Something Smells Fishy in Massachusetts
By now most of America has heard about the young, enlisted U.S. Air National Guard member in Massachusetts who is the focus of the investigation concerning a leak of highly classified material. As someone who, at nineteen years old, was granted a Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI) clearance with special access to the White House and other facilities I can say with certainty that the least concerning thing about this news is the Airman’s age or his job. What is concerning is what the documents exposed, that they were in public for so long, and that they probably came from much higher up.
This information was NOT simply something a junior enlisted Airman gained access to so he could show off to his friends. The clearance I was granted at nineteen I held for the next twenty-seven years. I have been in some of the most classified facilities on earth and can say with conviction that this information came from somewhere in the highest levels of the Department of Defense and the Intelligence Community – intentionally.
The first hurdle to jump when it comes to gaining a security clearance is to be in a coded position that requires a clearance in the first place. This Airman appears to have had the job, and the clearance followed. There are people who spend years in the military and are never granted a clearance because their job does not require it. In addition to having TS/SCI clearance, there is also the need to know. This requires what is called a “read-on” where you are allowed to be a part of special access programs or to certain types of intelligence based on the source by which it is collected. That is the SCI part of TS/SCI, and I have had access to many.
https://armedforces.press/the-top-secret-files/
