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CIA Dubs WikiLeaks Task Force 'WTF,' Our Thoughts Exactly

by Terrence O'Brien on December 22, 2010 at 11:40 AM

The CIA has created a task force dedicated to investigating the impact of WikiLeaks, whose publication of diplomatic cables has resulted in an international controversy. The WikiLeaks Task Force, or W.T.F. (no, seriously, that's what it's called), is working to determine what effect, if any, the publication of secret documents has had on the agency's ability to recruit informants, and on the security of its agents. The incident involving the whistle-blower site will likely only reinforce the agency's reluctance to share information with other government and intelligence agencies. In the past, the CIA has even refused to make many of its intelligence reports available on SIPRNET, the secret network used by the Pentagon to share classified data.

The extent of the damage done to the CIA by the WikiLeaks fiasco is limited, mostly by virtue of the fact that the agency has been largely absent from the WikiLeaks dumps. Still, regardless of what the W.T.F. finds, so-called "Cablegate" will only offer more ammunition to the Luddites within the agency. As one former CIA officer told the Washington Post, "Nobody could carry out enough paper to do what WikiLeaks has done."

Tags: CIA, government, politics, security, top, wikileaks, WikileaksTaskForce, WTF

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