Gen. Michael V. Hayden was appointed by President George W. Bush as CIA director in 2006 and served until February 2009. He also was director of the National Security Agency and held senior staff positions at the Pentagon
In a 1997 light-hearted comedy, "Excess Baggage," Benicio del Toro (an inadvertent kidnapper) asks Alicia Silverstone (the unintended kidnap victim), "How stupid do you think I am?" Silverstone classically deadpans her response, "How stupid is there?"
I thought of this scene often this past week as I watched WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange attempt to explain and then justify his dumping of some 75,000 classified U.S. intelligence documents into the public domain.
It was hard to suppress a laugh as he attempted to justify the release of documents based on their content when most of us in the actual business of secrets know that reports are more often classified because of their source, not their content.
Suppress a laugh. Except that this isn't a comedy. It's a tragedy. And innocents will die.
First of all, let's look at the "up" side of this release. These documents "prove" that war is grittier when viewed by an infantryman than by a policymaker; that Pakistan's intelligence service, the ISI, is a difficult partner; that in war innocent civilians sometimes die; and that the Taliban has been growing in strength over the past several years. Not quite "stop the presses" kind of revelations.
Now the downsides. According to multiple press accounts, despite WikiLeaks' claim that it had redacted source-identifying information from the military's intelligence reports, it apparently did a half-baked job and real names of real people are being exposed.
Beyond that, even when you effectively mask source-identifying data, the enemy knows who did or who did not know about the historic operation or meeting or rendezvous now being made public in a leaked American document.
I can already see the Taliban or al Qaeda dialogue: "Brother, in whose house did we hold that meeting in 2007?"
WikiLeaks, as part of its self-justification, contends that much of this information is dated, none of it more recent that seven months ago. Let me remind readers that we send young Americans in harm's way (and frequently are forced to kill our adversaries) in order to retrieve this kind of information on al Qaeda and the Taliban.
This data dump is the moral and cyber equivalent of capturing an al Qaeda hard drive, a treasure trove of historical knowledge that enlightens and informs current operations. With this release, the enemy now knows about us that which we struggle so hard to learn about him: What we do well and what we do less well, where our thinking is strong and where it is not, where our analysis is incisive and where we have blind spots.
I used to give the graduation address to CIA case officers as they completed their operational training. At every ceremony I would remind them that they would be taking the fate of their future sources into their hands, that in a powerful moral sense, they would be responsible for the well-being of their sources and, very often, their source's families. Without that implied "contract," why would anyone provide information to us?
What potential sources in Afghanistan will now believe that America can protect them?
Why would anyone in that troubled land bet his family's well-being and future on such a well-intentioned but obviously porous partner, whatever hope or vision for the future this potential source might harbor.
And we will never know who will now not come forward, who will not provide us with life-saving information, who will decide he cannot opt for a common effort against a common enemy. But we can be certain that the cost will be great.
And foreign intelligence services, with whom we have established productive and legitimate partnerships, will ask, "Can I trust the Americans to keep anything secret?"
On top of last summer's voluntary disclosure by the administration of CIA covert actions in America's previous interrogation program (over the objection of the current CIA director and seven of his predecessors), what liaison service in the world will now accept any assurances that we can protect their secrets? Or protect their identity? Or be consistent in our policy?
Finally, I can only imagine what adversary intelligence services worldwide are doing with these documents. If I were the chief of Russia's FSB or China's PLA-2, I would be gathering all of my English-speaking officers and directing them to read all 75,000 documents to learn where the Americans are strong, weak, vulnerable, formidable, to be avoided and to be challenged.
And all of this because of some corrupted view of the inherent evils of the modern state, a pseudo-romantic attachment to the absolute value of transparency, a casual indifference to inevitable consequences and a neurotic attachment to one individual's self importance. Rarely have we seen such a dangerous combination of arrogance and incompetence.
Perhaps we should ask heaven to help us, because our intelligence services will surely be less able to do so.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Michael V. Hayden.
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"This data dump is the moral and cyber equivalent of capturing an al Qaeda hard drive, a treasure trove of historical knowledge that enlightens and informs current operations. With this release, the enemy now knows about us that which we struggle so hard to learn about him: What we do well and what we do less well, where our thinking is strong and where it is not, where our analysis is incisive and where we have blind spots."
I think they first found out our thinking was weak when we played along and went into this war that they entrapped us into creating? Everything since then has pretty much just been a drop in the bucket General Hayden.
