Adviser John Brennan said Wednesday that some recent leaks of national security secrets have done serious damage, but he also lashed back at critics who have charged that President Barack Obama's White House staff is responsible for the breaches.

Editor's note: Peter Bergen, CNN's national security analyst, is a director at the New America Foundation and the author of the new book, "Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden -- From 9/11 to Abbottabad." (CNN) -- On Monday, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney called for the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate a series of recent leaks that critics charge are designed to bolster the national security credentials of the Obama administration. Investigations by special prosecutors can take on a life of their own. Recall that the investigation of the Whitewater real estate deal in Arkansas -- in...

(CNN) -- Sen. John McCain continued his blitz against the Obama administration Sunday, saying the president was responsible for the recent national security leaks--whether he knew about them or not. "It's obvious on its face that this information came from individuals who are in the administration," McCain said on CNN's "State of the Union." "The president may not have done it himself, but the president certainly is responsible as commander in chief." His comments came after the president himself forcefully dismissed the idea on Friday that the leaks came as a form of political strategy for the White House -...

Dianne Feinstein vents ire over 'avalanche of leaks' In a televised interview Wednesday, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein repeatedly vented her ire over leaks of classified information and she signaled that she favors a more aggressive crackdown on those who are passing national security secrets to the press. "What we're seeing...is an Anschluss, an avalanche of leaks. And it's very, very disturbing. You know, it's dismayed our allies. It puts American lives in jeopardy. It puts our nation's security in jeopardy," Feinstein (D-Calif.) said on CNN's "Situation Room" program. She said the Senate Intelligence Committee plans to meet Thursday...

Osama bin Laden's personal files revealed a brazen idea to hijack oil tankers and blow them up at sea last summer, creating explosions he hoped would rattle the world's economy and send oil prices skyrocketing, the U.S. said Friday. The newly disclosed plot showed that while bin Laden was always scheming for the next big strike that would kill thousands of Americans, he also believed a relatively simpler attack on the oil industry could create a worldwide panic that would hurt Westerners every time they gassed up their cars. U.S. officials said the tanker idea, included in documents found in...

CIA Director Leon Panetta sent a message Wednesday to CIA employees cautioning that there should be no more leaks about the bin Laden raid and how it was conducted. In the message, obtained by ABC News, Panetta acknowledges that it’s likely some of the classified information about the raid that has emerged in the press has come from beyond the CIA, but he warns employees to protect classified information or they could face investigation and possible prosecution by the Justice Department. Yesterday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen told reporters at a Pentagon briefing that...

U.S. Navy SEALs, like the teams that killed Osama bin Laden, are grateful for nation's show of support but are growing angry with the continued focus on their operation, tactics, and tools, claiming it could jeopardize future raids and their safety. "My friends in the community tell me they're very glad for the bit of attention they got," said former Pentagon deputy undersecretary Jed Babbin, "but at some point the best way to help them is to stop. You guys in the press have done a good job, but stop for God's sake, stop." [See photos of the reaction to...

A new picture emerged Thursday of what really happened the night the Navy SEALs swooped in on Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan. CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports the 40 minutes it took to kill bin Laden and scoop his archives into garbage bags were all recorded by tiny helmet cameras worn by each of the 25 SEALs. Officials reviewing those videos are still reconstructing a more accurate version of what happened. We now know that the only firefight took place in the guest house, where one of bin Laden's couriers opened fire and was quickly gunned...

CNN: Gates gave a speech today blasting the fact so many raid and Navy Seal details were released by the government. Gates said this in front of several thousand US Marines.

Members of Navy SEAL team 6, the Special Operations unit responsible for killing Al Qaeda leader Usama bin Laden in Pakistan last Sunday, have expressed concerns about their safety and the safety of their families now that details of the mission have been made public. Speaking to Marines at Camp Lejeune Thursday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the concerns were expressed to him directly a week ago when he met with members of the unit to congratulate them on their mission. Gates said the SEALs were mainly focused on their families and worried they could be subject to retaliatory attacks....

...Osama bin Laden kept a hand-written journal filled with planning ideas and details of operations. The journal was seized in the dramatic US raid...

