After the Trump administration's announcement mandating government-wide training sessions on "the importance of protecting classified and controlled unclassified information" leaked just under a month ago, the courses themselves have started making their way around to various federal agencies. And according to an inter-department announcement leaked to WIRED, the Department of Energy (DOE) is now the latest agency to undergo the one-hour course.
Employees at both the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Health and Human Services have already held the anti-leak classes. In the case of HHS, at least part of the video used in the training session was made publicly available on the department's YouTube account.
These agency-specific courses exist entirely to comply with national security adviser H.R. McMaster's September 8 memo, which was first reported by BuzzFeed News. In the message that went out to "virtually every senior official in the federal government," according to BuzzFeed, McMaster asserted that leaking both classified and controlled unclassified information "causes harm to our Nation and shakes the confidence of the American people." This mirrored what attorney general Jeff Sessions said during his own anti-leak press conference back in August, when he condemned "in the strongest terms the staggering number of leaks undermining the ability of our government to protect this country."
McMaster's original email announcing the government-wide program asked that federal departments and agencies conduct their training the week of September 18 "to ensure a consistent and strong message is given to the entire federal workforce." The Department of Energy seems to be running a bit behind schedule, though. According to the email sent to DOE employees and contractors, staffers will have from October 4 to October 6 to complete the lesson, which has been posted on the DOE website's Online Learning Center.
The one-hour course appears to consist largely of a video that DOE Secretary Rick Perry put in the hands of his deputy, Dan Brouillette. The video itself, according to the announcement, exists "to strengthen our internal behavior as it pertains to protecting classified and sensitive information. This video also includes a message from Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Director of National Intelligence, Dan Coats, reminding us all of our responsibilities to protect and the penalties for the unauthorized disclosure of classified and sensitive information."
This DOE announcement appears to carry on what's fast becoming a Trump administration tradition of conflating leaks of classified information with more routine, perfectly legal disclosures. The first sentence of the announcement alone puts equal emphasis on protecting both "classified and controlled unclassified information." According to one DOE official, who requested anonymity to speak candidly, the Trump administration's campaign to track down and punish any leaker, regardless of the legality of the act, is more likely to encourage leaks than it is to stop them.
"In any defense or national security role, the guarding of classified or otherwise marked information is held sacred by all those who handle it except a small few who willingly ignore their obligations and open this country up to grave danger and risk," said the official. "By and large, the Trump administration is not talking about these types of documents and information, though, referring rather to the details of meetings and conversations amongst staff or decisions therein which are often in no way classified. ... When we try to institute unnecessary fear of leaking with mandatory trainings, arbitrary limited areas, and an inherent distrust of the civil servants who sign up to serve regardless of political affiliation, it only breeds more distrust of leadership and could foster exactly the culture it was supposedly designed to prevent."
We've reached out to the Department of Energy for comment on the leak of its anti-leak training announcement, and will update if and when they respond. You can read the email itself below.
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