{"id":43234,"date":"2014-05-26T12:00:04","date_gmt":"2014-05-26T11:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=43234"},"modified":"2015-05-05T21:34:57","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T20:34:57","slug":"pentagon-report-scope-of-intelligence-compromised-by-snowden-staggering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2014\/05\/pentagon-report-scope-of-intelligence-compromised-by-snowden-staggering\/","title":{"rendered":"Pentagon Report: Scope of Intelligence Compromised by Snowden &#8216;Staggering&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>\u2022 Classified assessment describes impact of leaks as &#8216;grave&#8217;<br \/>\n\u2022 Report does not include specific detail to support conclusions<br \/>\n\u2022 12 of 39 heavily redacted pages released after Foia request<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/interactive\/2014\/may\/22\/pentagon-report-snowden-leaks-damage-report\" >Read the full Defense Intelligence Agency report<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/interactive\/2014\/may\/22\/pentagon-report-snowden-leaks-damage-report\" >top-secret Pentagon report<\/a> to assess the damage to national security from the leak of classified National Security Agency documents by Edward Snowden concluded that \u201cthe scope of the compromised knowledge related to US intelligence capabilities is staggering\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The Guardian has obtained a copy of the Defense Intelligence Agency&#8217;s classified damage assessment in response to a Freedom of Information Act (Foia) lawsuit filed against the Defense Department earlier this year. The heavily redacted 39-page report was prepared in December and is titled \u201cDoD Information Review Task Force-2: Initial Assessment, Impacts Resulting from the Compromise of Classified Material by a Former NSA Contractor.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But while the DIA report describes the damage to US intelligence capabilities as \u201cgrave\u201d, the government still refuses to release any specific details to support this conclusion. The entire impact assessment was redacted from the material released to the Guardian under a presidential order that protects classified information and several other Foia exemptions.<\/p>\n<p>Only 12 pages of the report were declassified by DIA and released. A Justice Department attorney said DIA would continue to process other internal documents that refer to the DIA report for possible release later this year.<\/p>\n<p>Steven Aftergood, director of the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists, questioned the decision to withhold specific details.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The essence of the report is contained in the statement that &#8216;the scope of the compromised knowledge related to US intelligence capabilities is staggering&#8217;. But all elaboration of what this striking statement means has been withheld,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>The assessment excluded NSA-related information and dealt exclusively with non-NSA defense materials. The report was distributed to multiple US military commands around the world and all four military branches.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis report presents the Information Review Task Force-2\u2019s (IRTF-2s\u2019) initial assessment of impact to the Department of Defense (DoD) from the compromise of [redacted] classified files by a former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor,\u201d the report\u2019s executive summary states.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe IRTF-2 and Defense component partners continue triaging and reviewing compromised information for Defense equities and will update this report as additional assessments are completed. Combatant Commands (CCMDs) and Services have produced separate reports that provide greater details concerning the potential impact of the compromise on their respective equities \u2026 It should be noted that SIGINT [Signals Intelligence]-specific equities are not addressed in this report; NSA is reviewing those separately.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The classified damage assessment was first cited in a <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/complex.foreignpolicy.com\/posts\/2014\/01\/09\/congressmen_reveal_secret_report_s_findings_to_discredit_snowden\" >news report<\/a> published by Foreign Policy on January 9. The Foreign Policy report attributed details of the DIA assessment to House intelligence committee chairman Mike Rogers and its ranking Democrat Dutch Ruppersberger. The lawmakers said the White House had authorized them to discuss the document in order to undercut the narrative of Snowden being portrayed as a heroic whistleblower.<\/p>\n<p>The DIA report has been cited numerous times by Rogers and Rusppersberger and other lawmakers who claimed Snowden\u2019s leaks have put US personnel at risk.<\/p>\n<p>In January, Rogers asserted that the report concluded that most of the documents Snowden took &#8220;concern vital operations of the US Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This report confirms my greatest fears \u2014 Snowden\u2019s real acts of betrayal place America\u2019s military men and women at greater risk. Snowden\u2019s actions are likely to have lethal consequences for our troops in the field,&#8221; Rogers said in a statement at the time.<\/p>\n<p>But details to back up Rogers&#8217; claims are not included in the declassified material released to the Guardian.<\/p>\n<p>Neither he nor any other lawmaker has disclosed specific details from the DIA report but they have continued to push the \u201cdamage\u201d narrative in interviews with journalists and during appearances on Sunday talk shows.