Mata Hari

In case you want a break from the Wuhan virus… how often do you think this happens?

A few weeks ago, an item hit the news – just barely. Seems that a 30-year-old Defense Intelligence Agency analyst pleaded guilty to disclosing classified information to not one, but two, news reporters. One was Amanda Macias, a CNBC national security analyst. The other was NBC national security correspondent Courtney Kube, who, not coincidentally, is a friend of Macias.

According to the government, DIA analyst Henry Frese supplied the reporters with multiple classified reports about the military capabilities of North Korea and China. The government apparently detected the unlawful disclosures by good old-fashioned detective work – and electronic surveillance. After reviewing the reporters’ news accounts disclosing the classified information, they went back to government records and determined which DIA employees/contractors had accessed the classified information. They then obtained the phone records of the employees… and, voilà, guess who exchanged 57 texts and 630 phone calls with Macias and 151 texts and 34 calls with Kube?

What must have made the government sleuths’ job easier was the fact that Macias and Frese were romantically involved. So involved, as it were, that they lived together from August 2017 through August 2018 (“Honey, thanks for the report on the increased range of that new Chinese surface-to-air missile. It will make a good story. Btw, can you pick up some milk and eggs on your way home? xoxo”). Those tales of old-time reporters working the “police beat,” “tracking down” leads for their stories, confirming the accuracy of articles through multiple independent sources – it would seem that Macias was able to complete her assignments for CNBC from the confines of her bedroom with a little pillow talk.

And how did Kube get involved? At some point during this free flow of classified information between the two lovers a reportage à trois developed. Macias asked Frese if he wouldn’t mind if she shared the classified information with Kube. Frese told Macias that he would share the information with others if it would help her career.

So Frese was willing to share United States classified military information with other reporters – to help his girlfriend’s career?

Does this remind anyone of James Wolfe? The former director of security for the Senate Intelligence Committee? The 58-year-old married father of two who had an almost four-year affair beginning in 2013 with 20-something intern/reporter Ali Watkins? Who provided national security information he collected while working on the Intelligence Committee to a girl (come on, she was 22 years old when they started their affair) who wasn’t even born when Wolfe joined the Intelligence Committee staff?

Watkins met Wolfe in 2013 when she was an intern at McClatchy. She was part of a three-person team at McClatchy that was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report in 2015 on CIA torture. She left McClatchy and continued covering national security issues and the Senate Intelligence Committee for the Huffington Post, BuzzFeed and Politico. All the while, she and Wolfe maintained their relationship.

According to the indictment the Justice Department filed against Wolfe, he admitted to providing information on Senate Intelligence Committee matters to Watkins (surprise, surprise) to help her career.

From hearing about the relationship problems professional women face today, it would seem Watkins latched on to one of the few really good guys out there.

News reports indicate Watkins told friends she and Wolfe broke up in August 2017. She then started dating another Intelligence Committee staffer.

Of course she did. No word yet as to whether leaking charges are pending against that lucky fella.

Different news accounts of the forbidden love of Watkins/Wolfe give different versions as to the level of disclosure Watkins made to her various employers regarding the existence and nature of her relationship with Wolfe. According to some, she never told them her boyfriend worked on the Intelligence Committee. According to others, she said he worked on the Committee but was never a source.

Wolfe joined the New York Times in December 2017 to cover national security issues. She was contacted by the FBI in February 2018 and told they had obtained her cell phone and email records in their investigation of Wolfe. She did not tell the Times of the FBI’s actions until June 2018, purportedly on the advice of her attorney.

Now, these two tales of love, intrigue and national security leak investigations are not exactly alike. Wolfe was not indicted for disclosing classified national security information to Watkins and two other reporters. His mistake was lying about his relationship with Watkins when questioned by FBI agents. He was sentenced to two months in jail in December 2018.

Frese, on the other hand, faces up to 10 years in jail for helping the career of his then live-in girlfriend. He has pled guilty and will be sentenced in June of this year.

What is the same about these to cases is that none of the reporters seem to have suffered negative consequences comparable to those of their boyfriends. Macias and Kube were never charged with disclosing classified information. They still work for the same news organizations. Watkins is still at the Times although she no longer reports on the Senate Intelligence Committee. She is now in the Metro Bureau covering law enforcement in New York City.

As stated above, the information Watkins received was not classified. But both Macias and Kube disclosed classified military information. Information about the military capabilitities of China and North Korea. Two countries no one would consider allies of the United States.

Moreover, Frese covered counter-terrorism issues/matters at the DIA. Which means that at either the request of Macias, or in an effort to please his lady friend, he accessed and disclosed classified information on subjects beyond the scope of his role at the DIA.

A few questions.

How is disclosing to the world what the United States knows about its potential enemies’ military capabilities “speaking truth to power” or “making the comfortable uncomfortable?” How do such news reports keep our “democracy [from dying] in darkness?” The Justice Department has a policy of not prosecuting reporters who accept and publicize illegally disclosed classified information. Fine. But can’t the publishers themselves exercise a little self-control when it comes down to national security secrets, the disclosure of which is only harmful to the United States?

Maybe they do. And we just don’t hear about it. If that’s the case, Macias’ and Kube’s bosses blew it in these instances.

Maybe to America’s detriment.

UPDATE: June 21, 2020

Henry Frese was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in federal prison on June 18th. No word if either of the journalists to whom he fed the illegally disclosed information were at the sentencing.