NSA Refuses To Reveal What It Has Leaked

A lot of information has been leaked about the government and its various agencies, not the least of which being the NSA. Of course, not all leaks are unauthorized — the government itself will leak its own information at times, the reasons for which are varied and, despite requests otherwise, still secret. A recent Freedom of Information Act request for information about what leaks the government has made was denied due to claims of posing a potential threat to national security.

The government will leak it own information at times as a way to control the flow of information, public perceptions, and other things. When an agency does this, however, it is required to let Congress know essentially so that the right hand knows what the left hand is up to.

This requirement to let Congress know when it leaks information led to a Freedom of Information Act request for a "copy of any notifications to Congress that may have been transmitted by DoD in the past 12 months concerning authorized public disclosures of intelligence information."

The government rejected the request, and by doing so ensured that knowledge about it has leaked remains secret. The reasons, as mentioned, was because providing this info could "reasonably be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security." The only thing revealed by the response is that a document containing the requested data does exist under lock and key.

SOURCE: Tech Crunch