Mike Turner Calls for Review of Top-Secret Information Distribution

After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Ohio Republican Representative Mike Turner remarked in an appearance with CBS’ “Face the Nation” that the United States had gone too far in releasing classified material. He said that with the recent breaches of secret Pentagon information on social media, authorities need to look into this again.

Turner, who also leads the House information Community, stated that the most important lesson the United States has learned from the 9/11 Commission is the need to more publicly share top-secret material so that the American people have “actionable intelligence.” But now, he claimed, it has “gone too far,” such that anyone in Massachusetts may get their hands on sensitive records that disclose “war plans in Ukraine.”

Turner was alluding to the arrest of 21-year-old Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira last week on charges of being the leaker of confidential material from the Pentagon. These first surfaced earlier this year in a Teixeira-led online gaming forum, and have now spread to Facebook and other major social media sites.

Among the many topics covered in the documents was Ukraine’s lackluster air force and allegations of U.S. eavesdropping activities against governments throughout the world.

No one would have expected the Massachusetts Air National Guardsman to have any prior knowledge of the sensitive material he was authorized to view in his official capacity. The Ohio Republican said that someone should have been keeping an eye on the situation and preventing Teixeira from gaining access to the information in question.

Finally, Turner stated that more hearings will be held on the released materials by the House Intelligence Committee. He emphasized the need of identifying areas where knowledge dissemination might be improved.