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In Response To Leaks, U.S. Army Revises Official Rulebook For Intelligence Officers

The homepage of the WikiLeaks.org website is seen on a computer after leaked military documents were posted.
The homepage of the WikiLeaks.org website is seen on a computer after leaked military documents were posted.

The Army "has updated a 17-year-old rulebook on espionage following internal leaks of classified information to the secret-spilling site WikiLeaks," WIRED reports.

The update, released Monday, now requires troops to alert authorities if they suspect someone is leaking classified information to the media or any other unauthorized person, according to the Associated Press, identifying media leaks specifically for the first time. It also requires the Army to create a central system to collect threat reports and for soldiers to report incidents of someone removing classified information from their proper work area.

Among other things, Army Regulation 381-12 "adds policy for contractors with security clearances," "defines standards for the content of threat-awareness briefings," and "identifies personnel who are vulnerable to exploitation by foreign intelligence and international terrorist organizations and requires they receive special threat-awareness training."

You can read the new rules after the jump.

Secrecy News reports there are "tables listing behavior that may be exhibited by a person engaged in espionage, indicators of insider threats of terrorism, and signs of extremist activity that may pose a threat to U.S. military facilities or operations."

At a conference earlier today, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper criticized leaks:

I was in a meeting yesterday with the president, and I was ashamed to have to sit there and listen to the president express his great angst about the leaking that's going on here in this town.

He said the WikiLeaks release of secret documents was "a big yellow flag."

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

David Gura
Based in New York, David Gura is a correspondent on NPR's business desk. His stories are broadcast on NPR's newsmagazines, All Things Considered, Morning Edition and Weekend Edition, and he regularly guest hosts 1A, a co-production of NPR and WAMU.
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