If truth is the first casualty of war, then operations security or OPSEC, runs a last second. In this age of targeted leaks and instant media, it has become almost impossible for the U.S. to protect sensitive details of classified missions, even when the lives of particular forces and intelligence operatives are on the line.
The latest case-in-point?
he killing of Osama bin Laden by members of Seal Team 6 less than two weeks ago.Details of the secret raid began trickling out in the hours afterwards the attack on the terror leader's compound in Afghanistan.Since then, the course of data has become a veritable flood, creating concerns about the compromise of information gathered during the mission-and the safety of the operators who collected it.
In fact, members of Seal Team 6 expressed worries about the guard of their families in a late encounter with Defense Secretary Robert Gates.With so much information near the unit-and its activities-entering the world domain, the SEALs are rightly concerned that their family members might become terrorist targets.As the (Norfolk) Virginian-Pilot reported yesterday:
Gates said the terror of revenge has increased as international involvement in the covert operations team has set a spot on the unit after operational details, which were passing to be kept secret, were released the following day.
"The one thing I would say you," Gates told a meeting with approximately 1,000 Marines at Camp Lejeune, N.C. ". is that I believe there has been a uniform and effective attempt to protect the identities of those who participated in the raid, and I remember that has to continue."
"We are really interested about the protection of our families - of your families and our troops, and besides these elite units that are occupied in things like that."
Equally disturbing is the willingness of administration officials to threaten the protection of Seal team members and their dependents.According to Mr. Gates, the senior administration officials who watched the raid unfold from the White House also agreed to support key elements of the mission classified.That "promise" didn't go for a single news cycle; within hours, sources were telling the media that SEAL Team 6 was the whole that "got" bin Laden.
"Frankly, a week ago Sunday, in the Situation Room, we all agreed that we would not publish any operational details from the endeavor to carry out bin Laden. That all fell apart on Monday, the next day."
With the team's participation confirmed, it took but a Google search to gather information on their home ground at Dam Neck, Virginia.From there, it just takes a little legwork to locate SEALs in Virginia Beach (where the Dam Neck annex is located) and surrounding communities.
Indeed, some of the local SEALs could be potentially identified through their family connections. At least two of them are married to large professional women, well-known in the Tidewater area.Appropriately, both women have removed references to their husband's profession from their own, on-line biographies.But you can even find older listings that place their spouses as SEALs, based in the Hampton Roads area.And, with the use of several "people search" tools, you can glean even more information.
It's happened before.In the other years of Operation Iraqi Freedom, the families of B-52 crew members assigned to Barksdale AFB, Louisiana reportedly received threatening letters and phone calls from unidentified individuals.Obviously, the bag doesn't write a public roster of its bomber crews, so the information-including home addresses-was obtained from public records.Similar databases could be exploited to place the homes of Seal team members.
Responding to leaks about the bin Laden operation (and possible threats to the SEALs and their families), Secretary Gates said the Defense Department is look for ways to "pump up the security."But officials must assume a correspondence between security and operational secrecy.A sudden, massive security presence in certain locations around Virginia Beach could also provide information to terrorists.Additionally, there's the dispute of deciding who might be at adventure and how to protect them.Beyond spouses and children, there are support personnel and contractors who are a piece of the team's infrastructure.They also represent potential targets.
While DoD wrestles with security concerns, someone might need to get a looking at those leakers. To its credit, the Obama Administration has been aggressive in going after individuals who disclose classified information, but there has been no talk about investigating the leaks surrounding the SEAL raid.
And for obvious reasons; many of the disclosures originated at the highest levels of government, among individuals with some approach to data near the mission.In some cases, details leaked to the campaign proved false, but enough accurate information was gleaned to render an exact description of the raid-and its participants.Now, as various officials take their victory lap, the SEALs are interested about the guard of their families.
To be fair, all administrations leaks for political reasons.But there is likewise a clock and a position to keep secrets and the bin Laden raid was one of those occasions.Officials who kept the intelligence-gathering and operation carefully under wraps were far too nervous to part their data with members of the press, with small respect for the consequences.Operations Security begins at the top of the command chain, and about members of the current administration have displayed a reckless disregard for secrecy, and the military personnel who might be affected by unauthorized disclosures to the press.
Attorney General Eric Holder has spent years investigating CIA interrogators who supposedly tortured terrorist detainees-gaining information that finally led the SEALs to Osama bin Laden.That question is continuing, with no end in sight.If only Mr. Holder would devote similar time and resources to the leaks that followed the cleanup of Osama bin Laden.Then maybe, just maybe, the operatives assigned to future secret missions could sleep a bit easier.
They deserve nothing less.
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