Message posted by Willie on February 08, 2005 at 13:56:43 PST:
There must be something to the book "Code Names" From the Wash Times (Bill Gertz) Code word compromise According to a Jan. 25 cable from the Joint Staff to 14 military units, most of them involved in special operations, Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has asked for an "opsec" or operational security assessment of possible national security damage to special access programs and other "operational compromises" in the book, "Code Names." The U.S. Special Operations Command will be the lead agency in reviewing the compromise of special access programs called Power Geyser and Footprint, along with other secret programs and activities. Power Geyser is a special counterterrorism commando group, and Footprint is another commando counterterrorism activity. At least one Pentagon security official was outraged that nothing was done for months to try to identify the source of the compromises. The official said Mr. Arkin was linked to a senior Pentagon official but that the Office of the Secretary of Defense protected the official. "So just let the secrets hemorrhage," the official said. "God bless America." Mr. Arkin, a liberal Greenpeace political activist turned columnist, was investigated by the Air Force Office of Special Investigations in 2002 after he disclosed the code-named program Polo Step, on the war planning for Iraq. Several suspects in the leak, including a three-star officer, were allowed to retire rather than face questioning over the leak. Mr. Arkin told us he does not think he damaged U.S. national security. "I've been very careful not to reveal anything related to ongoing operations or an intelligence source and method," he said. Pentagon spokesman Larry Di Rita said grumbling from Pentagon security officials over the book is misguided. He noted, "I wonder if they are the same ones who gave him his clearance in the first place." Mr. Arkin was an Army intelligence analyst in the 1970s.
The Joint Staff at the Pentagon last week ordered an investigation into the compromise of several programs that were revealed in a book by author William Arkin.
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