Pentagon Spokesman's Regular Briefing

DoD News Briefing
Tuesday, November 07, 2000 - 1:35 p.m. EST
Presenter: Mr. Kenneth H. Bacon, ASD PA

Q: The president, on Saturday, vetoed the Intelligence Authorization
Act, citing the anti-leak provision. Where did the Pentagon come down
on that in terms of the internal deliberations? Were you for a veto or
against a veto?

Bacon: Well, first of all, we are against leaks - that's the first
point to stress - and we are for ways to stop leaks. There were
obviously differences within the government about the best way to do
this. Some people felt that the provision in the Intelligence
Authorization Act was the best way to proceed; others felt that it was
too clumsy, too sweeping a provision, and that's the way the president
came down in deciding to veto it. I think it's not fair to say that
the Defense Department had a monolithic view on this. Members of the
department were very involved in the considerations.

Q: Where was the weight of the opinion, though? Was it for - was it
that the provision was too draconian or well-crafted?

Bacon: The weight of the opinion was that we have to do a better job
of controlling leaks than we have; that leaks are dangerous to serving
military personnel, and dangerous to our ability to collect
intelligence, and that we will work with Congress to find the best
possible way to do that. Obviously, there were a range of feelings in
the building about this particular provision. Members of the
department participated actively in conversations at the White House.
And I don't want to talk about individual advice.

Q: Did Cohen render an opinion?

Bacon: I don't want to talk about individual advice that anybody gave
to the president.

Q: He's the secretary.

Bacon: He is the secretary.

Q: He's not like some Joe Colonel.

Bacon: He is the secretary, and he has made it very clear from this
first day in office, and he will make it clear to his last day in
office, that he's not going to describe, or certainly allow me to
describe, private advice that he gives to the president.

Q: Ken, in the course of analyzing the legislation, was there at least
an opinion or a voice that this building chronically over-classifies,
and that a lot of these leaks of classified information, it's not
really classified information at all, that there's a chronic problem
with the "secret" stamp here?

Bacon: Did you read the president's veto message?

Q: Yeah, I did --

Bacon: Well, I mean, he alluded to the fact that there can be
over-classification or misclassification.

I don't think anybody disagrees with that. There are many problems
with our classification system. And it was that realization, in part,
that led to his decision to - as I read the veto message - his
decision to veto the bill. Having said that, many of the leaks that
have come out, that have been published in the last several years,
have been, in fact, damaging leaks based on legitimately classified
information. They have been damaging because they reveal sources and
methods and, therefore, make it harder for us to deal with our allies
in intelligence-sharing operations and harder for us to carry out our
normal intelligence-gathering operations.

Q: Many of the leaks? I mean, most of the leaks here is the Washington
Times getting signals intelligence. That doesn't seem like "many."

Bacon: I would say many leaks have been damaging.

....

Q: Is everything that you tell us, by definition, unclassified?

Bacon: Is everything I tell you, by definition, unclassified?

Q: From the podium.

Bacon: That's a tricky question. There are certain questions that I
can only answer by referring to classified information, and I do this
carefully, after consultation with our intelligence authorities, to
make sure that I don't answer questions in a way that causes any
problems. And I meet frequently with people from the various
intelligence agencies. They come to my briefings and they advise me on
how to deal with classified information. So I think that's the best
answer I can give you. I refer to classified information a lot. I work
very hard not to give away details that would damage our ability to
collect classified information.

Q: But do you, in fact, have the authority to make that judgment call
on items that might be included in classified information; that you
would, in effect, declassify them when you announce them at a
briefing?

Is that --

Bacon: Well, I think technically, the agency or person who classifies
the information is the person to declassify it - the declassifying
authority. What I try to do is figure out ways that I can respond to
your questions without compromising our intelligence apparatus.

So, without putting too fine a point on it, there are certain types of
questions that can only be answered with references to classified
information such as, where are Iraqi troops on a given day? And that
was one of the concerns that I and other spokespeople had about the
provision of the Intelligence Authorization Act that, read in a very
narrow way, it would prevent reference to classified information in
answering everyday questions.

Q: Thank you.

Bacon: Sure.