In early summer’s heat, we are being distracted by a
battle between the heroes of protecting intelligence and those seemingly
bent on leaking it. This is an issue vital to protecting U.S. security;
each leak undermines our security and makes it harder to collect
intelligence, whether alone, with our allies or through short-term
friends. But the way in which the sides have arrayed to do battle is
pure election-year grandstanding. The question is whether the elected
officials in the fray really care about U.S. security, unless you define
“caring” as seeking war with Syria and Iran.
Take, for example, Senator John McCain’s warning that
Obama’s leaking sycophants damage U.S. security. That is true. But
recall that it was McCain who, from a position of authority, first
described the CIA's rendition and harsh-interrogation programs as
"torture," thereby giving political cover to Democrats who wished to
undermine U.S. defense and hurt the CIA. Obama and the citizens of the
world who run his party ran through the hole opened by McCain and ended
the CIA’s most successful and life-saving counterterrorism program. We
now have had three years of no new Al Qaeda or Islamist leaders entering
the rendition program to supply data to protect U.S. lives and
property.
What this fracas over leaks should say to Americans is not
just that intelligence disclosures are illegal (they are); that they
undermine U.S. security and put our intelligence officers, their assets,
soldiers, and Marines at risk (they do); and that every leak requires
more funds and officers to replace the help of foreign intelligence
services who lose their taste for aiding us because of leaks (it does).
What it also should say is that the routine, nonchalant leaking of
intelligence also underscores what we are becoming as a nation—namely,
an increasingly lawless nation governed by self-appointed, Ivy
League-bred aristocrats who believe they are above the law.
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