Defense Going Dark: A Timeline of Secrecy Increases at the Pentagon
The Project On Government Oversight has compiled a timeline of events to document the changes to Department of Defense and national security policy that may undermine public access to information and harm transparency. Below are links to news coverage, primary source documents, transcripts, videos, and social media posts that illustrate the increased secrecy the department experienced under the current administration. A related POGO analysis explores how across the DOD, basic information is becoming harder to find, forcing journalists and the public to rely on leaks, whistleblowers, and the official narrative.
Timeline
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James Mattis is confirmed as secretary of defense.
Mattis is confirmed after getting a waiver to exempt him from federal law requiring military officers to wait seven years after retirement before serving as secretary of defense. -
Chief of Naval Operations John Richardson sends a memo telling staff not to “over-share.”
“Sharing information about future operations and capabilities,” the Chief of Naval Operations wrote, “even at the unclassified level, makes it easier for potential adversaries to gain an advantage.” Should there be doubt about a message, he instructed Navy staff, “bias on the side of caution. I am not asking you to throttle back engagement with the media or with the public.”
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Pentagon spokesman Jeff Davis sends a second a memo citing Mattis.
“‘While it can be tempting during budget season to publicly highlight readiness problems, we have to remember that our adversaries watch the news too,’ Davis said. ‘Communicating that we are broken or not ready to fight invites miscalculation. Know that he is well aware of our readiness shortfalls, as are our elected leaders on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue. They don’t need news stories to remind them. Help is on the way.’
“Around that same time, the military began to label weapons-system information that was previously publicly available as classified, according to a government official.
“‘Some readiness information has always been classified and now we are classifying more of it,’ the official said.”
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The National Interest reports: “How the U.S. Military Is Trying to Mask Its Readiness Crisis.”
“Air Force, Army, Navy and U.S. Marines have repeatedly drawn attention to low readiness levels, which they have attributed to emerging and continued demands on their forces, a reduction in the size of those forces and an uptick in the tempo of deployments. In congressional hearing after congressional hearing, officials have attested to how the nation’s military might is deteriorating. But no more.”
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President Donald Trump says, “We will not talk about numbers of troops.”
“A core pillar of our new strategy is a shift from a time-based approach to one based on conditions. I’ve said it many times how counterproductive it is for the United States to announce in advance the dates we intend to begin, or end, military options. We will not talk about numbers of troops or our plans for further military activities,” Trump said.
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Mattis sends a memo to all Department of Defense personnel and employees warning against disclosure.
“We must be vigilant in executing our responsibility to prevent disclosure of any information not authorized for release outside the Department of Defense,” Mattis wrote.
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“No ... if it involves telling the enemy something that will help them,” Mattis said.
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The Hill reports: “Watchdog criticizes Pentagon for making data on Afghan forces classified.”
“The U.S. military has made classified data about the progress of Afghan forces that was previously public, the top U.S. watchdog for reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan said Tuesday.
“In its latest quarterly report, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) said the classification of information related to the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) will hinder its oversight mission.”
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“Media requests have become routinely stifled, delayed or denied. Interviews no longer take two or three weeks to arrange—two or three months has become the norm, if at all. A recent development, according to many reporters, is for interviews becoming qualified at the last moment. ‘We can’t talk about XXX,’ officials tell reporters, sometimes a day or less before an appointment, ‘but we understand if you’ll want to cancel the interview,’” Cavas wrote.
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Cavas: The March 1 memo was a ...
Richardson: It wasn’t to stop talking, it’s to be careful about what we talk about.
Cavas: But it’s had that effect, but even if you didn’t spell it out, it’s absolutely had that effect.
Richardson: Well, we might be searching for the right things to talk about, right, because my sense was that we talk to [sic] much about it openly.
Cavas: You’re searching for the right things to talking [sic] about?
Richardson: Just figuring out how do we change this dialogue? Right? So I want to talk less about military capabilities or find the right way to cast those so that they have the deterrent effect that you have without allowing potential adversaries to reverse engineer or come up with ways to defeat those technologies or warfighting concepts.
Cavas: In 10 months, are you still searching for a way to do that?
Richardson: There has been a lot of dialogue.
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Defense One reports: “The Pentagon’s Secrecy Is Undermining Its Quest for a Bigger Budget”
“If Pentagon leaders are seeking someone to blame for their budget woes, they need not look across the frozen Potomac to Capitol Hill, lawmakers say. Because as the military becomes less transparent, convincing Congress to fund a $700-billion defense budget gets increasingly difficult.”
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Defense News reports: “US Air Force orders freeze on public outreach.”
“According to March 1 guidance obtained by Defense News, public affairs officials and commanders down to the wing level must go through new training on how to avoid divulging sensitive information before being allowed to interact with the press.
“The effort, which represents the third major Defense Department entity to push out guidance restricting public communication over the past 18 months, creates a massive information bureaucracy in which even the most benign human-interest stories must be cleared at the four-star command level.”
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“We respect the need for operational security. That’s why there is classified information. We understand, too, that sometimes even unclassified information can convey important details to an enemy.
“But security must be balanced against the need to inform the public. We worry that the definition of the kind of unclassified information that can be withheld is subjective. Given the ambiguity about what’s allowed and the message from the top stressing secrecy, officials who are wary about their careers may err on the side of withholding information. And in a worse [sic] case scenario, such guidance could be used to justify keeping out of public view data that may simply be embarrassing to the Air Force but that the U.S. citizenry needs to know.
“When it comes to unclassified information, the presumption in a democracy should favor disclosure. Ultimately, the proof will be in the execution of this new guidance, and MRE will be closing [sic] watching that.”
