The Trump administration hasn’t allowed members of Congress to read a classified directive President Trump issued almost a year ago outlining new rules for the military’s use of cyber weapons, despite repeated requests, according to lawmakers and others familiar with the matter.
The issue has prompted concern on Capitol Hill that the Pentagon is increasingly deploying offensive cyber operations against adversaries—including against Iran last month during a peak in tensions with Tehran—without keeping congressional overseers adequately informed.
A senior administration official said that “the administration keeps Congress appropriately informed of cyber operations, including by providing briefings and documents.” A spokesman for the U.S. Cyber Command declined to comment.
In a bipartisan letter addressed to Mr. Trump in February, the leaders of the House Armed Services Committee said Congress hadn’t been able to see the directive, known as National Security Presidential Memorandum 13, “and other related documents on cyber operations” despite the panel’s requests. Lacking that visibility had impeded the committee’s ability to consider the policy implications of military cyber operations, the letter said.
“The committee firmly believes it should be furnished with your recently signed classified memorandum and directives on cyber operations that outline how statutory authorities are being interpreted and employed,” lawmakers wrote in the letter, a copy of which was seen by The Wall Street Journal.
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2 comments:
I am not surprised considering when I was recruited out of college into the NSA long before the internet was a public and commercial venue and you had to know coding and stare at a black screen terminal with green text no pictures or Twitter or websites on a secure modem phone dial up. I have to admit it was a lot more intelligent then and I never imagined it would catch on and become the nonsense it's become now. It's truly become the Tower of Babel and the weakest venue for empirically tested truths and logic. There are just some people that should have no access and no say. Go shop on QVC.
Genuine quandry because Congress has certain powers of oversight. On the other hand most Democrats have no actual loyalty to our country, only to their ideology. Whatever might be shared with them would be published in the NYT, Wash Post, etc. in the blink of an eye for the benefit of our enemies and to the detriment of our security.
Thumbs down on their request!
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