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Snowden leaks did staggering damage to US national security: Pentagon report

Iran Press TV

Fri May 23, 2014 3:46PM GMT

The extent of damage to the US national security from the leak of secret NSA documents by Edward Snowden is staggering, a US Department of Defense report reveals.

According to a copy of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)'s classified assessment obtained by the Guardian, "the scope of the compromised knowledge related to US intelligence capabilities is staggering."

The British newspaper acquired the heavily redacted 39-page report in result of a lawsuit filed against the Pentagon earlier this year under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

The DIA report was prepared in December last year and is titled "DoD Information Review Task Force-2: Initial Assessment, Impacts Resulting from the Compromise of Classified Material by a Former NSA Contractor."

The report, which was redacted from the material under a presidential order, terms the damage to US intelligence capabilities as "grave".

Out of 39 pages, just 12 pages of the report were declassified by DIA and released.

Steven Aftergood, the director of the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists, criticized Washington's decision to withhold specific details.

'The essence of the report is contained in the statement that 'the scope of the compromised knowledge related to US intelligence capabilities is staggering'. But all elaboration of what this striking statement means has been withheld,' he said.

The top-secret Pentagon report was distributed to the United States Armed Forces and several US military commands around the world.

"This report presents the Information Review Task Force-2's (IRTF-2s') initial assessment of impact to the Department of Defense (DoD) from the compromise of [redacted] classified files by a former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor," the report's executive summary states.

"The IRTF-2 and Defense component partners continue triaging and reviewing compromised information for Defense equities and will update this report as additional assessments are completed. Combatant Commands (CCMDs) and Services have produced separate reports that provide greater details concerning the potential impact of the compromise on their respective equities … It should be noted that SIGINT [Signals Intelligence]-specific equities are not addressed in this report; NSA is reviewing those separately," it says.

Snowden, a former NSA contractor, began leaking classified intelligence documents in June 2013, revealing the extent of the NSA's spying activity.

The disclosures have revealed that the NSA has been collecting the phone records of millions of Americans and foreign nationals as well as political leaders around the world. In August, Russia granted him asylum for one year.

Many regard Snowden as a whistleblower and a national hero for blowing the lid off the US government's global surveillance operations.

GJH/GJH