Last night, the Washington Times’ editor made some sort of mistake—running poorly-researched dime-store fiction in the news section. The article (entitled “Clinton emails contained spy satellite data on North Korean nukes”) works hard to insinuate that Hillary Clinton’s use of personal email somehow compromised information on the movement of North Korean missile material:
“One of the most serious potential breaches of national security identified so far by the intelligence community inside Hillary Rodham Clinton’s private emails involves the relaying of classified information concerning the movement of North Korean nuclear assets, which was obtained from spy satellites.”
Here’s the problem, though. The emails in question have already been reported by the Associated Press and weren’t particularly sensitive—largely because satellite information on North Korea is widely available to reporters from both public and South Korean sources:
8/14/15: The AP reported that neither of the two “Top Secret” emails contained information that would “jump out to experts as particularly sensitive, according to several government officials.”
Sources told the AP the emails got their markings after intelligence community consultations and “some officials said they believed the designations were a stretch.”
In recent years, there have been over a dozen public media reports on North Korean nuclear or missile activity—in which reporters cited intelligence sources, spy satellites, or commercial satellites as their sources:
- New York Times, 2/4/09
- New York Times, 1/18/13
- New York Times, 11/28/12
- 38 North, 12/12/12
- New York Times, 5/22/12
- 38 North, 5/22/12
- New York Times, 3/25/12
- New York Times, 6/12/11
- New York Times, 11/29/10
- Reuters, 10/21/10
- Reuters, 6/17/09
- New York Times, 6/30/09
- New York Times, 5/30/09
- New York Times, 5/27/09
- New York Times, 5/26/09
- Associated Press, 5/8/09
- New York Times, 5/1/09
- New York Times, 3/26/09