The Disclosure of Sensitive and Classified Information by Persons - Research Paper Example

The disclosure of sensitive and ified information by persons currently or previously employed by or affiliated with the United States federal government for personal or political gain greatly harms the country’s national security. Intelligence is always based on secrets, but the US press is an open crypt of information about the US intelligence sources. But now because of the social and electronic media, like the television, magazines and the search engines, the situation has gone even worse for the scope and the seriousness of the leaks. However, these sources and not authorized disclosures of the core information. This is also because the press only releases individually and cumulatively. Just like secret intelligent actually works. But however, this is a very major issue. If one is working or has worked with United States federal government, then one should know the importance of keeping your organization secrets to yourself. Being not an ordinary citizen, you are of the key persons of the country to keep in-charge of the national security of the United States. The unauthorized disclosure of classified intelligence has always been extraordinarily been resistant to the authenticity. Though there is a committee named as Foreign Denial and Deception Committee. This organization makes an interagency effort in order to understand how other agencies get to know about and how they try to defeat the US secret intelligence activities, but then even the unauthorized disclosures of classified intelligence still seem to be a serious problem for the US national security. Where the term classified information means the information, which at the time of violation of the US laws is, for thenational security, specifically designated by a United States Government Agency for limited rights of distribution. George Tenet – the Director of the CIA, said in an interview about unauthorized disclosures, that they have become one of the biggest threats to the survival of the US intelligence. And definitely, what harm the wikileaks did to the US national security, no one would deny it. Though the US law states that whoever intentionally shares any kind of classified intelligence information to an unauthorized person or transmits, furnishes or publishes it in any way which leads to the benefit of any other foreign government or to the insecurity if the United States concerning the preparation or use of any code, design, construction, maintenance or repair of any device or apparatus or communication of any intelligence activities of the United States with any foreign government shall be either fined or be imprisoned for not more than ten years, or as a punishment may be have to suffer from even both but the steps take to stop the violation of these rules must be improved in order to assure the security of the US intelligence. George England, the Acting Deputy Secretary of Defense while stating the rules and the responsibilities for the national defense of the US in his Reporting and Investigation Guide said that every civilian employee, active or reserved National Military Guard, any member, contractor or an employee of a contractor of the department of defense working with the classified material is instantly supposed to report through any security channel, any suspect disclosing the classified information to anyone. Then further actions will be taken after consulting with the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs and other officials after confirming if the information of officially released under a proper authority or what. Then further decisions would be made for starting an investigation by some military organization or Federal Bureau of Investigation, which will base on how accurate was the information that was disclosed, how much damage was caused to the national security by the disclosure of that information, how many people gained access to that information, if its investigation will increase the damage caused, the reasonable expectations of the information that was already previously disclosed, and to upon how much the information was spread outside the Department of Defense. Now I would like to quote here the words of Miss Lisa O. Monaco, the Assistant Attorney General National Security Division, Department of Justice, where at a hearing concerning unauthorized disclosure of classified information, when she was asked by Chairman Feinstein, Department of Justice about the number and historical context of charged individuals regarding unlawful disclosure of classified information in May 2011, she said that in this area in last around one and a half years, she had just seen two such cases. She said that though these are very important, the relevant committee has taken appropriate steps and pressed the intelligence and the department to focus on these issues as well, and make sure that even these two cases were properly pursued, either criminally or administratively. She also agreed that such leaks do tremendous damage to the national security, and specially the intelligence services like FBI, who have to suffer a lot with their methods of investigation, when they are leaked. And she said that if she was confirmed, it would be her priority to pursue such matters very seriously and aggressively. Now here I would also like to refer to Melanie Raid’s famous booklet, “secrets behind the secrets”, in which he has actually explained that how the law of disclosure of classified