Charlie Speight is a retired executive from the National Security Agency, which he joined in 1975. During his time at the NSA, he was a National Intelligence Officer, analyst, watch officer, operational staff officer, interagency liaison, senior editor in the Strategic Communications Directorate, and communications officer for the NSA Director. Unsurprisingly, there isn’t a lot of public information available about someone who spent 35 years as a secret squirrel. Mr. Speight’s Twitter bio simply states, “I know things.” Below is an exclusive interview about what he knows:
Decker: The theft and disclosure of classified information are generically and simplistically referred to as “leaks” by the media. This sounds relatively benign and plays into the narrative that flagrant espionage is really nothing more than a case of a well-intentioned whistleblower trying to stop bureaucratic abuse. What’s wrong with this picture? How are the national-security apparatus and U.S. military operational effectiveness affected by this spy game?
Speight: Often it’s merely the simple knowledge of an activity that is damaging. When it was mentioned by a congressman that the United States was listening to Osama bin Laden’s satellite phone calls, bin Laden stopped using that phone as well as other types of electronic communication assuming he was being monitored. That “leak” delayed finding him by years.
http://radixnews.com/2014/10/21/nsa-official-snowden-abets-terrorists-enemies-fight-grid/
