Ex-CIA Says Declassifying U.S. Intelligence Poses Risk

(AmericanProsperity.com) – There has been an increasing tactic of declassifying intelligence to interrupt plans. According to an ex-CIA agent, this could pose a huge threat to U.S. intelligence agencies despite the short-term gains associated with it.

A former CIA director, Michael Morell, and former CIA analyst, David Gioe, stated in an article that the most serious risk is “the politicization of intelligence” if it’s meant to suit the administration of that day. Both have said that some “strategic downgrades” of intelligence material have likely been effective. However, they also stated multiple ways that routine declassification could harm intelligence collection and the reputation of the agencies involved.

The trend toward declassification is mostly irreversible at this point, but more attention should be put into establishing guidelines to avoid negative side effects. Gioe and Morell wrote in the article, “The point of no return has been passed, and intelligence is being released faster than norms can be created.” They continued to say that the United States risks losing its advantage it’s continued to have over its rivals.

Most recently, we’ve seen declassification from the Biden administration regarding the Russian buildup to the attack in Ukraine. They later revealed that the Kremlin was contemplating using chemical and biological weapons.

Many administrations dating back to the early nineteen hundreds, not just in this instance, have declassified material when it was to their advantage. Morell said that under the Biden administration, there are more “strategic downgrades” than during other terms with previous presidents.

“Without a doubt that’s the significant change that’s occurred with this administration – from the one-off to the repeated declassifications on a single issue over an extended period of time. Nobody’s ever done that before,” he said.

With this, he also said that there was evidence that declassification did have a positive outcome in some cases, but still stood on the fact that long-term it could be negative.