Let’s Get A Few Things Straight About Leaking
Leaking classified information is illegal, whatever the reason, okay? Stipulate that up front. That’s number one.
Number two, if your own moral and ethical scruples convince you to leak classified information regardless, because whatever you’re leaking is too important to stay unknown (at least to you), then you have to be prepared to face prosecution and possible jail time. That’s number two.
Number three, regardless of the rhetoric from certain quarters that the leakers on the NSA story and Mary McCarthy had to leak because there weren’t ways to raise their concerns legally, that’s just total bull. Anyone who has ever worked at any government agency knows that there are whistleblower protections, and they’re not a secret. Murray Waas, who has been vociferous in his critical reporting regarding PlameGate and other ‘secrecy’ matters in this administration, quotes a former high CIA official as follows:
Regarding the recent firing of McCarthy, former Deputy CIA Director Richard J. Kerr said in an interview, “She was a very qualified analyst in a variety of jobs. She had strong views sometimes, but I don’t know anyone who would describe her as a zealot or ideologue.”
Still, Kerr said, if McCarthy did leak to the press, if she did provide classified information [sic] the press, she behaved wrongly and should be held accountable. “If she believed there was something morally wrong or illegal going on, there were mechanisms within the system to go up the line, or complain,” Kerr said. “The other possibility for her or anyone else is to quit and speak once you are outside.”
How do you handle things, professionally and legally, if you think something illegal or immoral is being done, like, let’s say, secret CIA prisons?
(A) Bring your concerns up to your superiors through the chain of command.
(B) If satisfaction is not found, research the whistleblower process (not a secret anywhere) and follow it.
(C) If you still don’t find satisfaction, quit your job and call a press conference. If you call a press conference while you’re still employed with the agency, or even if you talk to one reporter off the record, and you pass classified information, you’re a criminal. Maybe that’s a price you’re willing to pay…but don’t ask me to make a martyr out of you if you didn’t try A, B, and C first…
I’m not sure option (C) is really an option. I don’t think quitting your job frees you to release classified information that you learned about through your employment. If that were true, former CIA types wouldn’t have to get their books cleared by the CIA before publication.
So let’s assume, hypothetically, that you’ve discovered serious government wrongdoing, you’ve gone through all official channels to raise your concerns, and everyone is ignoring you. What do you do then? You can quit in protest. But I don’t think doing so frees you to discuss classified information. I think you’re still subject to prosecution if you reveal it. So what then?
The short answer is I don’t know 100% the CIA rules for ex-CIA speaking to reporters. Certainly they must vet all manuscripts, as explained in this this 5 year piece in the CJR featuring, intriguingly, James Risen.
If I have time, I’ll do some more Googling and share anything interesting that comes up…
6 degrees of Mary McCarthy
If you’re familiar with the game “6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon” you’ll know what I mean with the above post title.
The object of the game is to, as MSNBC describes it, “connect Bacon and any other actor through the films or t…
[...] We know (don’t we?) that current CIA employs cannot legally leak classified information…what about ex-CIA? The question has relevance, because some, including…ahem…myself, have suggested that whistleblowers like Mary McCarthy should quit their positions prior to talking to the press if their conscience forces them to take action against something they see as morally objectionable. [...]