'Obama's Favorite General' Stripped Of Security Clearance Amid Leak Investigation

Retired Marine Gen. James "Hoss" Cartwright has reportedly lost his security clearance as an investigation into his involvement in national security leaks continues, Foreign Policy reports.

Cartwright, a retired four-star Marine general who served for 40 years and last served on the Joint Chiefs, has been the subject of an ongoing investigation into an alleged leak of classified information of the "Stuxnet" virus that targeted and temporarily disabled Iran's nuclear facilities in 2010.

The general's legal team has called that assertion "preposterous."

Gordon Lubold of FP reports that multiple current and former administration sources said Cartwright lost his clearance earlier this year. That delivers a big blow to the retired officer once regarded as Obama's 'favorite general,' who left the military and now serves in other military-related roles at the Center of Strategic and International Studies, Raytheon, and as a defense consultant for ABC News.

From FP:

It was also a further indignity for Cartwright, who turned 64 this week, and who was once an Obama administration darling. Cartwright enjoyed privileged access "across the river" at the White House when he was the number two senior officer on the Joint Staff at the Pentagon from 2007 to 2011. He had adopted contrarian views on issues like the troop surge in Afghanistan, which alienated him from senior brass at the Pentagon but in many ways helped catapult his reputation within the White House.

Lubold notes that in one of Cartwright's roles - as a member of the National Defense Panel - he was unable to attend a meeting last month at the Pentagon, apparently due to his security clearance issues.