Donald Trump. (photo: Getty Images)
Tweets, Leaks, Classified Information, and the Right to Know
By William Boardman, Reader Supported News
09 August 17
After many years of LEAKS going on in Washington, it is great to see the
A.G. [Attorney General] taking action! For National Security, the tougher
the better!
Tweet by President Trump, August 5, 2017
U.S. spy satellites detect North Korea moving anti-ship cruise missiles to
patrol boat.
Tweet by Fox & friends, August 8, 2017;
Re-tweeted by President Trump 6:50 a.m. same day
I cant talk about anything thats classified and if thats in the
newspaper thats a shame,... its one of those things I dont know whats
going on. I will tell you its incredibly dangerous when things get out into
the press like that
.
Comment by UN Ambassador Nikki on Fox & friends,
August 8, 2017, when asked about Fox News story;
Tweeted by Fox & friends and re-tweeted by President
This bit of political circus hooha was briefly all over the news early in
the week, with almost no news outlet getting it right: that the issue of
classified information and leaks is largely a meaningless smokescreen
designed to protect the power of government secrecy against the publics
right to know the truth.
Logically, this sequence of events should lead to an Attorney General
investigation of Fox and President Trump for disclosing classified
information, or at least an investigation of Fox News to learn the
identities of its anonymous officials with access to intelligence data
(perhaps in the White House). This is a perfect time for a test case that
demonstrates real integrity. Does anyone expect anything like that to
happen?
The underlying story from Fox News is relatively simple in substance,
fundamentally illogical, and more important for its attitude than its
presumed facts:
Despite the United States insistence that North Korea halt its missile
tests, U.S. spy agencies detected the rogue communist regime loading two
anti-ship cruise missiles on a patrol boat on the countrys east coast just
days ago.
Its the first time these missiles have been deployed on this type of
platform since 2014, U.S. officials with knowledge of the latest
intelligence in the region told Fox News on Monday.
So whats the actual news here? There is no logical connection between
missile tests and missiles on a patrol boat. North Korea, a country flanked
by two oceans full of nuclear-armed US Navy warships, has done something it
has reportedly not done for three years, put two anti-ship missiles on one
patrol boat. Or as Fox News put it lower in its report: North Korea loaded
two Stormpetrel anti-ship cruise missiles on a Wonsan guided-missile patrol
boat at Toejo Dong on North Koreas east coast.
Oh, no, North Korea has a threat that threatens no one
So what? According to the report, the patrol boat has not even left port.
One of the leakers is quoted as calling this event part of a trend that
does not bode well for hopes of de-escalating tensions on the [Korean]
peninsula. What does that even mean? Are the South Koreans intimidated? Is
the US Navy pulling back in fright?
This leak of classified information, limited as it is, complete with
anonymous editorializing, is the actual destabilizing action raising
tensions. The leak comes in the context of a broad US onslaught against
North Korea diplomatic, political, and militarily threatening. The real
audience for the leak appears to be the North Koreans. The leak seems to be
telling them: see, we have satellites so cool we can count the missiles you
load on a patrol boat. Presumably the North Koreans already assumed as much,
but just in case, this reminder is not designed to de-escalate tensions on
the Korean peninsula or anywhere else.
The only significant political figure indicating any interest in
de-escalating the Korean tensions is recently-elected South Korean president
Moon Jae-in, a former human rights lawyer who has publicly invited talks
with North Korea. The US has so far acted to prevent such talks from
starting, even introducing anti-missile batteries into South Korea without
the South Korean presidents knowledge, clearly a provocation to the North
as well as a diss to the South. When President Moon Jae-in visited the White
House in June, the two presidents did not hold a joint news conference and
White House reports focused on keeping tension high in Korea. The following
week, President Moon Jae-in offered to meet North Koreas Supreme Leader Kim
Jon Un at any time, at any place they could agree on. In Berlin at the
time, President Moon also said:
To Korea, which is the last divided nation on this planet, the experience of
Germanys unification gives hope for unification, and at the same time shows
us the path that we need to follow.
