Date: July 23, 2006 6:46:34 PM PDT
Subject: [SPY NEWS] NSA stepping up efforts to curtail news media leaks
?section=nation_world
NSA stepping up efforts to curtail news media leaks
By Siobhan Gorman
The Baltimore Sun
Published: Sunday, July 23, 2006
WASHINGTON - The National Security Agency has mounted an increasingly
aggressive campaign to root out news media disclosures, including a
new policy that could require every agency employee to hunt for
leaks, current and former intelligence officials said.
''There's been one leak after another, and (intelligence agencies)
haven't responded as effectively as they would have liked,'' said
Meredith Fuchs, general counsel for the National Security Archive at
George Washington University. ''They're trying to set up a system
that will be quick-moving, effective and responsive.''
Some security analysts and former NSA officials warned that requiring
agency employees to regularly search for leaks could divert attention
from regular duties. They also raised concerns that it could place
under suspicion people who pursue information through legitimate
channels.
advertisement NSA spokesman Don Weber characterized the news media
policy as ''not a new policy'' but ''a revised (and) updated
policy.''
The policy, issued March 20, is apparently the first dedicated solely
to news media leaks. The last time the NSA visited the issue was as a
small part of an ''annex'' to a 1992 directive on information
security, which described the information that should be included
when assembling a ''damage assessment'' of a news media disclosure.
A copy of the new policy, which is unclassified but labeled ''For
Official Use Only,'' and unclassified portions of the 1992 policy
were obtained by The Baltimore Sun.
Weber said the policy did not represent a stepping-up of anti-leak
efforts because ''we've always had a strong effort.''
''Was it timely?'' he added. ''Certainly.''
Recent disclosures of classified and sensitive information -
including newspaper reports on secret CIA prisons, the NSA's
warrantless telephone surveillance program, government reviews of
financial transactions and the NSA's technology failures - have
prompted calls for a crackdown on leaks from the White House and from
many congressional Republican leaders, as well as intelligence agency
heads.
The NSA policy directs agency employees to ''actively monitor the
media for the purpose of identifying unauthorized disclosures'' of
classified information. It requires that all divisions within the
agency produce annual reports on the number of classified leaks they
uncover.
Such directives create pressure to identify more leaks, said Matthew
Aid, a former NSA analyst.
''Instead of hunting for spies within the agency, now you're hunting
for disenchanted employees who may know somebody who knows a
reporter,'' he said. ''It's bound to divert resources and focus.''
Some NSA veterans and security analysts said the policy imposes new
responsibilities on employees. " `Actively monitor' means they're
supposed to go out, surf the Web and look for classified information,
not report it when they find it,'' said Steven Aftergood, a
government secrecy expert at the Federation of American
Scientists. ''That amounts to a new tasking of every part of the
organization.''
One former NSA official called the directive ''bizarre.''
''We're going to turn all of NSA into a vast media monitor? That just
strikes up these images of people with visors on reading the
newspaper,'' the official said.
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