The Illusion of Safety

It's wired into genes of reporters to report.

And yet it's not actually requried by law to print every compromise of American intelligence. Pass the word.

Too late in this case; Jonathan Weisman in Senator Seeks to Defer Probe of CIA Prison Leak compounds an apparrent gaffe--two, really--by printing the annual U.S. intelligence budget. Gaffe number one was evidently made by Mary Margaret Graham, deputy director of national intelligence. According Weisman, she recently said the budget was $44 billion, a "slip witnessed and [gaffe number two] recounted by a U.S. News & World Report writer."

And I'm recounting that here with the damage already done, since the respective circulations of the Post, and even U.S. News & World Report, are larger than mine.

Ah well, maybe the U.S. News reporter is a citizen of the world, though I'm not sure which military protects you in that country. For the rest of us, every little bit hurts. I will surmise, for example, that the U.S. News correspondent doesn't serve on a U.S. sub, which is good for him, as Bill Gertz was telling us the other day:

Four persons arrested in Los Angeles are part of a Chinese intelligence-gathering ring, federal investigators said, and the suspects caused serious compromises for 15 years to major U.S. weapons systems, including submarines and warships.
    U.S. intelligence and security officials said the case remains under investigation but that it could prove to be among the most damaging spy cases since the 1985 one of John A. Walker Jr., who passed Navy communication codes to Moscow for 22 years.
    The Los Angeles spy ring has operated since 1990 and has funneled technology and military secrets to China in the form of documents and computer disks, officials close to the case said....

Key compromises uncovered so far include sensitive data on Aegis battle management systems that are the core of U.S. Navy destroyers and cruisers.
    China covertly obtained the Aegis technology and earlier this year deployed its first Aegis warship, code-named Magic Shield, intelligence officials have said.
    The Chinese also obtained sensitive data on U.S. submarines, including classified details related to the new Virginia-class attack submarines.
    Officials said based on a preliminary assessment, China now will be able to track U.S. submarines, a compromise that potentially could be devastating if the United States enters a conflict with China in defending Taiwan....

The path from disclosing a classified intelligence budget to abetting the hellish undersea burial of American submariners isn't direct, but then, it doesn't have to be. And the published reports of the intelligence budget show, if nothing else, a sense of... what is the word... detachment.

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