美国国家公共电台 NPR--What U.S. intelligence agencies can do to prevent future data leaks

What U.S. intelligence agencies can do to prevent future data leaks

Transcript¹

NPR's Leila Fadel speaks with Glenn Gerstell, former general counsel to the National Security Agency, about what U.S. intelligence agencies can do to prevent data leaks in the future.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

Twenty-one-year-old Massachusetts Air National Guardsman Jack² Teixeira is in a Boston courtroom this morning responding to charges that he's behind a recent leak of intelligence documents. He was arrested yesterday at his family home. The documents he's accused of leaking included sensitive Ukraine war assessments³ and exposed the U.S. spying on its allies. It may be one of the largest intelligence breaches⁴ in the last decade. Earlier, I spoke⁵ with Glenn Gerstell, former general counsel of the National Security Agency. I asked him how a 21-year-old with such a short time in the military, a person posting racist⁶ and antisemitic things with his friends in a gaming group, had access to such sensitive and secretive documents.

GLENN GERSTELL: That, of course, is the big question. And obviously, there's going to be an inquiry⁷ both within the intelligence community and more specifically within the military to find those answers to that very question. But just to start with the basics, this - according to press reports, this man was working as a Air National Guardsman and presumably had a top secret security clearance⁸, which wouldn't be anything unusual for someone low level and young, because sometimes some of the newer-entry people - especially in the IT area, which is where he worked - would have had to have access to classified information to do their work because they were keeping the network secure, for example. And that would require a top-secret clearance. But...

FADEL: So what safeguards, if I could just ask...

GERSTELL: Sure.

FADEL: What safeguards are supposed to be in place to prevent people with this kind of access, because it sounds like a lot of people have this kind of access, from leaking intelligence?

GERSTELL: Sure. So as I said, it's not unusual that he had the access. The problem is, how was he allowed to get to these materials? And that's where there obviously is a system failure. He shouldn't be able to have access to anything more than he needs to do for his job. There's a so-called need-to-know principle. And that seems to have been ignored, at least in practice, in this area. He was able to access things from the CIA, from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, reports having nothing really to do with his job or the Massachusetts Air National Guard. And he was able, evidently, to take pieces of paper - print this out on pieces of paper and take them home. And again, that's a huge security failure that we're going to have to investigate.

FADEL: Now, in light of this leak, the Pentagon wants to limit the number of employees who are granted top secret clearance. What would that look like?

GERSTELL: So after every one of these leaks - the Snowden leak, the Chelsea Manning leak, whatever - there's a quite understandable reaction to clamp down and make sure that access is limited so this kind of thing doesn't happen again. That's offset⁹ by a very strong desire, especially after 9/11, when the intelligence and defense¹⁰ communities were faulted for not sharing information widely enough - there's another trend that pushes in the opposite direction that says more people within the defense and intelligence community need information. They need to so-called connect the dots. And so there's this tension between security on one hand, and at the same time, making sure we have available information to people who need it to make the decisions. And that's something that the pendulum¹¹ just swings back and forth¹² on. We don't seem to get that balance right.

FADEL: Now, you mentioned Snowden and Chelsea Manning, which seem like very different leaks and ultimately led to some public accountability, especially in the Snowden case, an NSA surveillance program of Americans that was ultimately deemed illegal and possibly unconstitutional. I mean, free speech advocates see some of these leaks as a path to public accountability that otherwise Americans wouldn't get.

GERSTELL: I don't think that's true at all. And in this particular case, this is not a politically...

FADEL: A very different case, as we mentioned.

GERSTELL: Really not politically motivated. This is just someone who, for whatever reasons, was getting excited and enjoyed - almost as if getting a thrill out of shoplifting, so to speak, not to trivialize this, but was taking some of the nation's secrets and posting them on a Discord¹³ chat group with some of his friends just to make himself look big.

FADEL: Do you think allies that are looking at the U.S. right now and these documents are wondering if the intelligence community can keep its secrets?

GERSTELL: I think there's surely another question going on in the part of allies who share information with us. But I think, ultimately, they understand these - this is a one-time, although serious, accident. And I don't think it's going to really affect any long-term relationship with allies. There'll be some questioning. But I think, long term, things are going to continue as they are, with the United States making a stronger effort to wrap this up.

FADEL: Glenn Gerstell is former general counsel of the National Security Agency.

Thank you for your time and your insights.

GERSTELL: Thank you.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

3 assessments   

n.评估( assessment的名词复数 )；评价；（应偿付金额的）估定；（为征税对财产所作的）估价

参考例句：

• He was shrewd in his personal assessments. 他总能对人作出精明的评价。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Surveys show about two-thirds use such assessments, while half employ personality tests. 调查表明，约有三分之二的公司采用了这种测评；而一半的公司则采用工作人员个人品质测试。 来自百科语句

4 breaches   

破坏( breach的名词复数 )； 破裂； 缺口； 违背

参考例句：

• He imposed heavy penalties for breaches of oath or pledges. 他对违反誓言和保证的行为给予严厉的惩罚。
• This renders all breaches of morality before marriage very uncommon. 这样一来，婚前败坏道德的事就少见了。

5 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

6 racist   

n.种族主义者，种族主义分子

参考例句：

• a series of racist attacks 一连串的种族袭击行为
• His speech presented racist ideas under the guise of nationalism. 他的讲话以民族主义为幌子宣扬种族主义思想。

7 inquiry   

n.打听，询问，调查，查问

参考例句：

• Many parents have been pressing for an inquiry into the problem.许多家长迫切要求调查这个问题。
• The field of inquiry has narrowed down to five persons.调查的范围已经缩小到只剩5个人了。

8 clearance   

n.净空；许可(证)；清算；清除，清理

参考例句：

• There was a clearance of only ten centimetres between the two walls.两堵墙之间只有十厘米的空隙。
• The ship sailed as soon as it got clearance. 那艘船一办好离港手续立刻启航了。

9 offset   

n.分支，补偿；v.抵消，补偿

参考例句：

• Their wage increases would be offset by higher prices.他们增加的工资会被物价上涨所抵消。
• He put up his prices to offset the increased cost of materials.他提高了售价以补偿材料成本的增加。

10 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

11 pendulum   

n.摆，钟摆

参考例句：

• The pendulum swung slowly to and fro.钟摆在慢慢地来回摆动。
• He accidentally found that the desk clock did not swing its pendulum.他无意中发现座钟不摇摆了。

12 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

13 discord   

n.不和，意见不合，争论，（音乐）不和谐

参考例句：

• These two answers are in discord.这两个答案不一样。
• The discord of his music was hard on the ear.他演奏的不和谐音很刺耳。