Published time: October 23, 2013 05:35
AFP Photo / Saeed Khan
A senior US National Security Council staffer has
been fired for using an anonymous Twitter account to send hundreds of
messages criticizing the Obama administration from inside the White
House.
Jofi Joseph, a director in the nuclear non-proliferation team
inside the NSC, was let go a week ago after administration
officials spent months investigating who was tweeting from
@natsecwonk. The account opened in February 2011 and lasted until
last week, sending thousands of tweets critical of Obama’s
policies, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and various
high level officials in the interim.
Two sources in the administration confirmed to The Daily Beast
that Joseph, 40, was behind the account. The staffer was a member
of the NSC team that sat across the negotiating table from Iran
in Istanbul earlier this year.
“I
s it just me, or with the Jews celebrating Rosh Hashanah
tonight, is Twitter much quieter?” he once wrote.
“
What’s so disturbing about the Hillary dancing photo is the
high-def resolution of Ben Rhodes’ balding pate. And Jake
Sullivan behind him,” another read, referencing US President
Obama’s deputy national security advisor and speechwriter as well
as Vice President Joe Biden’s national security advisor.
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NSC aide admits Twitter attack on White House
A senior National Security Council staffer who was a key member of
the White House team negotiating on Iran’s nuclear weapons program told
POLITICO he deeply regrets tweeting hundreds of anti-administration
messages under the pseudonym @natsecwonk.
Jofi Joseph, 40, was fired from his job on the NSC nuclear
non-proliferation team a week ago after a months-long probe into a
barrage of tweets that included caustic criticisms of former Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton and top NSC officials, especially Ben Rhodes –
whom he accused of dodging questions about Benghazi.
“It has been a privilege to serve in this Administration and I deeply
regret violating the trust and confidence placed in me,” Joseph told
POLITICO in an email.
“What started out as an intended parody account of DC culture
developed over time into a series of inappropriate and mean-spirited
comments. I bear complete responsibility for this affair and
I sincerely apologize to everyone I insulted.”
(
Also on POLITICO: White House official fired for tweets)
Obama spokesman Eric Schultz confirmed that Joseph had left the
White House – and that he no longer had his top security clearances.
In the course of their investigations, officials also told Joseph
they suspected he was responsible for a second anonymous Twitter account
“@dchobbyist” which included racier tweets about sexual encounters,
escort services – and the inner workings of the State Department.
“Wow, you look amazingly sexy in this photo!” the @dchobbyist wrote in an Oct. 5
th post.
“That was him,” a person briefed on the probe told POLITICO.
Joseph didn’t respond to a request for comment on the second account.
Joseph, who was part of the White House team that opened up
preliminary negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program in Istanbul earlier
this year, lived a double life, working with NSC officials and State
Department higher-ups on the most sensitive issues while secretly
tweet-bombing them with comments like: “’Has shitty staff.’
#ObamaInThreeWords.”
For months, White House and State department officials searched for
@NatSecWonk, a hunt that intensified after he repeatedly expressed
doubts about the official administration accounts about the Sept. 11,
2012 attack in Benghazi.
After a probe that included an investigation into Joseph’s travel and
shopping patterns – parsed from over 2,000 tweets - lawyers from the
White House counsel’s office confronted Joseph and ordered him to leave
the executive complex, according to two sources familiar with the
situation. Joseph had been scheduled to rotate out of White House duty
to a senior job in the Pentagon, an administration official told
POLITICO.
The revelation that Joseph was @natsecwonk came as a shock because
Joseph was a familiar figure in the foreign policy world – as is his
wife Carolyn Leddy, a highly-regarded staffer on the Republican side of
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, according to
Daily Beast reporter Josh Rogin.
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