For the Record

Washington Post columnist Marc A. Thiessen: “Leaks have consequences. Just ask Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan, who was kidnapped in retaliation for allowing the United States to carry out a special operations raid in Tripoli that captured a senior al-Qaeda leader, Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai, known as Abu Anas al-Libi. How did the kidnappers know that the prime minister had approved the raid? … [T]he Obama administration exposed the Libyan government’s cooperation in a top-secret covert action in order to bolster the president against domestic political criticism. It gets worse. … [T]he [New York] Times revealed that a second raid had been planned, but not carried out, ‘to seize a militia leader suspected of carrying out the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks on the United States diplomatic mission in Benghazi.’ … With the leak that the Libyans approved both raids, and the kidnapping of the Libyan prime minister, his government probably will not authorize more such operations for the foreseeable future. … Even when this administration gets something right, it can’t seem to get it right.”