During the “All-Star Panel” segment of the May 5 edition of Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume, nationally syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer said that former CIA director Porter Goss, who had resigned earlier that day, had been “trying to deal with the jihadists inside the agency.” Krauthammer explained that the CIA “jihadists” are “the people who consider themselves the loyal opposition, which really is the role of Congress, but who oppose administration policy, had been leaking, and had been trying to undermine and obstruct administration initiatives.”

Noting that one of the roles taken on by Goss during his tenure at the CIA was “to go after these people,” Krauthammer added that Goss fired former intelligence officer Mary O. McCarthy, who, Krauthammer asserted, “supposedly was the leaker on the secret prison story.” Krauthammer was referring to a series of articles -- beginning on November 2, 2005 -- in which Washington Post staff writer Dana Priest first reported on the alleged existence of CIA “black site” prisons in Eastern Europe.

The CIA maintains that after failing a polygraph test, McCarthy admitted to leaking classified information. But as Media Matters for America has noted, the Post reported on April 25 that “a senior intelligence official said the agency is not asserting that McCarthy was a key source” specifically for Priest's articles. The Post further reported: “Nowhere in the CIA statement last week [announcing McCarthy's firing] was McCarthy accused of leaking information on the prisons, although some news accounts suggested that the CIA had made that claim.” The Post added that “a senior intelligence official confirmed yesterday that she [McCarthy] is not believed to have played a central role in the Post's reporting on the secret prisons.” McCarthy has denied leaking any classified information.

From the May 5 edition of Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume, with guest host Jim Angle:

ANGLE: Now, Charles, one of the interesting things here is that Senator [Pat] Roberts [R-KS] was talking about the fact that Goss was essentially rebuilding the CIA after some very difficult years, two tumultuous episodes in which its competency was questioned, and rebuilding the size of the agency.

KRAUTHAMMER: And also trying to deal with the jihadists inside the agency, the people who consider themselves the loyal opposition, which really is the role of Congress, but who oppose administration policy, had been leaking, and had been trying to undermine and obstruct administration initiatives. One of the roles he had adopted, Goss, was to go after these people. He fired Mary McCarthy, who supposedly was the leaker on the secret prison story. And I think there's some -- you know, if you look at this, you could say, “Well, maybe he was defeated by that element in the CIA.” From what I've heard, that's not so. And the next -- and his successor's going to be as tough on the leakers as he was.