Republican Hoekstra Blasts WikiLeaks

Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.) the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, had angry words for the whistle-blower site WikiLeaks after the Sunday night release of several hundred classified documents.

“Wikileaks clearly is determined to undermine U.S. national security and damage our foreign relations. The disclosure of thousands of potentially classified cables and other documents is an embarrassment to the Obama administration and represents a critical failure by the Pentagon and intelligence community to protect sensitive national security information.

“Once again our partners and allies are forced to question whether the United States can keep secrets, and our diplomats around the world have been forced to scramble to try and patch-up foreign relations strained by this illegal leak. ODNI’s national counterintelligence executive must move quickly to assess the failures in this case and to establish security protocols, including robust audit capabilities for classified networks.

Congress also should move quickly to hold hearings to ensure ODNI, the military and FBI have the necessary counterintelligence authorities to ensure a destructive leak of this nature cannot happen again.

“The disclosure of these documents by Wikileaks had nothing to do with transparency or whistleblowing, as the site would claim, and everything to do with undermining American foreign policy. As the world’s number one target for spying by foreign adversaries and now clearly other hacks, the federal government must do a better job of strengthening America’s computer and cybersecurity protocols. If we do not, we risk leaving exposed an Achilles heel that could cause irreparable damage to our global partnerships and international standing.”