TSA Directive leak piques fed curiosity—who’s the leaker?

Commentary by Kay B. Day

The Transportation Security Administration is in a quandary for the second time. In early December, media like Wired reported “sensitive security information” was leaked accidentally. A manual listing screening procedures at airports ended up on the Internet. But after the botched attempt by an alleged Nigerian terrorist on a Northwest Airlines flight to blow up a plane, another TSA leak occurred and this time it wasn’t a mistake.

Two bloggers are now dealing with federal authorities who want to know how they got their hands on a TSA directive soon after it was issued. The directive detailed increased security measures after the Nigerian was caught and the near-blowup was widely publicized.

In the blogosphere, a debate has begun about media peril insurance for bloggers, the strong arm of the federal government and first amendment rights. This debate has been anticipated by anyone who works in media because technology enables anyone who wants to to call himself a writer.

Ironically at least one of the bloggers who received a subpoena is no hobby blogger. Chris Elliott is a syndicated columnist who writes for a number of branded media outlets.

Elliott’s dilemma is nothing new—we’ve been down this road before. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press lists a number of cases, and the number will surely multiply. At the moment, for instance, a couple of the most frequently cited ‘news’ outlets are nothing more than blog directories comprising volunteers who may or may not be clueless as to what accuracy, fact checking and the difference between news and opinion mean. It’s a sure thing the media industry will see more than a few battles over sources, intellectual property rights and fact checking in the coming year.

One question occurred as I read about Elliott’s predicament. What would I have done had I received the information he got? Would I have weighed the public’s ‘need to know’ against possible security risks for my country? Would I have jumped on a story with eagerness, knowing exactly where the spotlight would shine once I published the information? 

I acknowledge Elliott’s right to publish what he did because we are technically a country with a free press. A wire service story said Elliott claimed the information “just showed up in my box.” Elliott, according to his blog bio, writes for MSNBC and The Washington Post among others. So he’s fully aware of the implications of his own actions.

When Elliott published the TSA directive, conflicting views of the alleged terrorist’s actions emerged. The administration downplayed the attempted attack with the same approach used to explain an alleged domestic terrorist’s attacks on innocents at an army base. Most Main Streeters view that approach as spin. We know we're at war; we're reminded of it every day as Americans' lives are taken in Afghanistan and Iraq. We remember September 11 even though our government has pushed that day to a back ideological burner. 

One thing you can bet your Blackberry on—‘The system worked’ is a phrase that will crop up in campaign ads.

That phrase was not one of the finest moments the woman overseeing our national security has had. Even neolib columnists have taken her to task for that bit of inanity.

A small question nags—was the first TSA leak deliberate? The public bought the story spun by branded media, that it was an accident. But a second leak naturally should raise questions about the first.

The broadest, most troubling question has nothing to do with the blogger/columnist.

The most troubling question, especially for Homeland Security head Janet Napolitano, is who is the leaker. That leaker could really throw a monkey wrench into security procedures if s/he continues to make sensitive information public.

The feds’ time might be more well-placed doing some digging into their own technology infrastructure as well as human resources. Leaking manuals and directives from the TSA is a practice that could lead to disaster.

Update on Thursday, December 31, 2009 at 2:20PM by Kay B. Day, Editor

Accounts of events surrounding the near-explosion on Flight 253 get stranger and stranger. MLive features an account of passenger Kurt Haskell and subsequent visits he received from law enforcement authorities.