The Stuxnet Leaker Might Be the General Credited with Getting It Started

The Obama administration's investigation into the leak of classified information on Stuxnet, a U.S. cyberattack targeting Iran's nuclear programs, has zeroed in on retired Marine General James Cartwright. As in, the general credited with presenting the idea of Stuxnet to the White House in the first place.

NBC's scoop on the story explains that the Justice Department started investigating Cartwright late last year, after ruling out the possibility of a leaker from inside the White House. Cartwright, they write, "conceived and ran the cyber operation" for the Bush administration. The project, codename "Olympic Games," carried over into the Obama administration, who asked for even more attacks against Iran. The investigation was prompted by a June 2012 New York Times story on Stuxnet, which was a classified, joint project between the U.S. and Israel. Among other things, investigators pulled the phone and email records of every government official who communicated with the Times's David Sanger. Here's how Sanger wrote about Cartwright in his piece: