Who did New York Times reporter William J. Broad turn to for expert advice on the implications of the release of a document showing the locations of nuclear material in the United States? None other than John Deutch: “These screw-ups happen,” said John M. Deutch, a former director of central intelligence and deputy secretary of defense who is now a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “It’s going further than I would have gone but doesn’t look like a serious breach.” Saying that this went further than Deutch would himself have gone is saying a lot. Deutch doesn’t exactly have a sterling record when it comes to handling classified information. Government investigators discovered in 2000 that Deutch kept a journal containing classified information from his work at the Pentagon and CIA. A Times article in October 2000 said that investigators wrote that “Dr. Deutch was known to transport these floppy disks in his shirt pocket.” He reportedly would take them home and work on them on an unsecured home computer. Investigators had difficulty locating all of the disks that contained classified information. Fortunately for Mr. Deutch, President Clinton pardoned him on his last day in office in 2001 just as he was about to negotiate a plea agreement with prosecutors. Mr. Broad may want to look elsewhere for expert analysis in the future.
