Obama denies leaks have been deliberate

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama denied Friday that the White House has deliberately leaked classified national security information that is flattering to him in this election year.

He promised investigations into the source of disclosures about U.S. involvement in cyberattacks on Iran and drone strikes on suspected terrorists.

"The notion that my White House would purposely release classified national security information is offensive," Obama said during a White House news conference. "It's wrong."

A few hours later, Attorney General Eric Holder appointed two U.S. attorneys to lead a pair of criminal investigations into possible unauthorized disclosures of classified information.

Recent news articles have contained details of U.S. involvement in a partly successful computer virus attack on Iran's nuclear program and on the selection of targets for counterterrorism assassination. The leaked information generally paints Obama as a decisive and hands-on commander in chief, and Republican critics suggested the leaks were orchestrated to boost his re-election chances.

But, Obama said, "We're dealing with issues that can touch on the safety and security of the American people, our families or our military personnel or our allies, and so we don't play with that."

Obama said his administration has "zero tolerance" for such leaks and that there would be an internal probe.

In his statement, Holder said he had appointed Ronald Machen, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, and Rod Rosenstein, of the District of Maryland, to direct FBI probes.

"We have mechanisms in place where if we can root out folks who have leaked, they will suffer consequences," Obama said.

Leaders of the Senate and House intelligence committees said Thursday they were drafting legislation to further limit access to highly classified information and possibly impose new penalties for revealing it. The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee said he will investigate recent leaks.