information or Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA) actually came into being.This problem actually started, when the attorney general of that time, named Phillip Hayman expressed that he was confused in either to continue the trial of criminal cases like murder, perjury and narcotics distribution, even if the classified information was needed to be disclosed during it. Then in the year 1980, congress provided proper laws and procedures to deal in criminal cases for revealing or leaking the classified information, thus giving a protection against the disclosure of classified information and at the same time ensuring that the defendant makes his trial fair and satisfactory. Then in the next years up till now CIPA is still being applied and has been applied in hundreds of cases. CIPA was not actually designed to explain the judges how they should rule on the issues of fairness or even if the classified information was actually relevant to the specific case or criminal. While it was being made, congress specially stated that CIPA was meant only as a procedural tool, which would allow the trial person to have a pre-trial of the criminal involving questions including classified information before the criminal was brought for the evidence in the open court. Whereas it was definitely not meant to change the Federal Rules of Evidence. So, because of these kinds of misunderstandings by the judges, CIPA has also been misapplied by them though very rarely. Former President of the United States – Gerald Ford who said that he has been told that the New York Times has got so much of classified material, that they don’t know where to store it. According to some statistics information about the number of criminals regarding the unauthorized disclosure of classified information was initiated by the Department of Justice. It was reported that FBI had to face 25 such cases in the year 1980 till next two years, which was almost 12 cases per year. Then some article in 1985 revealed that 20 to 30 cases of unauthorized disclosure were caught between 1980 and 1985. And It was also reported that FBI has faced about 85 such investigations between the year 2001 and 2008. History repeats itself. And I must say that the words of President Gerald Ford were probably not wrong at all. In the year 1975, the New York Times disclosed the operation SHAMROCK, which allowed the National Security Agencies and its predecessors to monitor the international telegram tapes, and thirty years later in the year 2005, published another article thus revealing the existence of a National Security Agency Program, which was meant to monitor certain domestic communication. Three recent unauthorized disclosures, in which each of them contained classified information regarding counter-terrorism program have given a new energy to the members of the government, media and the public. The unauthorized disclosure of the classified information has always remained a very frequent and top cased subject of research in the government and the legal communities. These issues have been examined and revised at different government, political and academic institutes including university of Stanford, California and Harvard, and in the different law magazines and journals. This is a topic, that has got a very serious interest with the security of the country’s intelligence agencies, while play a key role in its internal and external affairs, and with the national security itself. So, this topic has also been discussed by the professional associations, including the American Bar Association and the American Newspaper association, and has been a serious topic of discussion in the top international conferences and seminars also. The disclosure of such information by the unauthorized persons and parties though have been controlled up to much of an extent, but still needs to be improved in order to make the Nation’s security more favorable. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Bruce, James B. "The Consquences of Permissive Neglect; Laws and Leaks of Classified Intelligence." 14 April 2007. Central Intelligence Agency. 30 September 2012 . Cornell Univeristy Law School. "Legal Information Institute." 18 USC part 798 - Disclosure of classified information. 30 09 2012 . Department Of Defense. DOD 5210.50 - Unauthorized Disclosure of Classsified Information to the Public. Directive. Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence. Washington D.C.: Department of Defense, 2005. Monaco, Lisa O. "STATEMENT OF LISA O. MONACO ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL NATIONAL SECURITY DIVISION DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE ." At a Hearing Concerning Unauthorized Disclosure of Classified Information. Washington D.C.: Department of Justice, 2012. Ried, Melanie. "Secrets Behind Secrets: Disclosure of Classified Information Before and During Trial and Why CIPA Should Be revamped." Seton Hall Legislative Journal 35.2 (2012): 1-30. Ross, Gary. Who Watches the Watchmen? The Conflict Between National Security and Freedom of the Press. Report. Washington D.C.: National Intelligence University, 2011. Shane, Scott. "Inquiry Into U.S. Leaks Is Casting Chill Over Coverage." The New York Times 1 August 2012. The White House. Executive Order 13526- Classified National Security Information. Executive Order. Washington D.C.: Office of the Press Secretary, 2009. United States. Standard Form 312 Classified Information Nondisclosure Agreement. Form. Washington D.C.: United States, 2005. Read More