Leaks of Classified Info....can hurt...

From Secrecy News:

LEAKS LED TO IMPRISONMENT OF SOURCE, CIA SAYS

Unauthorized disclosures of classified information in the press led to
the imprisonment of a CIA source and other damaging consequences, said
Central Intelligence Agency Director Michael Hayden in a speech last
week.

"Some say there is no evidence that leaks of classified information
have harmed national security. As CIA Director, I'm telling you there
is, and they have," Hayden told the Council on Foreign Relations.

"Let me give you just two examples: In one case, leaks provided
ammunition for a government to prosecute and imprison one of our
sources, whose family was also endangered. The revelations had an
immediate, chilling effect on our ability to collect against a
top-priority target."

"In another, a spate of media reports cost us several promising
counterterrorism and counterproliferation assets. Sources not even
involved in the exposed operation lost confidence that their
relationship with us could be kept secret, and they stopped reporting."

"More than one foreign service has told us that, because of public
disclosures, they had to withhold intelligence that they otherwise
would have shared with us. That gap in information puts Americans at
risk."

"Those who are entrusted with America's secrets and break that trust by
divulging those secrets are guilty of a crime. But those who seek such
information and then choose to publish it are not without
responsibilities."

In his comments on unauthorized disclosures, Director Hayden did not
address wrongful withholding of information, and did not acknowledge
any reasons why American might be skeptical of CIA disclosure policies.
"CIA acts within a strong framework of law and oversight," he said.

The text of his September 7, 2007 speech is here:

http://www.fas.org/irp/cia/product/dcia090707.html

While leaks have been a perennial problem from the government's point
of view, it does not follow that new legislation to combat them is a
fitting solution.

"I am not aware of a single case involving the unauthorized disclosure
of classified information that would have been prosecuted but could not
be because of the lack of statutory coverage," said Attorney General
John Ashcroft in testimony prepared for the Senate Intelligence
Committee in 2001.

The Ashcroft testimony, dated September 5, 2001, represents a missing
link between the testimony of Janet Reno on the same subject on June
14, 2000, and a subsequent report to Congress on leaks that was
submitted by Mr. Ashcroft in October 2002.

The testimony was approved by the White House Office of Management and
Budget, according to a handwritten notation on the document, but the
scheduled Intelligence Committee hearing was cancelled and the Ashcroft
testimony was never delivered.

A copy of the text was obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by
Michael Ravnitzky.

http://www.fas.org/sgp/othergov/ashcroftleaks.pdf

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