And In the “Even a Stopped Clock is Right Twice Daily” Department . . . .
I’m sure everyone has seen the many articles about US intelligence and/or other “hush-hush” operations that have appeared in the press recently. (A decent summary is found here – even if it does confuse some recent stuff with Stuxnet, which occurred about a year ago.) Hell, if you follow the news at all you couldn’t have missed them if you tried.
My reaction on seeing them was pretty much “WTF?”. Not because some of them indicated things had not gone well, or that we’d screwed the pooch fornicated Fido – but because these things were being talked about at all. Some things just don’t need to be made public. Lives can literally depend on keeping some things quiet.
A number of Members of Congress also apparently have the same thoughts. For all his faults, IMO McCain got this one right. He’s calling for appointment of a Special Prosecutor to investigate. Chambliss (chair of the Senate Intel Committee) is similarly pissed. The Senate Armed Services Committee will apparently hold hearings. And even Pelosi and Kerry – not exactly known for being all that friendly towards the US Intel Community – are complaining publicly.
When the Congressional leadership of both parties are complaining concurrently about the same leaks of classified info, you know things have gotten way out of control.
I’ll refrain from speculating as to whether or not these leaks occurred for political purposes, or if some numbnuts simply couldn’t keep his or her damn mouth (or mouths) shut. Because whatever the reason for the leak, it simply doesn’t matter. Leaks like this squander US assets and advantages. That costs lives on the battlefield – and sometimes in other places as well. See Walker, John and Hansen, Robert.
Whoever leaked this stuff needs to be burned – now, publicly, and to the freaking ground. As does any senior official who authorized the leak without statutory authority to do so.
Category: Politics
Unless it was leaked at POTUS’s direction to allow him to appear tough and hip in the run up to the election….
(Not saying it was but, a leak this big has to have been approved or the FBI REALLY needs to start doing a better job in their CI mission)
My default position is that that most of the folks (of the civilian variety) now handling sensitive information in the administration have little or no training in how to do it and therefore we have no expectation that they could possibly do it correctly. Not an excuse – just a potential reason, which leads directly to other serious concerns about how information is handled generally.
More likely is that there are indeed some folks passing out sensitive information whose agendas include damaging the country.
Let the investigations begin!
Because of the perficy of the Walkers, and their release of highly classified material to the Soviets, had we gone to war with them, it’s likely that we would have lost far more naval assets then we had ever considered.
They should have all been hanged for their actions.
In a time where the secret service can’t hide their dealings with prostitutes this doesn’t come as a shock. If we burn a few examples publicly as Hondo suggested we may be able to encourage discretion in the future.
Tim–which is why it surprises me, 25 after the fact, that Manning is still breathing almost two years after he got busted sending out many times over the number of classified documents the Walker/Whitworth spies ever even dreamed of sending to the Soviets.
You are probably doing the right thing by refraining from speculating, and if you want to take Sen. John F’n Kerry’s statement, that he doesn’t think it was political action, at face value, fine. As for me, as a civilian, I would be remiss to accept any of this.
This administration has good message control, and has done some slick double-messaging on occasion. Further, lack of training for administration members with respect to security issues is a failing of the presidency. His job is to see to it that his people function properly in their roles, and others have the responsibility of telling him what he needs to do. All he would have to do is accept the advice to have them briefed.
Once is an accident, twice is coincidence and three times …. you and I both know.
NHSparky: don’t be so sure that Manning exposed more than Walker. Walker and Whitworth were crypto custodians during the time they worked for the Soviets. They didn’t have to send the Soviets all that much physical material to give the Soviets access to a shitload. And they kept feeding the Soviets for 15+ years.
Agreed, Valerie. One of the leaks happened, which, along with Joe Bite-Me, caused Obama to be in favor of gay marriage, after he was against it, after he was for it. The next came about because Obama had taken flak for the “I got bin Laden” campaign theme, and he had to appear “tough” again.
And, who could forget leaking the details of bin Laden op, so Hollyweird could make a campaign movie for him?
“His job is to see to it that his people function properly in their roles”. Who says they aren’t functioning exactly as he wants them to?
Cue Insipid to show up with his faux outrage at any time, calling us all a racist POS.
“PHOENIX and The Birds Of Prey — Counterinsurgency and Counterterrorism In Vietnam” by DR MARK MOYAR (formerly at The Marine Corps College), in the updated (Chaper 29) paperback edition — good history, conclusions and ideas, including operations in IRAK and AFGHAN-STAN .
[…] Those Stopped Clocks . . . . June 11th, 2012 I wrote a previous article concerning recent high-level security leaks. Given recent developments I suppose I should write a […]
[…] wrote a previous article concerning recent high-level security leaks. Given recent developments I suppose I should write a […]