It is not a path the rest of the world seems to have much interest in. The
US remains focused on North Koreas threat to the US and most countries
around the world, but the most threatened country by any rational calculus
is South Korea. In the wake of the UN Security Councils 15-0 vote to impose
new sanctions on North Korea, President Moon Jae-in requested a call with
President Trump. The two presidents spoke for 56 minutes; no transcript of
their conversation has yet leaked. The official account from South Korea
portrayed President Moon Jae-in toeing the American line, but also reported:
Moon, however, insisted the objective of putting new and stronger sanctions
on North Korea must be to bring the reclusive state back to the dialogue
table.
Theres a Rashomon quality to US communications with the world
The White House version of the same conversation was more terse and
bellicose, with no hint of supporting talks. At the meeting of ASEAN nations
in the Philippines over the weekend, the US secretary of state reportedly
went out of his way to avoid contact with the North Korean foreign minister,
who apparently did the same to the US. Neither the US nor North Korea is a
member of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), whose membership
of ten nations comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia,
Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Viet Nam. The official,
unsigned, 46-page joint communiqué of the meeting addressed the Korean issue
in two sections. The first section (paragraphs 146-150) referring to South
Korea (ROK, Republic of Korea) began:
We welcomed the ROKs commitment to further strengthen ASEAN-ROK relations,
as manifested by the President Moon Jae-ins sending a special envoy to
ASEAN upon his taking office in May 2017. We also agreed to further
strengthen cooperation in the political and security issues of common
concerns, including terrorism, violent extremism, maritime security as well
as to exchange views on the situation in the Korean Peninsula. We also
welcomed the ROK Governments initiative to improve inter-Korean relations
and to establish permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula, which was proposed
in Berlin on 6 July 2017.
The section dealing with the US (paragraphs 152-162) is much less detailed
and much more opaque. The second Korean section, Developments in the Korean
Peninsula (paragraphs 201-204) says in its entirety:
201. We continued to express grave concerns over the escalation of tensions
in the Korean Peninsula including the most recent testing by the Democratic
Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK) of intercontinental ballistic missiles
(ICBM) on 4 and 28 July 2017 in addition to its previous nuclear tests and
ballistic missile launches.
202. Noting that these developments seriously threaten peace and stability
in the entire region and beyond, we strongly urged the DPRK to fully and
immediately comply with its obligations arising from all the relevant U.N.
Security Council Resolutions.
203. We reiterated our support for the denuclearisation of the Korean
Peninsula in a peaceful manner and called for the exercise of self-restraint
and the resumption of dialogue in order to de-escalate tensions and create
conditions conducive to peace and stability.
204. We expressed support for initiatives to improve inter-Korean relations
towards establishing permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula. [Emphasis
added]
The US has a treaty-based obligation to seek nuclear disarmament so?
A little more than an hour after tweeting the classified information about
North Korean patrol boats loading a pair missiles dockside, President Trump
tweeted in a vein roughly opposite in tone to the ASEAN communiqué:
After many years of failure, countries are coming together to finally
address the dangers posed by North Korea. We must be tough & decisive!
This drew a remarkably varied assortment of reply tweets attacking the
president for his efforts to undermine Obamacare, to attack Senator
Blumenthal on his Viet Nam service, to ignore anti-Muslim terrorism in
Minnesota, to attack the Statue of Liberty, to scapegoat Somalis, to block
VoteVets.org from his Twitter account, but most pointedly to set up the
possibility of bombing North Korea as a distraction from some unpleasant
event like
maybe when Bill Clinton takes the stand claiming you were
trafficking young girls for sex from Russia.
OK, the accusation about Trump sex trafficking is based on a leak of
unclassified (but private) information purportedly from New York attorney
general Eric Schneidermans investigation of Trump Model Management for sex
trafficking as part of an enterprise corruption charge. Although the NY
Attorney Generals office is apparently not commenting, Trump Model
Management is a dubious enterprise that announced in April that it was
closing.
Buried at the end of the Fox News story about missiles on patrol boats was a
far more troubling development: the US is working with the South Korean
military to expand the capacity of the warheads on South Korean missiles.
