London : Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director Leon Panetta has cautioned his agency's employees against "unauthorized" disclosures about the US Special Forces' raid on Osama bin Laden's Abbottabad compound in Pakistan amid warnings from the Pentagon that such revelations could put future operations at risk.
"Unauthorized disclosure of those details not only violates the law, it seriously undermines our capability to do our job," Panetta said, adding that repercussions for such leaks could be as serious as criminal prosecution.
Panetta, however, acknowledged that many of the leaks about the raid are "likely coming from other places," Politico reports.
The intense public and media interest about raid on bin Laden's compound had led to discloser of a series of very sensitive and classified documents, and Panetta said it could cause tremendous damage to their work, and endanger lives in worst cases.
"As I said the morning after the raid on Bin Ladin's hideout, our Intelligence Community applied the full range of its most advanced and powerful capabilities to this operation. Unauthorized disclosure of those details not only violates the law, it seriously undermines our capability to do our job," he said.
"We have every reason to be proud of the Bin Ladin operation. Let's live up to our secrecy oath in protecting it so that our Agency can look forward to even greater accomplishments in the future," Panetta added. (ANI)