<\/p>\n<p>The declassified portion of the report obtained by the Guardian says only that DIA \u201cassesses with high confidence that the information compromise by a former NSA contractor [redacted] and will have a GRAVE impact on US national defense\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The declassified material does not state the number of documents Snowden is alleged to have taken, which Rogers and Ruppersberger have claimed, again citing the DIA\u2019s assessment, was 1.7m. Nor does the declassified portion of the report identify Snowden by name.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[Redacted] a former NSA contractor compromised [redacted] from NSA Net and the Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System (JWICS),\u201d the report says. \u201cOn 6 June 2013, media groups published the first stories based on this material, and on 9 June 2013 they identified the source as an NSA contractor who had worked in Hawaii.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.fas.org\/irp\/program\/disseminate\/jwics.htm\" >JWICS is identified<\/a> as a \u201c24 hour a day network designed to meet the requirements for secure [top-secret\/sensitive compartmented information] multi-media intelligence communications worldwide. The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) has directed that all Special Security Offices (SSOs) will install the JWICS.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Washington Post, quoting anonymous sources, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/world\/national-security\/officials-alert-foreign-services-that-snowden-has-documents-on-their-cooperation-with-us\/2013\/10\/24\/930ea85c-3b3e-11e3-a94f-b58017bfee6c_story.html\" >reported<\/a> last October that Snowden \u201clifted the documents from a top-secret network run by the Defense Intelligence Agency and used by intelligence arms of the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marines.\u201d The Post further claimed that Snowden \u201ctook 30,000 documents that involve the intelligence work of one of the services\u201d and that he gained access to the documents through JWICS.<\/p>\n<p>The report says that on 11 July 2013, about a month after the Guardian\u2019s first report on the NSA\u2019s metadata program was published, DIA chief Lieutenant General Michael Flynn \u201cdirected establishment of the Information Review Task Force 2 (IRTF-2) to acquire, triage, analyze, and assess all DIA and DoD compromised information\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSince 11 July 2013, IRTF-2 has led a coordinated DoD effort to discover, triage, and assess the impact of non-NSA Defense material from NSA holdings of compromised data,\u201d according to the DIA report. \u201cAs of 18 December 2013, the federated IRTF-2 assessment includes: [redacted]\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Flynn was recently forced out of his position at DIA as part of a \u201cleadership shakeup,\u201d according to a report <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/world\/national-security\/head-of-pentagon-intelligence-agency-forced-out-officials-say\/2014\/04\/30\/ec15a366-d09d-11e3-9e25-188ebe1fa93b_story.html\" >published in the Washington Post<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>A partially declassified annex of the report contains various \u201cterms of reference\u201d that provide some clues as to what the impact assessment contains. For example, the report defines \u201ccompromised\u201d as \u201cout of government control\u201d, while \u201cdisclosed\u201d is defined as \u201cmade available to the public via the media, or to a foreign adversary\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>No evidence has surfaced to support persistent claims from pundits and lawmakers that Snowden has provided any of the NSA documents he obtained to a \u201cforeign adversary\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Ben Wizner, Snowden\u2019s attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union, said: &#8220;This report, which makes unsubstantiated claims about alleged harm to national security, is from December of 2013. Just this month, Keith Alexander admitted in an interview that he doesn\u2019t &#8216;think anybody really knows what he [Snowden] actually took with him, because the way he did it, we don\u2019t have an accurate way of counting&#8217;. In other words, the government\u2019s so-called damage assessment is based entirely on guesses, not on facts or evidence.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>According to the annex, the \u201clevel of impact\u201d that ensues from the unauthorized disclosure of top secret material is defined as \u201cexceptionally grave damage to national security\u201d. The disclosure of secret material would lead to \u201cserious damage\u201d, while the impact of classified material being leaked is defined as \u201cdamage\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Steven Aftergood, of the Federation of American Scientists, pointed out that the report&#8217;s finding that the Snowden leaks had a &#8220;grave&#8221; impact did not follow any of the levels defined in the annex. &#8220;That is a bit odd,&#8221; he said, adding: &#8220;Within this hierarchy, it is not clear where &#8216;grave impact&#8217; would fall.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The annex also provides a legal rationale to identifying Snowden as a \u201cPerson of Interest (POI).\u201d It says by using that term \u201cin briefings and correspondence\u201d it \u201climits legally discoverable information\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2014\/may\/22\/pentagon-report-snowden-leaks-national-security?CMP=ema_565\" >Go to Original \u2013 theguardian.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Guardian has obtained a copy of the Defense Intelligence Agency&#8217;s classified damage assessment in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed against the Defense Department earlier this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-whistleblowing-surveillance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43234\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}