The head of the US intelligence services, Avril Haynes, considers the misuse of “defense secret” to be detrimental to US national security, in a letter she addressed to members of Congress.
The system that leads to “top secret” too much information is a “major problem” and needs to be reformed, Haynes said in a Jan. 5 letter to Senators Ron Weiden (Democrat) and Jerry Moran ( Republican).
“My view is that the current categorization system undermines national security” and “undermines citizens’ trust in institutions,” he added, noting that the abuse of “defense confidentiality” prevents intelligence services from sharing vital information with each other. MPs and senators and the public.
Haynes, who oversees 17 US intelligence services, responded in a letter to pressure from the two senators to reform the system, which affects the work of hundreds of thousands of US government officials and subcontractors.
Experts point out that labeling a document “confidential” is the preferred choice in many government departments, as it is easier for officials to label it than to see if it is really dangerous to disclose information. And some political officials choose to label information that could embarrass them “defense secret.”
One of the most striking and recent examples was the opacity with which the military handled the situation in Afghanistan during the last year of the US presence in the country. When it came to assessing the Afghan army, “the military changed targets to make it easier for them to talk about success. “And when they could no longer do so, they described the targets as ‘defense secret,'” said John Sopko, the congressional inspector general in charge of overseeing US operations in Afghanistan, last August. A few days later, the Afghan army collapsed in the face of Taliban advance.
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