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(Image courtesy of Tara Copp)
Blank fields are now noted with an asterisk. “*With ongoing operations, any questions concerning DoD personnel strength numbers are deferred to OSD Public Affairs/Joint Chiefs of Staff,” the document reads. Historical deployment data was also removed for these countries.
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Task & Purpose reports: “Mattis: What DoD Readiness Problems? (Shush: Bad Guys Are Listening!)”
“In a move that has not decreased the number of military planes and helicopters crashing, Defense Secretary James Mattis has been discouraging the services from talking about how bad readiness is, leading the parent of at least one dead service member to call his arguments ‘a bunch of junk.’”
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The Military Times reports: “Pentagon strips Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria troop numbers from web”:
“When asked last week why the quarterly December report still had not posted, a defense official said ‘DMDC [Defense Manpower Data Center] is currently updating their policy for these reports. The information should be available soon, and retroactive numbers will be available.’
“The Pentagon typically reports each quarter’s data three months after the quarter ends.
“The December report, however, just had blank spaces where Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan figures used to be.”
This change was noted in a May 10, 2019 Congressional Research Service report.
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“The Trump administration has chosen to ignore an executive order that requires the White House to issue an annual report on the number of civilians and enemy fighters killed by American counterterrorism strikes.
“The mandate for the report, which was due May 1, was established by former president Barack Obama in 2016 as part of a broader effort to lift the veil of secrecy surrounding drone operations in places such as Yemen, Somalia and Libya. The White House has not formally rescinded the Obama-era executive order but has chosen not to comply with some aspects of it.”
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Chief Pentagon spokesperson Dana White gives her last televised press briefing.
Over a year would go by before another televised Pentagon press briefing. No explanation was given for stopping the regularly scheduled briefings.
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Mattis gives his last televised press briefing.
Mattis would not appear at the podium for the rest of his tenure as secretary of defense. While he did make himself available for unannounced “media availabilities,” this was the last time he’d address the American public. No explanation was given for stopping the longstanding practice of regularly scheduled televised press briefings. Former administrations, both Republican and Democratic, held weekly briefings. The next televised press briefing would be a year later by Secretary Mark Esper, who committed to regular briefings.
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“With the U.S. still engaged in conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and against the Islamic State, some at Friday’s event wondered about the long-term effects of dissolving Combat Camera.
“Skip Nocciolo retired as a chief petty officer in 1998 after spending two tours with Combat Camera and later went to work for CNN. Much of the archival footage that documents the U.S. military in action during previous conflicts exists because of the work of Navy combat camera operators, he said.
“‘Twenty years from now will there still be plenty of archival footage that can be drawn upon for documentarians and filmmakers to utilize to tell the story of the military?’ Nocciolo asked.”
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The Atlantic reports: “The Navy’s Terrible Accident Record Is Now Hidden From Public View.”
“I made the disturbing discovery recently that, amid a dramatic five-year spike in aviation accidents, the Navy has put aviation safety data that used to be public behind a wall.”
[Note: The author of this timeline wrote the above article for The Atlantic prior to joining the Project On Government Oversight.]
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“The message from the top has been to withhold information from Congress, the public, and the press, even as President Trump has simultaneously taken inappropriate steps to politicize the military. Certainly, we must always be mindful of the need to protect sensitive national security information, and we have long invested in crucial efforts—such as the classification system—in order to safeguard it. But the Trump administration’s actions have gone far beyond the proper balance, in ways that do not serve the public interest,” Smith wrote.
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“Pentagon leaders nine months ago ordered a sharp clampdown on public appearances by senior U.S. military leaders and senior civilian Trump administration appointees, limits that have kept them largely out of sight — and out of trouble with President Trump.”
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Mattis leaves his position as secretary of defense.
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A U.S.-led coalition ends its 52 month trend of disclosing details of airstrikes in Iraq and Syria.
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“The Defense Department has quietly halted its practice of issuing detailed ‘strike releases,’ periodic reports that provided information about bombings targeting Islamic State fighters, buildings, and equipment in Iraq and Syria.
“The change comes as the U.S. military has ramped up its bombing offensive against ISIS in eastern Syria following President Donald Trump’s surprise announcement of a troop withdrawal last month. While many of the U.S.-led coalition’s actions against ISIS were shrouded in secrecy, the strike releases, which the military has been issuing since the start of the campaign against ISIS in 2014, were valuable tools for watchdogs that work to corroborate reports of civilian casualties.”
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“For the first time in years, the Department of Defense has denied a request to declassify the current size of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile.
“‘After careful consideration… it was determined that the requested information cannot be declassified at this time,’ wrote Andrew P. Weston-Dawkes of the Department of Energy in a letter conveying the DoD decision not to disclose the number of warheads in the U.S. arsenal at the end of Fiscal Year 2018 or the number that had been dismantled.
“The Federation of American Scientists had sought declassification of the latest stockpile figures in an October 1, 2018 petition. It is this request that was denied.”
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Mark Esper is confirmed as secretary of defense.
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“Based on direction from Secretary of Defense Mark T. Esper for departmental leaders to more actively engage with the public, I strongly encourage you, as the foremost experts in your areas of responsibility, to seek out engagement on policies and operations in your domains through formal and informal channels.”
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“After Mattis’s confirmation, he quickly released a cascade of guidance about military openness that, as [Lara] Seligman writes, curtailed ‘the release of information,‘ chided ‘officers he saw as divulging too much information,’ scaled back the number and composition of reporters invited on his official travel, and saw a decline in both on- and off-camera briefings. But the changes were bigger and broader than that. He put out a new rule that the Joint Chiefs of Staff should limit appearances together.”
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