AFP/WashingtonUS President Barack Obama hit back yesterday at accusations that the White House was somehow involved in leaking classified national security secrets, labeling the allegations “offensive”.Lawmakers have fumed this week over a series of news reports, some quoting anonymous administration officials, that reveal details of covert US operations.Some Republicans have suggested they were done in order to boost Obama’s image of a tough commander-in-chief in an election year.“The notion that my White House would purposely release classified national security information is offensive,” Obama said. “It’s wrong. And, you know, people I think need to have a better sense of how I approach this office and how the people around me here approach this office.”Several explosive stories have emerged recently, including Obama’s push for cyber attacks on computers that run Iran’s nuclear facilities; an apparent “kill list” of counter-terrorism targets against whom Obama has authorised lethal action; and a secret drone campaign against terrorists in Yemen.The New York Times reported that sources for their articles on the covert programmes included former or current administration officials.“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. “Whether or not the information they received is true, the writers of these articles have all stated unequivocally they didn’t come from this White House, and that’s not how we operate.”Senator John McCain, who lost the 2008 presidential race to Obama, has been leading the accusations and received backing on Thursday from Peter King, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee.“It has to be for re-election,” King told Politico magazine about the leaks. “They can deny it all they want. But it would require a suspension of belief to believe it’s not being done for political purposes.”Senate Select Committee on Intelligence chair Dianne Feinstein has called on Congress to swiftly enact legislation tightening rules to prevent unauthorised breaches, and welcomed an investigation launched by the FBI.But she has held back on calling for a special prosecutor to look into the leaks, a move the White House has said Obama will not agree to.“A special prosecutor can take years,” Feinstein told reporters, with committee ranking Republican Saxby Chambliss and the two leaders of the House intelligence committee at her side. “We don’t have years. We need to legislate, we need to get some solutions before us very quickly.”“This has to stop,” she said of the leaks. “It puts lives at risk.”The bipartisan quartet – Feinstein, Chambliss, Republican congressman Mike Rogers and ranking Democrat Dutch Ruppersberger – were briefed on Thursday by the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, who Chambliss said was “extremely upset” about the developments.The group later met with FBI chief Robert Mueller, whose agency has launched an official investigation.“All of us are extremely upset about the fact that not only have leaks occurred but there’s been just a cascade of leaks coming out of the intelligence community over the last several weeks and months,” Chambliss said.Rogers said it was too early to determine whether the leaks had a political bent, although he said the overall problem “seems to be a pattern that is growing worse and more frequent”, and he was critical of the administration’s apparent “inability to keep a secret”.“To have all four of us come forward today and talk about the severity of these leaks I hope sends a very clear message about how dangerous this has become,” Rogers said. “There is a clear need for a formal investigation.”The White House said Obama would not agree to an independent counsel to probe the breaches.The administration is taking “all appropriate and necessary steps to prevent leaks of classified information or sensitive information that could risk our counterterrorism operations”, Obama’s spokesman Jay Carney told reporters aboard Air Force One. “Any suggestion that the White House has leaked sensitive information for political purposes has no basis in fact.”But Obama’s Republican White House rival, Mitt Romney, believes the president should take greater charge in order to stop the leaks in their tracks.“Leadership starts at the top. It’s his sincere hope that the president is using all means at his disposal to put an end to this harmful practice,” Romney campaign spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg told AFP.Feinstein gave no details of what tools she would seek to insert into legislation in order to prevent future leaks.And she downplayed any fallout of a major investigation ahead of November’s election, saying a probe should not be seen as a political ploy against the president.“This is not finger pointing at anybody,” she said.