Stories like this one deserve quite a bit more attention than they generally receive.
Security practices at the White House are dangerously inadequate say current and former employees of the security office there, according to a letter sent today from the House Oversight Committee to former White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card, asking that he cooperate with the committee’s investigation into the alleged security lapses.
“These security officials described a systemic breakdown in security procedures at the White House,” wrote the chairman of the committee, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif.
Among the lapses cited by the security officers, who spoke to the committee anonymously, are multiple instances of breaches being reported to the security office that were ignored and never investigated. Several of those instances allegedly involved the mishandling of SCI (Sensitive Compartmentalized Information), which is the highest level of classified information.
Waxman released his evidence yesterday, but it only caused a minor stir at a handful of media outlets. I suspect reporters, after a while, start to roll their eyes at the latest Waxman reports, concluding, “There he goes he again.” But there’s obviously a problem with this approach: Waxman is usually right, and when he’s pointing to smoke, there’s usually fire.
In this case, the White House’s treatment of classified materials ranges from clumsy to negligent to near-criminal. And we’re not just talking about the obvious scandals such as outing a covert CIA operative for partisan purposes and using unsecured RNC email accounts; there’s more of a casual disregard for keeping secrets secure.
In one instance, for example, a White House official reportedly left highly classified materials in a hotel room during a foreign trip with Bush. In another, the deputy director of the White House Security Office allegedly put classified material on an unsecured computer.
And in case that weren’t disconcerting enough, let’s also not forget that after these incidents are reported (if they’re reported), the White House routinely declines to review the incidents or discipline the staffers.
The irony, of course, is that the Bush gang appears to value secrecy above almost anything else, but when tasked with actually keeping national security materials under wraps, carelessness rules the day.
Waxman specifically wrote to the White House highlighting the following:
The White House regularly ignored security breaches. The security officers described multiple instances of security breaches that were reported to the White House Security Office by concerned officials, such as Secret Service agents, but ignored by the White House Security Office. Several of the security violations involved mishandling of “Sensitive Compartmentalized Information” (SCI), the highest level of classified information, such as leaving SCI materials unattended in a hotel room.
The White House blocked security inspections of the West Wing. According to the security officers, they were prohibited from conducting unannounced inspections of West Wing offices, which undermined their ability to assess compliance and deter violations. In addition, they reported that the White House denied the Information Security Oversight Office of the National Archives permission to inspect the West Wing, despite the fact that Executive Order 12958 gives this Archives office the authority to inspect all executive branch offices to ensure the effectiveness of security programs.
The White House condoned mismanagement at the White House Security Office. The security officers described the leadership of the White House Security Office as poor managers who habitually flouted basic security procedures and allowed other White House officials to do the same.
It’s also worth remembering, as I’ve noted a few times, that there are mandatory actions the White House is required to take in the event of security breaches, which this White House has completely ignored for six years.
Waxman has vowed to keep looking into these questions, and the White House has said it is unwilling to “make senior White House officials available to testify to Congress.” It’s another fight that might lead to subpoenas.
Stay tuned.