Director of National Intelligence James Clapper is rolling out new measures Monday aimed at ending what recently has been a spate of leaks regarding classified programs and operations.
Among Clapper's recommendations, to be instituted across the 16 intelligence agencies, are an enhanced counterintelligence polygraph test for employees who have access to classified information, and the establishment of a task force of intelligence community inspectors general that will have the ability to conduct independent investigations across agencies in coordination with the Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive.
Clapper has also called for a review of current policies that relate to interaction with members of the media, and how that interaction must be reported.
The new question that will be added to the current counterintelligence polygraph test - which intelligence community employees who handle classified information are required to take - will specifically ask whether the employee has disclosed classified information to a member of the media.
Clapper is using his authority to direct that the question be added by all intelligence community agencies that use the polygraph test, including the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Department of Energy, the FBI, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the National Reconnaissance Office, and the National Security Agency.
Clapper also is establishing a lead task force of investigators housed within his office to make the investigation of leaks more seamless. That move could also overcome an internal problem in the investigation of such leaks, which is that the Department of Justice, which is responsible for such investigations, often recuses itself because of possible conflicts of interest.
Recent leaks of classified information include revealing in May that a mole had been working to help thwart a Yemen bomb plot targeting the United States, as well as disclosing the classified drone program and that the United States and Israel were behind a cyberwarfare program known as Stuxnet, which targeted an Iranian nuclear enrichment facility, causing centrifuges to spin out of control.
The FBI is currently investigating the Yemen and Stuxnet leaks.
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