Elon Musk’s DOGE Posts Classified Data On Its New Website | EUROtoday

WASHINGTON — Elon Musk’s group on the so-called Department of Government Efficiency has posted categorized details about the dimensions and employees of a U.S. intelligence company on its new web site, elevating greater issues about the place Musk’s programmers received this info and what they’re doing with it.

DOGE, which President Donald Trump created to purportedly root out waste within the federal authorities, launched its web site on Wednesday evening with a characteristic permitting customers to “trace your tax dollars through the bureaucracy.” People can navigate by means of all federal businesses and places of work for particulars about their head counts, budgets and common ages of workers.

The web site states in tiny print on the backside that its database excludes info from U.S. intelligence businesses.

But a simple search exhibits that DOGE’s database gives particulars on the National Reconnaissance Office, the federal company that designs, builds and maintains U.S. intelligence satellites. Not solely are NRO’s budgets and head counts categorized, however the prospect of Musk’s tech group meddling in delicate personnel info is setting off alarms for some within the intelligence group.

“DOGE just posted secret NOFORN info on their website about [intelligence community] headcount, so currently people are scrambling to check if their info has been accessed,” stated one Defense Intelligence Agency worker, who requested anonymity to keep away from retaliation from senior leaders.

NOFORN stands for “Not Releasable to Foreign Nationals,” which means info on this class can’t be shared with any international governments, worldwide organizations or international nationals with out particular authorization.

NRO seems to be the one intelligence company with its information publicly obtainable on DOGE’s web site. The U.S. intelligence group consists of 18 organizations, and HuffPost searched DOGE’s web site for particulars on all of them. None of the others had any information.

Musk can’t declare he wasn’t conscious that the National Reconnaissance Office is among the nation’s intelligence businesses. His firm, SpaceX, has a $1.8 billion contract with NRO to construct lots of of spy satellites.

Two Senate aides who work on intelligence issues confirmed that NRO’s headcount and price range are categorized, although they famous there have been debates inside the intelligence group as as to if they need to be. The cause to maintain this info non-public in any respect, they stated, is as a result of international adversaries might use it to extrapolate how a lot the U.S. is prioritizing sure intelligence actions.

Nonetheless, DOGE sharing this info “is absolutely a problem under the current intelligence standards,” stated one of many Senate aides.

And the actual concern is that Musk’s surrogates are bumbling round in categorized applications. “These 25-year-old programmers, I don’t think they have enough experience to know what they don’t know,” stated this aide. “Really, the question is: Where did they get this information and what are they doing with it?”

A spokesperson for the National Reconnaissance Office punted questions on this again to DOGE.

“We defer to the Department of Government Efficiency for comment on the release of information posted on DOGE.gov,” stated the spokesperson.

Hours after this story printed, a White House spokesperson stated in a press release that DOGE didn’t share categorized info ― at the same time as NRO’s categorized info was nonetheless accessible on DOGE’s web site.

“DOGE did not share classified information, any assertion to the contrary is a lie,” stated the spokesperson. “Yesterday the accusation was DOGE was not transparent and today the accusation is DOGE is too transparent. Stop the fearmongering, DOGE’s mission remains to cut waste, fraud, and abuse and are doing so with the proper security clearances and following the law.”