The Pentagon confirmed this development, calling it part of the defensive
capabilities of South Korea, a half-truth at best. The official South
Korean version of the US-South Korean presidents phone call was more
detailed, while also shifting the onus of escalation to President Moon
Jae-in:
The South Korean leader also stressed the need to further enhance the joint
defense capabilities of South Korean and U.S. troops stationed here. To this
end, he asked the U.S. president to support a Seoul-proposed revision to the
countries bilateral agreement on ballistic missiles
.
Under the allies ballistic missile guideline, South Korea is currently
prohibited from developing ballistic missiles with a range of over 800
kilometers [almost 500 miles, far enough to reach into China] and a payload
of over 500 kilograms. South Korea seeks to raise the cap on payloads to
1,000 kg [one fourteenth the explosive power of the Hiroshima bomb].
In expectation of a future US strike on North Korea, the Chinese deployed
some 150,000 troops in April along its roughly 840-mile border with North
Korea, in case of a flood of North Korean refugees to China.
Is THIS what Russia, China and the rest expected from a 15-0 UN vote?
At mid-day August 8, another leak story broke, much more important than
missiles on a patrol boat. The Washington Post reported, with more
fear-mongering than factuality, first in its headline North Korea now
making missile-ready nuclear weapons, U.S. analysts say, even though now
is already a month ago, maybe, as the story says:
North Korea has successfully produced a miniaturized nuclear warhead that
can fit inside its missiles, crossing a key threshold on the path to
becoming a full-fledged nuclear power, U.S. intelligence officials have
concluded in a confidential assessment.
The analysis, completed last month by the Defense Intelligence Agency, comes
on the heels of another intelligence assessment that sharply raises the
official estimate for the total number of bombs in the communist countrys
atomic arsenal. The United States calculated last month that up to 60
nuclear weapons are now controlled by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Some
independent experts think the number of bombs is much smaller.
Leaked story, classified intelligence assessment, anonymous sources inside
the administration, bring on the prosecutions? Dont hold your breath. The
leak pattern here is all too convenient to an administration that appears
hungry for war, and especially this war. The leak pattern here is all too
reminiscent of all those weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) that didnt
exist in Iraq.
If you read beyond the scary hype of the Posts opening, youll learn that
the certainty of the headline is not certain at all and might well be yet
another government fantasy scare tactic. The Post admits it has not actually
seen the Defense Intelligence Agency report. Somebody unnamed read an
excerpt to the Post and two US officials familiar with the assessment
verified its broad conclusions. One of those conclusions, it turns out, is
that no one is sure whether North Korea has even tested the warhead that the
Post headline claims North Korea now making. Better still, and deeper in
the story, other anonymous analysts say that North Koreas ICBM burned on
re-entry in last months test, which would mean that North Korea does not
yet have a missile that can deliver a nuclear warhead. Maybe theyll have
one in a year. Nobodys talking about how many years it will take for North
Korea to have anything like a deterrent threat to counter the US nuclear
arsenal of roughly 6,800 nuclear warheads and multiple delivery systems.
This is the arsenal that the US has been threatening the world with since it
was much smaller in 1945. The US arsenal is the main reason Russia has an
arsenal of equal size and other countries (France, China, Britain, Pakistan,
India, and Israel at a minimum) have their own nuclear arsenals to provide
some sense of safety that vanishes as soon as the arsenal is used. So North
Korea is a rogue state only in the sense that all other nuclear powers are
rogue states. The world could live with that; the US could live with that.
But if the US chooses, out of pure self-involved tunnel vision, not to live
with that, the question then becomes how much of the rest of the world will
end up not living with that?
North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States, President
Trump told reporters gathered at his New Jersey golf club. Speaking with his
arms crossed on his chest, and using an unpersuasively tough tone of voice,
he added: They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never
seen. He has been very threatening beyond a normal state, and as I said they
will be met with fire, fury, and frankly power, the likes of which this
world has never seen before. Thank you.
Oh no, thank YOU, Mr. President, for the perfect remarks to commemorate the
anniversaries of the fire and fury the world saw destroy the defenseless
civilian populations of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
William M. Boardman has over 40 years experience in theatre, radio, TV,
print journalism, and non-fiction, including 20 years in the Vermont
judiciary. He has received honors from Writers Guild of America, Corporation
for Public Broadcasting, Vermont Life magazine, and an Emmy Award nomination
from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission
to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader
Supported News.
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