Opinion: The revolving door access to state secrets has to end

Editor’s Note: Brett Bruen is the president of the crisis communications agency the Global Situation Room, Inc and teaches crisis communications at Georgetown University. He was the director of global engagement in the Obama White House and an American diplomat in Ivory Coast, Venezuela, Iraq and Madagascar. The views expressed here are his own. Read more opinion on CNN.

CNN
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Oops … we did it again. The US national security team is once more ignominiously living out the line made famous by pop star Britney Spears after finding itself back in the uncomfortable position of watching state secrets ping-pong around the internet. As a veteran of the National Security Council and State Department, I have a couple of ideas about what we need to change to get Spears’ song off repeat.

We don’t have all the details yet about how and which highly classified Pentagon intelligence reports found their way to social media this time. But the FBI on Thursday arrested a Massachusetts Air National Guard member who allegedly ran a social media group where the information was posted. Officials familiar with the situation have told CNN that the leaked documents appear to be part of a daily intelligence briefing prepared for top Pentagon leaders.

The Pentagon has already started taking steps to limit the number of people who have access to such sensitive information. But much more can be done. Beyond this particular case and its apparent origins with a member of a reserve unit in the military, another vulnerability looms. Why do so many people, especially those working short stints in government, have access to information that can shape the fate of nations and their leaders?

Many times before, it’s been contract workers responsible for significant leaks. Whatever other steps are taken, the Biden administration must not miss the opportunity to close this loophole as well and shut the revolving door of access to our most sensitive secrets.

Twenty years ago, the War on Terror led to a massive expansion in the use of contractors in sensitive positions across our government, from translators to intelligence analysts. We needed to rapidly ramp up our response to the terrorist threat and staff operations across two battle zones, and it was faster and easier in many cases to hire…