Page 2 - aruba-today-20220509

A2 UP FRONT
Monday 9 May 2022

Continued from Front anonymous for about two director of the private Proj-
The Trump era provided years after he wrote an ect on Government Over-
almost an entire genre. opinion piece and subse- sight. "It ranks, certainly,
Among them: an un- quent book slamming the with the Pentagon Papers
identified whistleblower's president. and Wikileaks and Deep
complaint about Donald The Supreme Court leak is Throat."
Trump's phone call with "up there with the most im- While leaks spout daily in
the president of Ukraine portant disclosures of this gossipy Washington, the
and the writings of "Anony- century and the last cen- explosive revelation of a
mous," a senior administra- tury — maybe ever," said draft opinion that would
tion official who only stayed Danielle Brian, executive overturn the 1973 decision

Fawn Hall, former secretary to ousted National Security Council
Lt. Col. Oliver, speaks to reporters outside her lawyers’ office in
Washington on Tuesday, Feb. 24, 1987.
Associated Press

creating a nationwide right doings, there's the dicey
to abortion has captivated matter of digital footprints,
the city. which make it far easier for
The hunt for the high court leak hunters to track down
leaker is afoot. Chief Jus- modern sources of informa-
tice John Roberts has or- tion than it was in the past.
dered an investigation into "The way some sources
what he called an "egre- have been able to main-
gious breach of trust." Ama- tain their anonymity has
teur detectives have been been really impacted by
eagerly trading theories on the age of surveillance and
social media. technology tracking, so it's
Is it even possible to keep possible that we will find out
this kind of secret in Wash- who it is," said Brian, who la-
ington anymore? ments a "reflexive instinct"
"Of course not," said Eric within government to go
Dezenhall, a crisis commu- after leakers and clamp
nications expert who has down on information.
watched decades of leaks Big secrets in Washington
play out in the capital. have a way of eventu-
"Very few people who leak ally coming out, one way
truly just keep it to them- or another. The identity of
selves," Dezenhall said. Deep Throat, the source
"There's always a conversa- who guided Washington
tion that says, 'You have to Post reporters Bob Wood-
swear not to tell anybody ward and Carl Bernstein
this' — and that's the begin- in the Watergate investi-
ning of the end." gation, wasn't known until
He added that there's of- 2005, when a 91-year-old
ten a psychic — and finan- former FBI official, W. Mark
cial — incentive to make Felt, revealed that he was
oneself known as a figure in the one who used to meet
history. the reporters in an under-
"The endgame is a book ground parking garage at
deal, a movie deal, being 2 a.m. to share tips about
on TV," he said. how to unravel wrongdo-
Even when leakers are ing by President Richard
circumspect about their Nixon and his allies. q