Ditto...~_~.
The war is another unnecessary travesty.
Ditto again...~_~.
"Rarely have we seen such a dangerous combination of arrogance and incompetence."
Sort of like the arrogance and incompetence displayed by the imperial forces of the United States.
haha nice
It is a sad state of affairs when we have to rely on Wikileaks for what is going on in Afghanistan and Iraq.
We don't have presidents, just giant Macy's parade helium balloons that do the bidding of the military industrial complex. 9 billion unaccounted for contractor dollars in Iraq, soldier suicides skyrocketing and no one in Arlington Cemetary knows where these good people are buried! Then, of course, we have our House of Lords, excuse me, Senate, that's mostly filled with hacks and goofballs who really put the Pluto in Plutocracy!
no one can be trusted, the military lies and covers things up, and information that shouldn't be given out is put onto the internet. if you don't want the world to find out about the bad things that are done, don't do them.
love for the soldiers and get them home <3
Ditto again and again...~_~.
Ten years in Afghanistan? Don't go throwing around the term "half-baked job", General.
Point well made General Hayden...now that our cover is blown...let's bring em home!...Let's funnel the ungodly amount of resources back into our own hurting Country...let's put these good soldiers to work in our own Country strengthening our own borders from the inside out...lets let Americans prosper and feel safe in our own Country once again. We are not thought of very well by the rest of the world anyway...(Bush's made sure of that)...and the Allies we have are only as good as long as the "aid" keeps flowing their way....Enough.
To those of you writing from the comfort and safety of your
homes, I would like to take a moment to remind you that we
are at war.
Manning and Assange should be hung for treason.
Can't happen soon enough
innocents HAVE died. thousands upon thousands of them. at the hands of the u.s. military.
President Obama, Mr. Gates, and others said that "by the US sending more troops to Afganistan, we can expect an increase in casualties".... in their effort to nation build -0 they will sacrifice more of our precious sons and daughters ! But it is OK for them....just not Wikileaks to tell the world what is going on over there? So far – thanks Wikileaks -
Not so long ago, people clamming similar convictions with Wikileaks’ founder, expressed vigorously their opinion against the Taliban.
Everyone saw images with Taliban beaten people on the street, making public executions of women or doing many other terrorist actions against Afghan people before attacking western targets.
This is why they are considered a danger not only for Afghanistan but for the whole international society as it was for the red Khmers or continuing to be for other terrorist groups.
And what do we see now? Strange people who are militating to put Taliban ruling in Afghanistan!
Who really are the terrorists?
General Hayden, first of all thank you for your service. Unfortunately, most of the comments posted thus (other than from Shadowcatcher) appear to be from people who take for granted the freedoms they are afforded without any regard to the men and women who have fought and died to preserve them. My son just returned from combat in Afghanistan in May and will be sent again late in the Fall. I was horrified and enraged at this immoral leak thinking when he returns his job (and all those serving there) will be made that much more difficult and dangerous. I trust PFC Manning will be given the justice that he deserves and will not see the light of day ever again outside of solitary confinement at Ft. Leavenworth after his conviction.
Where does Hayden find the gall to claim that "innocents will die" when the leak exposed many actual cases where innocents DID die? The leaker committed no crime – he blew the whistle on war crimes, and he's a hero. Free him now.
When did blowing the whistle on internationl war crimes become a crime in itself? The man is a hero and they want to put him in prison? Bye bye free America...say hello to the new Police State...what we say is right...and if you expose us...u goin down..America is no longer the America i knew
Blogs really challenge one's ability to realize just how differently people view the world around them. Most troubling is the asymetric information on which we draw our conclusions and so confidently assert ourselves. "theTruth," I agree that warcrimes should be punished. It is unaccaptable for persons in the military to violate the basic rights of their adversary and indigenous persons. And the military knows that to do so threatens the strategic objectives they seek to obtain and legitimacy they seek in reaching those goals. But it is an unfortunate reality that innocents will be killed or injured in the conduct of war and such regrets are not necessarily warcrimes. A far greater crime would be to grant this cruel regime and their extremist idealogies continued exertion on the good Afghani people and others around the world. Lastly, one of the worst aspects of the leaks is the potential for Afghani's assisting coalition forces to be identified and thus, they and their families targeted for retribution. Disclosure and transparency are ideal but responsible release of information is far better.