An American Lion

LTG Keith Alexander attends the groundbreaking ceremony for some such boondoggleThere has been a lot of coverage of the Wikileaks incident, but here are a few comments and observations that I'd like to make.

First, there was this tidbit:

National Security Adviser Gen. James Jones lashed out Sunday evening at the publishing on the site Wikileaks of more than 90,000 files related to the Afghanistan war.

The giant trove of classified documents covering six years of the Afghanistan war was to be published on the Wikileaks site Sunday but was made available first to The New York Times, the Guardian and Der Spiegel. Under the conditions of the agreement with Wikileaks, the papers withheld their reports on the documents until Sunday.

"The United States strongly condemns the disclosure of classified information by individuals and organizations which could put the lives of Americans and our partners at risk, and threaten our national security," Jones said in a statement released by the White House. "Wikileaks made no effort to contact us about these documents — the United States government learned from news organizations that these documents would be posted."

And so, with the National Security Adviser out there on a limb, the Department of Defense makes use of the stenographical talents of Michael Isikoff and cuts it off:

An ongoing Pentagon review of the massive flood of secret documents made public by the WikiLeaks website has so far found no evidence that the disclosure harmed U.S. national security or endangered American troops in the field, a Pentagon official told NBC News on Monday.

The initial Pentagon assessment is far less dramatic than initial statements from the Obama White House Sunday night after three major news organizations – The New York Times, the Guardian and Der Spiegel — published what was touted as an unprecedented “secret archive” of classified military documents relating to the war in Afghanistan. The documents appear to show, among other matters, close collaboration between elements of the Pakistani intelligence service and the Taliban — an awkward issue that U.S. intelligence officials have strenuously complained about for some time but are loath to talk about publicly.

The news organizations said they received the documents from WikiLeaks, a controversial website that specializes in soliciting and publishing sensitive government documents.  No sooner did the stories appear this weekend than U.S. National Security Adviser James Jones “strongly” condemned the WikiLeaks disclosure, saying that the trove of classified documents “could put the lives of American and our partners at risk and threaten our national security.”

But David Lapan, deputy assistant secretary of defense for media operations, told NBC News on Monday that a preliminary review by a Pentagon “assessment” team has so far not identified any documents whose release could damage national security. Moreover, he said, none of the documents reviewed so far carries a classification level above “secret” — the lowest category of intelligence material in terms of sensitivity. 

Happy landings, General Jones. The real power is in the hands of one Mr. Gates. Once again, you lose. Once again, your public statements are absolutely trashed and laid bare within twenty-four hours of their being issued. Did you run over Bob Gates' dog once? Jeebus.

If I were General Jones, I would have resigned a year ago and just allowed Bob Gates to be the de facto National Security Adviser.

Watching him get cut off at the knees is like watching Richard Simmons go on the Letterman show--it's not going to end well, someone is going to mug for the cameras, and someone else is going to end up gnawing at the inside of their cheek because of how pathetic things will look to the folks back home.

So with General Jones sitting there, with what might appear to be egg on his face, you can't help but think of that newly minted general who has been charged with running the United States Cyber Command. If newly-promoted General Keith Alexander can't keep us safe from Wikileaks, then how does he still have a job? Doesn't this incident prove we don't really need a Cyber Command?

Now, isn't that a fair question? We are beginning to pump billions of dollars into a Cyber Command infrastructure that will, I presume, dedicate itself to making sure that classified information cannot be stripped from government networks and blasted around the globe for all to see. Why? If someone on the inside can undermine a multi-billion dollar boondoggle, then retire General Alexander, slash the funding to the bone, and turn Cyber Command over to a two-star general who can't get a decent billet and be done with it.

While I am not a fan of big government, and that's never been a secret around here, I am a fan of anyone who hunts down and kills terrorists like the running dogs that they are.

Here, you have a snooty Poindexter's take on the Washington Post series on contracting and the Federal Government's intelligence apparatus.

For example, the authors point to the fact that large numbers of Americans hold top-secret security clearances, but fail to distinguish between those who are genuinely involved in intelligence work and those who require the clearances for other reasons -- such as maintaining classified computer equipment or, for that matter, serving as janitors or food service workers in organizations that do classified work. 

The database they have assembled details not only organizations involved in counterterrorism work, but also those working in unrelated fields such as Air Force technical intelligence. In so doing, they have made it easier for America's enemies to defeat U.S. efforts to ferret out their secrets and have thereby made it more rather than less likely that the United States will be surprised by a future adversary.