For a week people have been asking, "Why won't the president release Osama bin Laden's photo?" That's the wrong question. We should be asking, "Why was Barack Obama in such a hurry to tell us bin Laden was dead?" The White House says the information in bin Laden's compound is the equivalent of a "small college library," potentially containing incalculably valuable and unique data on al-Qaeda operations, personnel and methods. ________ But that's exactly what President Obama did. He raced to spill the beans. The man couldn't even wait until morning. At just after 9:45 p.m., the White House communications...

OK, the incredible details of the operation to silence Osama bin Laden are, indeed, irresistible -- but our government's been saying way too much about them, tipping off al Qaeda and clueing in other bad guys. You can't blame the press; its job is to get the story. But you can finger the White House and other government officials for not keeping enough of a zipped lip on some elements of the historic operation. For instance, what about the early, broad -- and repeated -- disclosure of a "treasure trove" of information taken during the raid on Osama's compound in...

PRESIDENT Barack Obama was so keen to ensure the mission to nab Osama bin Laden was successful he even kept it secret from his wife. The al-Qaeda chief was shot dead in his bedroom at a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, last week. Obama, 49, said: "I didn't tell most people here in the White House. I didn't tell my own family. "It was that important for us to maintain operational security." The president kept the plan secret from wife Michelle, 47, and spent the weekend before the raid visiting tornado victims, speaking at a space shuttle launch and attending the...

From the very first moment the world learned that American forces had killed Al Qaeda leader Usama bin Laden, even the tiniest details from the momentous event have captivated the nation. Every single nugget of data has been the stuff of breaking news, handheld "alerts" and watercooler discussion, in a way the country has never previously witnessed. No landmark event of the 20th century, from World Wars I and II to the Cuban missile crisis, from the moon landing to the fall of the Soviet Union – not even the attacks of September 11, 2001 -- have been as widely...

Is Bin Laden dead? Yes. Everything else about the White House version of the Bin Laden raid in Pakistan is in flux. How did the Special Operations Command that launched Sea Team Six, know for certain that Bin Laden was at home that night? The White House says they were mostly certain. A fresh explanation, with confirmation, is that the US had visual confirmation of Bin Laden in and out of the house for several months. What happened to the more than a dozen people captured in the compound including Bin Laden's wounded wife? The White House doesn't have a...

IT just doesn't add up. The official American explanation for the operation against Osama bin Laden keeps changing every day. But at every point it requires such a leap of faith into the extraordinarily unlikely that it has a disturbing ring of contrivance about it. There is no doubt the Americans conducted an operation and killed bin Laden on Monday, but the surrounding detail and overall narrative is difficult to swallow.

The intelligence community has obtained "positive intelligence" from the materials taken from Osama bin Laden's compound which is helping narrow down the locations of core al Qaeda leadership including the whereabouts of Ayman al Zawahiri, al Qaeda's former No. 2 man and a candidate to succeed bin Laden.

We all know that the Wikileaks debacle is going to have severe implications not just for the federal government but also for you and I. If you are a tourist, or if you are visiting europe, the gulf states, or any country with close relations with the US you will now be viewed not as a person of your word. Our character and TRUST has been broken. WE all know President Obama has neutered our CIA. (It really started with the Church Committee)But the CIA could have stopped this, and we could have but the fear in god into this...

The articles published today and in coming days are based on thousands of United States embassy cables, the daily reports from the field intended for the eyes of senior policy makers in Washington. The New York Times and a number of publications in Europe were given access to the material several weeks ago and agreed to begin publication of articles based on the cables Sunday online. The Times believes that the documents serve an important public interest, illuminating the goals, successes, compromises and frustrations of American diplomacy in a way that other accounts cannot match.

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh admits covering up US military strikes on Al-Qaeda in Yemen by claiming they are carried out by Yemeni forces, according to US documents leaked by WikiLeaks. "We?ll continue saying the bombs are ours, not yours," Saleh said in January talks with General David Petraeus, then commander of US forces in the Middle East, according to a leaked US diplomatic cable published by the New York Times.

The US embassy cables are marked "Sipdis" – secret internet protocol distribution. They were compiled as part of a programme under which selected dispatches, considered moderately secret but suitable for sharing with other agencies, would be automatically loaded on to secure embassy websites, and linked with the military's Siprnet internet system. They are classified at various levels up to "secret noforn" [no foreigners]. More than 11,000 are marked secret, while around 9,000 of the cables are marked noforn.