Preventing Intelligence Leaks: Let's Start Over
by James B. Bruce
May 3, 2023
As a former CIA career officer, I wince learning about leaks of classified documents that produce sustained headlines. I know the damage such a debacle can wreak on intelligence-gathering and cooperation with U.S. allies. The hard-won intelligence that Jack Teixeira, the recently alleged Air National Guard leaker delivered via the internet to nations hostile to the United States, likely cost U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars to produce, and some of those sources and methods may never produce again.
Unauthorized Disclosures—Preventing Self-Inflicted Wounds
It is doubly painful to know that such illegal leaks can mostly be prevented. But that would require repudiating a business-as-usual approach, and a much more concerted way to thwart untrustworthy employees whose responsibilities exceed their judgment.
Ten years ago, I coauthored a think-tank study for the Department of Defense, recommending comprehensive measures to deter and prevent classified leaks. While we cannot know for certain how much these reforms might have helped, my understanding is that despite being officially endorsed, their full implementation, as some cynics had forewarned, has fallen short.
Serious unauthorized disclosures such as the documents stolen from the Air National Guard facility in Massachusetts, can damage U.S. national security. In this case, some of the leaked documents have reportedly spotlighted ways that shared intelligence has helped Ukraine defeat Russian attacks, which Russia may now be able to counter; how deeply U.S. intelligence has penetrated the Russian military, and where, by inference, such leakages may now be plugged; and how Ukraine's shortages of specific defenses will multiply its vulnerabilities, which Russia can now better exploit. Such foolishly squandered advantages will fuel Russia's offensive operations, increase casualties to Ukrainian forces and civilian population, and add pressures for U.S. and allied escalation.
https://www.rand.org/blog/2023/05/preventing-intelligence-leaks-lets-start-over.html
