Pentagon Documents Are a 'Controlled Leak,' Says Former CIA Analyst Larry Johnson

A former CIA analyst claims that the leak of the Pentagon documents was deliberate — a “controlled leak” — says Larry Johnson. If that name is familiar, you might recall the role played by Johnson in the Valerie Plame affair. Plame was a CIA analyst married to an American diplomat, Joe Wilson whose covert cover was blown by the Bush White House leading to the conviction of Scooter Libby.

Johnson may not be the best source to talk about the Pentagon document leak, but he appeared on Judging Freedom with host Andrew Napolitano and spun a fantastical tale of information being strategically leaked to prepare the American public for “the crash landing that’s going to take place with respect to U.S. foreign policy.”

This is a coordinated media strategy, this is a disinformation campaign. The documents are real. I’m not saying the documents are fabrications, they are not. But this cover story that’s been manufactured to explain how these documents came to be produced, it just falls apart. It simply falls apart based on one document, which is listed as “CIA Operations Center Report: Top Secret.” I worked in the CIA operations center, and I helped prepare those reports, that’s an internal CIA document. No one on a U.S. military base anywhere in the world will have access to that kind of document.

👀 Former CIA Officer Larry Johnson Says the Leaked Pentagon Documents are a 'Controlled Leak'

"This is a coordinated media strategy, this is a disinformation campaign. The documents are real. I’m not saying the documents are fabrications, they are not. But this cover story… pic.twitter.com/Uw8NQ9uL9T

— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) April 14, 2023

While Johnson no doubt has some sources in intelligence, he left government work in 1993. He became a cable news go-to guy for all matters related to intelligence and defense, but 25 years on, I question how much he’s still in the know given he hasn’t handled classified information in 30 years.

But Johnson’s self-promotion took a hit in July 2001 — two months before the September 11 attacks on America — when he penned an op-ed in the New York Times titled “The Declining Terror Threat.”

Judging from news reports and the portrayal of villains in our popular entertainment, Americans are bedeviled by fantasies about terrorism. They seem to believe that terrorism is the greatest threat to the United States and that it is becoming more widespread and lethal. They are likely to think that the United States is the most popular target of terrorists. And they almost certainly have the impression that extremist Islamic groups cause most terrorism

At the time, Johnson may have been at least partially correct. Saying America was “bedeviled by fantasies about terrorism” was a gross exaggeration, but the facts were accurate — until 9/11. As we discovered after that date, the terror threat rose exponentially as every terrorist Bin Laden wannabe wanted to attack the U.S.

Johnson believes this latest leak is a deliberate effort to prepare the American people for a foreign policy blow up.

Some are embarrassed and horrified by it, but the strategy that is underway is the information was leaked for [a purpose], to prepare the U.S. public for the crash landing that’s going to take place with respect to U.S. foreign policy. The crash landing in Ukraine, in China, the fact we’re already seeing elements–

“Prepare the U.S. public”? For what? Ukraine’s defeat? Chinese military invasion of Taiwan? The “U.S. public” doesn’t care. And I daresay that after already supplying Ukraine with $80 billion tax dollars to fight the Russians with more to come, Joe Biden is not going to give up easily. And neither are the Ukrainians. They are fighting like hell in the tiny, strategically insignificant hamlet of Bakhmut to show the Russians they aren’t going to give an inch.

In short, there’s nothing to prepare the U.S. public for.

Johnson is right that the provenance of the leak strains credulity.

And I’m not basing that on what happened to me 40 years ago… I worked in SCIFs and I still have friends who do… None of them have seen anything like this, particularly that CIA Operations Center document, or the FISA document… This thing is too tidy a package, this has been wrapped up nice and neatly, this is like an episode of “Law And Order.”

But there are other explanations for this “tidy package,” including the notion that Jack Teixeira was being manipulated by someone else. Whatever story the young airman is spilling to the FBI and counterintelligence will make great reading someday.

But given Johnson’s history of exaggerations and incorrect conclusions, it’s best to follow Occam’s Razor and take the simplest explanation with the fewest assumptions as the probable truth.