Leaks to the Media ... An Old Story?
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Related Links
● Was It Illegal for President Bush to Leak Classified Secrets to Bob Woodward?
● Deep Throat and the FBI's History of Hiding Its Own Leaks
● Rick Shenkman: Leaks that might have changed the history of Vietnam
● Athan Theoharis: Deep Throat and the FBI's History of Hiding Its Own Leaks
● CIA Spy Case: Valerie Plame Leak
Most administrations complain about leaks, which weaken their ability to control news. In 2001 President Bush chastised members of Congress for leaking information to the media learned at secret intelligence briefings. He ordered the secretary of state and other members of his administration to restrict the release of secret information about the counterterrorism campaign to top leaders in Congress. After several important senators objected, the president relented.
There are several types of leaks. There are leaks by whistle blowers like Daniel Ellsberg, who leak information in the name of the public. Then there are leaks by high officials who are at war with other high officials. The most famous example of a leaker of this sort was probably Henry Kissinger, who in the Nixon administration used leaks from the National Security Council, which he headed, to undermine the power of the secretary of state, William Rogers. There are also leaks by low-level bureaucrats engaged in classic turf battles. High officials in all administrations going back to George Washington have leaked information in an attempt to control the public agenda and undermine their political opponents.
Following is a list of important and controversial leaks in American history.
ALEXANDER HAMILTON
During the administration of George Washington, Treasury Secretary Hamilton leaked confidential information to the British that undermined American diplomats, who were then negotiating the Jay Treaty.
JAMES MADISON
During the administration of James Madison, Secretary of State Robert Smith repeatedly leaked documents to Madison's enemies in the Federalist Party. Madison eventually replaced Smith with James Monroe.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT
After Nelson Miles, the commanding general of the Army, publicly criticized admirals in the Navy and subsequently leaked a memo in which he revealed that Army soldiers had inflicted" cruelties and barbarities" on Philippine rebels, President Theodore Roosevelt became furious. In retaliation, Roosevelt floated a trial balloon. He leaked a story that Miles's retirement was under consideration. When the public expressed continued support for Miles, Roosevelt backed off.
SUMNER WELLES
In November 1942 Undersecretary of State Sumner Welles received incontrovertible evidence that Hitler planned on annihilating the Jews of Europe. Welles immediately leaked the information to Jewish leader Dr. Stephen Wise. Wise then promptly held a press conference to announce the news.
FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT
After the Japanese Rape of Nanking, FDR leaked to press stories of Japanese atrocities. At the time he was seeking new funds to expand the Navy.
During World War II FDR became convinced that the wife of his trusted aide, Harry Hopkins, was leaking material damaging to the administration. According to Victor Lasky, FDR placed a wiretap on Hopkins's phone.
JOHN KENNEDY
According to Victor Lasky, during the presidential campaign of 1960 Kennedy aides"filched" secret polls produced by the United States Information Agency that showed that American prestige had declined under the Republicans. Kennedy leaked the polls to the New York Times and then used them to undermine the campaign of opponent Richard Nixon.
In the summer of 1961 President John Kennedy instigated one of the most important leaks in American history. The consequences were devastating. Worried that he had been humiliated by Khrushchev at a celebrated meeting in Vienna, Kennedy leaked to the newspapers evidence that the United States had clear strategic nuclear superiority over the Soviet Union. The leak humiliated Khrushchev. Under pressure, the Soviet leader ordered nuclear missiles to be slipped into Cuba. This decision led directly to the October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
RICHARD NIXON
In 1971 the Joint Chiefs of Staff were caught spying on the National Security Council. The plot was uncovered after a leak to journalist Jack Anderson.
The most famous leak in American history occurred in 1971 when Daniel Ellsberg, an opponent of the Vietnam War, leaked a confidential history of the war to the New York Times. The disclosure of the history, which became known as the Pentagon Papers, prompted Nixon to create the infamous Plumbers Unit. The Plumbers subsequently broke into the office of Ellsberg's psychiatrist in hopes of collecting damaging information against him. Later, several members of the Plumbers were involved in the Watergate break-in.
While many Americans have never heard of Daniel Ellsberg, nearly all have heard of Deep Throat. Deep Throat was a key source for the Watergate reporting of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, reporters for the Washington Post. In 2005 the family of Deep Throat revealed his identity: W. Mark Felt, one-time acting director of the FBI.
GEORGE W. BUSH
In 2004, syndicated columnist Robert Novak exposed Valerie Plame, the wife of diplomat Joseph Wilson, as a CIA agent. TJarl Rove, White House Deputy Chief of Staff, and Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, and Deputy Secretary of STate Richard Armitage were implicated in the leak -- Libby was eventually sentenced to thirty months in prison and a quarter of a million dollar fine for making false statements during the investigation of the leak, though President Bush commuted the jail sentence.
The leak of Plame's CIA affiliation was widely seen as a form of political payback for her husband's New York Times op-ed which criticized the Bush administration for manipulating intelligence reports to justify the Iraq War. Wilson headed a 2002 mission to investigate whether Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had tried to purchase yellowcake uranium from Niger in the late 1990s. Wilson concluded that he had not, but nevertheless President Bush referred to the allegation in his 2003 State of the Union address.
BARACK OBAMA
Despite promises on the campaign trail (and throughout his first term) to "open up government," Barack Obama has been, in the words of The Atlantic's Conor Friedersdorf, an "abject failure on transparency." The Obama administration, he wrote in 2010, "has charged more would-be whistleblowers with violating state secrecy laws than all previous administrations combined."
Nevertheless, the administration's efforts to clamp down on leaks have met a significant challenge in the face of technology. The most damaging leaks during the Obama presidency have been the publication of classified DoD footage, 92,000 documents related to the war in Afghanistan, 400,000 documents related to Iraq, and 251,287 diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks, and the revelations of the NSA's PRISM program.
Unlike in the past, the leakers of recent history are young and relatively junior. Bradley Manning, the major WikiLeaks source, is a mere 25 years old and a private first class in the U.S. Army; Edward Snowden, the source for the NSA PRISM leak, is a 29-year-old former Booz Allen Hamilton contracter.