high-ranking former pentagon official. the justice department is investigating retired marine general james cartwright, former vice chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. let s go live straight to the pentagon where barbara starr has details on this. shock to many when they read this, barbara. absolutely, good morning, kate. jaw-dropper even for the pentagon. james cartwright when he served as the number two until 2011 was a close adviser to president obama, an expert in nuclear weapons and cyber warfare, a brilliant mind, now under investigation by the justice department. source telling me it is for material that appeared in a book written by new york times journalist david sanger called confront and conceal about iran s nuclear program. cartwright potentially leaking information of the computer
island where president mandela spent more than 20 years in prison. a former top military adviser to president obama is under investigation. retired u.s. general james cartwright is being questioned about leaking classified information to a reporter, it concerns a computer virus that targeted iran s nuclear facilities. barbara starr joins us with the details. can this be happening again? good morning, chris. even for the pentagon this is jaw-dropping. source tells me overnight that yes, general cartwright retired is under investigation by the justice department for material in the book by the new york times journalist david sanger his book confront and conceal talking in detail, many revelations about iran s nuclear program. nbc news reported this first, saying this is about the leak, did general cartwright leak information about stux inenetst of the most classified crowned
issues. he says, iran could use its new capability as a hedge against future attacks. if there s something else that happens in relation to their nuclear program, they have the ability now to do things that are damaging in the u.s. and we don t really have a good way to stop them. so far, these have just been probes. the hackers getting in there and looking around. but there were similar intrusions last year against a saudi oil company. and in that case, it was followed by a full-blown attack in which company data was affected and destroyed on thousands of that oil company s computers. wolf? chris, thank you. so how bad could this iranian hacking plot be? joining us now is david sanger, the chief washington correspondent of the new york times, the author of the very important book confront and conceal which is now out in paperback. could the anians, david, wipe out, or at least undermine much of the u.s. power grid?
hastings of buzz feed and also david sanger, author of the book confront and conceal chief washington correspondent for the new york times. he revealed stuxnet, the cyber weapon sent to iran and gary mcgraw, chief technology officer of cigital, a software security consulting firm. okay, so i guess the first question is and i want to maybe intentionally oversimplify just to litigate this up front. when people talk about the threat of cyberwar, i as a citizen, i don t know, i read what s in the new york times, there s some classified information and my question is like is this pre-9/11 warnings of al qaeda or is this iraq and weapons of mass destruction? because it seems to me like it could be either. it seems to me like this could be a completely overexaggerated threat or it seems to me like maybe this is something that genuinely is really worrisome and problematic.
communications approach to recommend. he said what is it? he said shut the blank up! this is in the new david sanger book that s coming out soon called confront and conceal. in just a few hours, attorney general eric holder will head to capitol hill again to testify on operation fast & furious. will new documents force holder now to fess up? peter doocy live for us in washington with more on this story. good morning, peter. good morning, gretchen. you remember back in november before the senate judiciary committee and then in and then in february before the house oversight committee, we heard attorney general eric holder say gun walking tactics were not mentioned in any of the wiretap applications connected to operation fast & furious but now the chairman of the house oversight committee darrell issa says that s just not true. the white house is spinning that somehow we re misleading what s in these documents that they know we can t make public because they re under seal, but