Limit access to most secret US documents, says Senate intel panel head
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Senator Mark Warner said that not everyone handling a document needs to see the whole document.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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WASHINGTON – Too many people have access to the United States government’s closest secrets and a central entity should oversee the classification process, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee said on Sunday, addressing leaks of documents in an online chat group.
A US Air National Guardsman was charged on April 14
Senator Mark Warner, a Democrat, told ABC News that “once we get to that highest level of classification, we maybe have too many folks taking a look at them, over four million people with clearances”.
The Virginia senator’s powerful position gives weight to his recommendations as President Joe Biden’s administration examines the handling of intelligence and looks for ways to clamp down on future leaks.
The US has numerous intelligence gathering entities, and Mr Warner said the situation needed to be dealt with.
“We need somebody fully in charge of the whole classification process and I think for those classified documents there ought to be a smaller universe,” he added.
As an example, Mr Warner said the National Security Agency has suffered leaks in the past and internal controls limit the copying of documents.
The Pentagon has called the latest leak a “deliberate, criminal act”.
Mr Warner also said that not everyone handling a document needs to see the whole document, and that just seeing the header could be enough. REUTERS
