Pretend you’re angry that someone improperly leaked some details of a military survey that showed the vast majority of service members wouldn’t care all that much about serving alongside gay troops. Say that disclosure was perfectly timed to jolt congressional support for repeal of the military’s ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy.
How do you get back? By leaking the Defense Department Inspector General’s report on the leak of that survey to an anti-gay group that fought against the repeal of the ‘Don’t Ask’ policy, of course!
The Center for Military Readiness — the people who thought that showering alongside openly-gay members of the military was a “huge issue” — got their hands on a copy of the report from a “concerned source,” according to their website.
Calling the study of members of the military “a publicly-funded, pre-scripted production put on just for show,” the Center says the report shows that “reveals improper activities and deception that misled members of Congress.”
Like the draft of the survey, the Pentagon Inspector General’s report on the leak is labeled “For Official Use Only,” meaning its disclosure would violate information security requirements which (as noted in the report) prohibit unauthorized disclosure of “FOUO” information.
Pentagon investigators, according to the original documents, did find that whoever leaked information from the report (they didn’t single anyone out) likely did so “with the intent to shape a pro-repeal perception of the draft Report prior to its release to gain momentum in support of a legislative change during the ‘lame duck’ session of Congress following the November 2, 2010, elections.”
The report found that 101 individuals had access to the draft report, and 96 of them denied under oath that they gave access to the report to members of the media. Five White House staff members were given access to the report, but were not interviewed by investigators. Investigators don’t outright say it, but unless someone is lying, the logical conclusion is that the leak came from the White House.
Ryan J. Reilly
Ryan J. Reilly is a D.C.-based reporter for TPM. Prior to joining TPM, he worked for a news website covering the Justice Department and was a researcher for Bloomberg News. His email address is ryan(at)talkingpointsmemo.com.
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