The Intelligence Leak Shows Us Nothing New Or Surprising About Ukraine

As a retired U.S. Army intelligence officer, I was struck by three things about the recent Discord leaks of classified information. First, that top secret information is far more widely distributed than it was 25 years ago, and second, that the claim that “our government is lying to us” about the situation in Ukraine is wildly overblown. And lastly, that we barely dodged a bullet.

But let me tell you, as someone who had a top-secret clearance at the age of 21 in 1983, I know firsthand how important it is to qualify for the clearance. Without it, I wouldn’t have been able to continue working in my military occupational specialty (MOS). And let me tell you, maintaining that clearance for 24 years until 2007 was no easy feat.

Back then, the information I had access to was restricted to my need to know, and it consisted entirely of paper that never left highly secure vaults. But now, with the information revolution and the terror attack on Sept. 11, 2001, maintaining security for classified information is vastly more difficult than it was in the age of paper and vaults.

One of the lessons drawn from the 9/11 terror attack was that members of America’s intelligence community — referred to as the IC — were too siloed; that is, they didn’t share information with each other. As a result, there was an incomplete picture of the threat from al-Qaeda. But classified information is siloed, or “compartmented,” for a reason: limiting the national security damage that could happen from one source, regardless of motives.

However, as seen in the most recent leak, the other aspect to classification is how significantly overclassified things have become. It’s as if the classifying authorities believe they derive some authority or prestige by the volume of top-secret documents they produce. It’s almost as if they’re acting like academics looking to pad their publication count.

The Leaked Info Is Overblown

On to the claim that the leaked documents show our government isn’t leveling with the American people about the progress of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

But let’s be real, the leaked documents don’t reveal anything groundbreaking. One revelation emerging from the documents is that Ukraine is running low on air defense systems and artillery ammunition. But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has himself said on many occasions that Ukraine desperately needs as much. The classified leak merely validates Zelensky’s requests.

Retired Army Lt. Col. Robert Maginnis’ recent column at Fox News, provocatively titled, in part, “Pentagon leaks reveal Biden’s Ukraine war lies…” delivers far less than promised. Scouring the piece for the “lies,” I found the piece full of sound and fury, but identifying no lies.

But Maginnis does ask a couple of pertinent questions — namely, “Is the Biden administration purposely draining our weapons arsenals to favor the Chinese? Can Ukraine really win the war against giant Russia?”

The fact is that the U.S. and its Western allies are woefully unprepared for an extended conventional conflict. So too is Russia, as seen with its own significant shortages of artillery ammunition, missiles, and tanks. This problem isn’t new. Maintaining military-industrial base readiness was a costly investment few were willing to make after the end of the Cold War.

It’s also true that some of the military supplies America is sending to Ukraine would be useful in deterring China from threatening Taiwan or its other neighbors, but some analysts see China and Russia as creating an authoritarian alliance of convenience against the West. If this is the case, Ukraine — and maybe Taiwan — are