Harry Potter and the Deadly Intelligence Leakers

Harry Potter and the Deathly Intelligence Leakers can only Scholastic keep a secret?

The fate of Harry Potter in J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows was a closely guarded secret that was not supposed to be revealed before the book’s official release on July 21. The U.S. Postal Service tried to protect the secret when a mailman asked a Chicago-area woman to give back two copies of the book he had accidentally delivered before the release date. The mailman feared that he would lose his job for delivering the novel early. That is, he feared he would be fired for “leaking” the new Harry Potter book.

If only our intelligence agencies were as concerned about leaks as the U.S. Postal Service. There has been a torrent of leaks of national-security information since 2001. Many have been politically motivated, unauthorized disclosures to the news media aimed at hurting the Bush administration. The small number of intelligence officers who leak are a cancer inside the U.S. intelligence community. They jeopardize the lives and credibility of the thousands of hard-working intelligence professionals who have dedicated themselves to protecting America and its citizens.

Crucial antiterrorist programs implemented after 9/11 targeting al Qaeda and other radical jihadist groups have been seriously weakened by unauthorized disclosures by intelligence officials to the news media. Last week, unnamed intelligence officers told a blogger that a recent National Intelligence Estimate on terrorist threats to the United States lacked sourcing and was politicized. I have read this carefully crafted assessment and find these claims to be groundless. If anyone in the intelligence community believed this, they should have brought their concerns to the intelligence oversight committees and/or their agency inspectors general. They did not; instead they chose to go to the press.

Rowan Scarborough discussed many examples of illegal leaks of classified information to the news media by intelligence officers in his new book Sabotage: America’s Enemies within the CIA. The CIA, rather than explaining how it is working to stop leaks, instead attacked the author.

This was exactly the wrong response and further demonstrates the CIA’s unwillingness to respond to the leaks that are undermining the agency. Late last year, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence conducted a review documenting multiple cases since 2001 of intelligence officers making unauthorized disclosures to the press. Repeated demands by Congress that the Intelligence Community investigate and prosecute these leaks have been met with silence. Moreover, in my six years on HPSCI, there has never been a successful prosecution of an intelligence official for leaking classified information to the press.

Now there is news of an even more disturbing leak by high-level intelligence officials. Last week, a Swiss investigator told the European parliament that senior CIA officials leaked information to him on the alleged classified activities of the U.S. government. The CIA officers reportedly made these illegal disclosures to the Swiss investigator because of their dislike of former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and disagreements with certain CIA programs.

Leaking information to an agent of a foreign power conducting an investigation of U.S. intelligence activities takes illegal disclosures to a new and very disturbing level. This is why I wrote director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell to demand that he investigate the report and prosecute any CIA officers who may have illegally disclosed information to this foreign investigator to the maximum extent of the law.

It is urgent that President Bush and the heads of all intelligence agencies begin to take this problem seriously. Leaks of national-security information — especially America’s counterterrorism programs — have seriously damaged the security of the United States. Immediate action must be taken stop leaks of classified information and to prosecute those who have been engaged in this illegal activity.

The Chicago mailman who thought his career was in danger for prematurely delivering the then-secret Harry Potter book should not have worried. His job is to see to the efficient delivery of mail, and he should not have been faulted for doing his job perhaps too well. Intelligence officers, however, take an oath to safeguard America's secrets. When intelligence officers leak sensitive national-security information to the press or give it to agents of foreign powers without authorization, they are not just violating this oath, they are violating the public’s trust. There is no room for political activity in intelligence because protecting our nation from al Qaeda and others who would do us harm is a deadly, serious business.

— Peter Hoekstra (R., Mich.) is the Ranking Republican Member on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

Read the start and finish of the article again - I do not believe that this author actually dug into this to determine that the carrier thought his job was at risk. I think it is much more likely that he took an existing story and “revised” it a bit to provide a springboard to his story.

Good try, though woefully ignorant of the facts.

Perhaps I wasn't clear enough in saying that I was on a tangent. The CIA leak information may be solid, but the author detracts credibility for the sake of an interresting, but argueably incorrect lead in. Now then, what facts about the USPS am I woefully ignorant about? (btw - you woe way too easily if this is all it takes)

It's hard to tell if he's gilding the lily of a story that doesn't need a "hook," or not. I wouldn't be pleased if he was stretching the truth on the postman angle, but, honestly, I don't really care that much because the real story here is the CIA's rogue elements who have not been punished for their traitorous activity.

Like you, I value honesty and feel that when people lie about even small things, it can be an indication to make their views on other things suspect. Even if Hoekstra (sp?) is playing loose with the mailman thing (maybe, maybe not), that's inconsequential compared to the larger point -- that CIA leakers face less punishment than people who get caught downloading music, littering, or driving 72 in a 65 zone.

True enough - I would have preferred the opportunity to slam some liberal tripe article, but this was an easy example for me. There are readers who absorb information without ever considering what the writer’s approach to the article was. I think the writer threw together a hook - entertaining, but errant. In other cases writers warp whatever is necessary to crank out entire articles. There are plenty of instances where the goal is to produce clever writing that gets in by deadline. In other instances the object is to produce an interesting story that gets the president scrutinized (or would that be screwtinized? - How is Dan Rather doing these days?).

That's a good suggestion, so I looked into it. The National Review, unfortunately, doesn't provide his email address. I then looked under the "contact us" link but there is no category there that I could expect would provide contact with him. I then performed a search for him. He accepts email, but will not respond unless I am part of the second congressional district in MI (I'm not).

Soooo, I went another route – I figured if he made statements with specific references they must have come from somewhere. I found the article. He didn’t lie; the people at the USPS did, at least that is the most logical conclusion I can draw. The company that mailed the books sent them too early, and the boxes were not marked so that it was obvious what they were (as were the boxes from Amazon). No one in the USPS was going to loose their job over it, but those involved said they may in order to get the books back and execute a cya on behalf of the book seller (it was their error).

I sit corrected. Had I only done my fact checking before I published…

“Bush’s refusal to pursue the Clintons’ traitorous actions is a mystery to me.”

I would say it was much more of a clue than a mystery. If anyone could point out to me how one of our political parties could survive without the cooperation of the other, I would be will to listen and be amazed. The things that have come out of Washington in the last 40 years, would totally eliminate the party that was resonsible, if the other party could, and would, be willing to assign them the blame, AMEN.

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