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The results of this damage review undercut the testimony of each of the representatives from the OCA for the charge documents in this case. Specifically, the damage assessments concluded that all the information allegedly leaked was either dated, represented low-level opinions, or was commonly understood and known due to previous public disclosures. |
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Name(s:) |
David Coombs |
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Title: |
civilian defense counsel |
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Url: |
Url Link
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XXXXXXXXXX [ROBERT GATES, FORMER SECRETARY OF DEFENSE] will testify that the Afghanistan and Iraq SIGACT releases did not reveal any sensitive intelligence sources or methods. He will also testify that the Department of Defense could not point to anyone in Afghanistan or Iraq harmed due to the documents released by WikiLeaks. He will testify that the Afghanistan and Iraq SIGACTs are simply ground-level field reports that document dated activities which do not disclose sensitive information or our sources and methods. XXXXXXXXXX [ROBERT GATES, FORMER SECRETARY OF DEFENSE] will also testify that the initial public descriptions of the harm to foreign policy due to the publication of diplomatic cables were 'fairly significantly overwrought.' He will also testify that although the disclosures were embarrassing and awkward, they did not represent significant consequences to foreign policy. Finally, XXXXXXXXXX [ROBERT GATES, FORMER SECRETARY OF DEFENSE] will testify that on 29 July 2010, he directed the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) to lead a comprehensive review of the documents allegedly given to WikiLeaks and to coordinate under the Information Review Task Force (IRTF, formerly TF 725) to conduct a complete damage review. He will testify that the damage review confirmed that the alleged leaks represented a low to at best moderate risk to national security. Specifically, that all of the information allegedly leaked was either dated, represented low-level opinions, or was already commonly understood and know due to previous public disclosures. |
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Name(s:) |
David Coombs |
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Title: |
civilian defense counsel |
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Url: |
Url Link
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The Secretary also tasked the Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency to stand up an Information Review Task Force to assess, in concert with interagency participants, the substance of the data disclosed. |
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Name(s:) |
Teresa Takai, Thomas Ferguson |
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Title: |
Chief Information Officer, Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Networks and Information Integration, Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence |
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Agency(ies): |
Department of Defense |
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Concerning: |
Defense Intelligence Agency Information Review Task Force, DIA, IRTF |
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Url: |
Url Link
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Although outsiders have not been allowed to inspect the 'war room' in suburban Virginia and see its staff at work, national-security officials offered details of the operation to The Daily Beast, including the identity of the counterintelligence expert who has been put in charge: Brig. General Robert A. Carr of the Defense Intelligence Agency.
[...]
Officials say Carr, handpicked for the assignment by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, is highly respected among his colleagues at DIA...
[...]
Carr served in Afghanistan for much of last year before his transfer to the DIA in Washington, where he runs the Defense Counterintelligence and Human Intelligence Center. In his battle against Assange, officials say, Carr's central assignment is to try to determine exactly what classified information might have been leaked to WikiLeaks, and then to predict whether its disclosure could endanger American troops in the battlefield, as well as what larger risk it might pose to American foreign policy.
The team has another distinct responsibility: to gather evidence about the workings of WikiLeaks that might someday be used by the Justice Department to prosecute Assange and others on espionage charges.
[...]
Lapan said that, so far, the Pentagon has no evidence to suggest that any Afghan civilians have been harmed by the Taliban as a result of the release of the 76,000 logs this summera bit of good news that, he suggested, might be attributed to the efforts of Carr's team and Central Command to try to protect them. |
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Name(s:) |
Philip Shedon |
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Title: |
Journalist |
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Agency(ies): |
Daily Beast |
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Concerning: |
Defense Intelligence Agency, Information Review Task Force, DIA, IRTF |
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Url: |
Url Link
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Marine Colonel David Lapan, a senior Pentagon spokesman, said the leaders of the task force believed they had a strong sense of what is contained in the 15,000 documents that Assange is threatening to release shortly.
'We believe we probably know what's in those,' he said. 'And we believe, again, that they will pose some risk to our forces in Afghanistan and to others.'
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'It was their task to go through that initial release of the 76,000 documents and determine what information in each of them might put either livesor sources and methods, or operational securityat risk,' Lapan said of Carr's operation.
The team's assessments, he said, are passed to the United States Central Command, the military command that oversees American troops in Afghanistan, 'so they can get it out to folks in the field to take whatever steps are necessary' to protect American troops and Afghan civilians whose identities are revealed by the logs. |
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Name(s:) |
Dave Lapan |
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Title: |
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Media Operations |
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Agency(ies): |
Department of Defense |
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Concerning: |
Defense Intelligence Agency Information Review Task Force, DIA, IRTF |
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Url: |
Url Link
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Title: |
DOD News Briefing with Secretary Gates and Adm. Mullen from the Pentagon (November 30, 2010) |
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Author: |
Public Affairs, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense, Department of Defense |
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Authoring or Creator Agency: |
Public Affairs, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense, Department of Defense |
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Archive Link |
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