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Being well executed. >> did you seek anyone's counsel? >> i didn't. and the reason was because this had to be such a close hold operation. there were only a handful of staff in the white house who knew about this. the majority of my senior staff didn't know about it. my secretary didn't know about it. my personal aide didn't know about it. >> the first lady? >> the first lady didn't know about it. >> your husband didn't know? >> no. >> mrs. obama didn't know. these are big-time washington diplomatic security secrets? >> yes. this was such an important secret to keep, no one in the state depart...

Counsel? >> i didn't. and the reason was because this had to be such a close hold operation. there were only a handful of staff in the white house who knew about this. the majority of my senior staff didn't know about it. my secretary didn't know about it. my personal aide didn't know about it. >> the first lady? >> the first lady didn't know about it. >> your husband didn't know? >> no. >> mrs. obama didn't know. these are big-time washington diplomatic security secrets? >> yes. this was such an important secret to keep, no one in the state department knew, same, i think, except for those wit...

The majority of my senior staff didn't know about it. my secretary didn't know about it. my personal aide didn't know about it. >> the first lady? >> the first lady didn't know about it. >> your husband didn't know? >> no. >> mrs. obama didn't know. these are big-time washington diplomatic security secrets? >> yes. this was such an important secret to keep, no one in the state department knew, same, i think, except for those with need-to-know in the pentagon or the cia and certainly the white house. so i just felt a personal responsibility to keep it close, but that meant that i was basically ...

It seems that since president clinton and the revelations, the american public has been more willing to accept flaws in candidates' personal lives. and yet, you're pointing out now that we should still be concerned about that? >> the only person who doesn't get a security clearance in our government is the president. he's elected by all of us. the standards we have for trusting people in our government with security secrets is very high. if you engage in high risk behavior, it allows you to be potentially candidate for blackmail and you lose your security clearance and you might lose your job ...

It's not up to an individual member of the military to determine which security secrets, which classified information is okay to leak for the public good. their job is to take orders. while i am sympathetic to the whistle blower argument in general, when you sign up for the military, it's a different thing. they're well within they're rights to go after this. >> i know you're intellectually honest. right? >> i try. >> when general mcchrystal and his aides were affiliated tw the leaking of a afghanistan memo months ago, which recently got more attention, if they were found to have done that, wo...