|
Report of the Commission On Protecting And Reducing Government Secrecy |
As for Putin's office's statement ...
We never poke our noses into others' affairs
Scroll through the linked index of that long report and check out the well-written summary of the previous US-Russia intelligence war at the bottom.
Aside from the history, it's also a great commentary on our overuse of secrecy.
Secrecy: A Brief Account of the American Experience
1. Secrecy as Regulation
Secrecy is a form of government regulation.
It has now become routine for information of the highest classification to appear in the press, most commonly as a tactical move in some intra-government policy dispute. There are no sanctions. A fairly routine example of what might be called "deregulation" occurred on October 22, 1996, when the Washington Times published details of a "Top Secret" CIA analysis of the control system of Russian nuclear weapons. The following day, the Washington Post had a "follow-up" story by Reuters:
CIA Rates 'Low' the Risk of Unauthorized Use of Russian Nuclear Warheads
''The Central Intelligence Agency has concluded that Russia's control over its nuclear arsenal has been weakening, but the chance of unauthorized launch or blackmail remains low, CIA officials said yesterday.''
''The Russian nuclear command and control system is being subjected to stress that it was not designed to withstand as a result of wrenching social change, economic hardship and malaise within the armed forces," according to a classified report prepared last month, the officials said.
The CIA report, "Prospects for Unsanctioned Use of Russian Nuclear Weapons" and stamped top secret, was disclosed by the Washington Times in its editions yesterday. CIA officials confirmed the accuracy of the material quoted in the article.''Now came the essential part of the story: Who benefited when someone within the government chose to betray this "secret"? The Reuters dispatch continued:
''Disclosure of the CIA report bolstered critics of President Clinton . . . who favor building a costly missile defense system over administration objections that it could undermine the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty."
"It reinforces the urgent need for a missile defense to be put in place as soon as possible for the United States as well as for its allies and friends," said James Lilley
. . . who served as U.S. envoy to China and South Korea under presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush.
This is a fixed pattern. Classified documents are routinely passed out to support an administration; weaken an administration; advance a policy; undermine a policy. A newspaper account would be incomplete without some such reference.
Looks like things haven't changed a bit since '97.
The rest of that appendix looks at various successful espionage attempts during the Cold War and pre-Cold War periods. Herman Peake, the CIA's historical curator, summarizes that period:
"No modern government was more thoroughly penetrated."Russia has had its nose in American politics for a while. The US government simply doesn't admit that it happens in its own house as that shows weakness and threatens instability. It has always been easier to blanket-blame actors, etc.