In a textbook case of closing the barn door after the horse has been stolen, the Department of Defense has revoked access to highly classified information and is “culling through” distribution lists after a Massachusetts Air National Guardsman IT specialist allegedly leaked Pentagon documents and was arrested last week.
As the Herald reported, Jack Teixeira, 21, who has been stationed at Otis Air National Guard Base on Cape Cod, is accused of publicly posting top secret government documents on the war in Ukraine and other highly sensitive matters. He was arrested at his North Dighton home last week, and arraigned on federal charges in Boston’s U.S. District Court.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ordered a review of Department of Defense security programs, policies and procedures in the wake of this alleged leak, Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said on Monday.
No, the time to review security programs, policies and procedures was long before this incident, in order to ensure nothing of this nature would not happen.
This isn’t DoD’s first rodeo when it comes to meandering classified material.
In November, a Navy engineer and his wife were given lengthy prison sentences after both pleaded guilty to a plot to try to sell sensitive secrets about the Navy’s nuclear-powered submarines to a foreign country. .
In September, a former NSA employee from Colorado was charged with violating the Espionage Act after he allegedly tried to send classified documents to Russia.
These aren’t outliers, there have been other alleged secret-swaps over the years.
Any one of which should have prompted the “list culling” happening today.
One of the unsavory reveals after 9/11 was the lack of information-sharing and analysis by intelligence agencies before the terror attacks. The ensuing blame-game of “who knew what when” added another layer of outrage to the tragic events of that day.
Now, as defense officials scramble to do damage control, the American people face another uncomfortable truth: the government dropped the ball on access to critical secrets.
Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said Monday that the Pentagon is “taking steps when it comes to distribution lists, when it comes to printing access,” the spokesperson said.
“A very simple example would be a distribution list that has 10 people on it, and one of those people have left the organization, but they moved within the department and still have that email,” Singh said. “So, it’s culling through some of those lists, making sure that people that are sent information actually need to have that information to do their jobs.”
This would be sloppy management practice at a widget factory, but for the Pentagon it’s unconscionable.
Crises cannot be the catalysts to improving how our government functions. The fallout from the leaked documents continues worldwide, but the fault for this breach is shared by many.
