A few stories of interest to national security reporter types over the long weekend that are worth a mention for those who may have been tuned out:
✓ Reporters see chilling effect from Justice Department inquiries.
✓ Is Obama at war with journalists?
✓ Showdown at the airport body scanner.
✓ Americans and their military, drifting apart.
(Plug: The first two stories include quotes from Medill National Security Journalism Initiative colleague Josh Meyer).
By JOSH MEYER
Is this really the worst time ever to be a journalist covering national security issues, especially in Washington?
Maybe the best way to describe it is to quote Charles Dickens from his A Tale of Two Cities: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.’’
It’s the best of times because of all the great and important news out there. Two wars are winding down. We have a president who has become even more hawkish and willing to embrace the “war on terrorism” paradigm. The looming confrontation with Iran is another great story, including the mysterious cyberattacks against its nuclear program. Army Private Bradley Manning faces life in prison for giving classified materials to Wikileaks. And 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed may finally go on trial.
Washington these days should be a candy store for reporters covering national security, whether they actually live here or cover the issues from their local community. There’s even a November election to spice everything up.
So why is everyone in the media complaining? Because by all accounts, the Obama administration and Congress have made it virtually impossible for them to do their jobs.
The losers are the American public, who as a result are learning less and less about what their government is doing in the name of protecting them, at the very time when the world is getting more and more precarious.
Good overview from NYT today on that latest in the various executive, administrative and legislative efforts to crack down on leaks from with the country’s national security bureaucracy and, what the Times says, is a chilling effect on reporting. “Striking,” actually, is the phrase used.
Already the deterrent effect of the investigation on officials’ willingness to discuss security and foreign policy issues, presumably one purpose of the leak crackdown, has been striking. Some government officials and press advocates say Americans are learning less about their government’s actions.
“People are being cautious,” said one intelligence official who, considering the circumstances, spoke on condition of anonymity. “We’re not doing some of the routine things we usually do,” he added, referring to briefings on American security efforts and subjects in the news.
“Reporters are beginning to resort to the old practice of meeting on a park bench to avoid leaving an electronic trail,” Gregg Leslie, interim executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, told the Times. That’s based, he said, on recent crackdown efforts compounding an earlier “growing awareness” of employee e-mail and phone contact tracking.
Nice job by ProPublica yesterday succinctly summarizing the major government national security related leaks and scoops that are being investigated. In addition to overviews of Stuxnet, CIA drone and the foiled underwear bomber leaks, the story discusses what laws cover leaks, and the status of investigations. why there are been few prosecutions in the past, and administrative rule changes to try and stem them.
One the changes from Director of National Intelligence James Clapper: Adding a question to a polygraph test those with access to classified information must already take to “specifically ask whether the employee has disclosed classified information to a member of the media.”
More broadly, CNN says: “Among Clapper’s recommendations, to be instituted across the 16 intelligence agencies, are an enhanced counterintelligence polygraph test for employees who have access to classified information, and the establishment of a task force of intelligence community inspectors general that will have the ability to conduct independent investigations across agencies in coordination with the Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive. Clapper has also called for a review of current policies that relate to interaction with members of the media, and how that interaction must be reported.”