Reminds me of a film “The Fourth Protocol” in which a British Minister in his zeal to fight the Communists gives TS material to South African Intelligence. The problem is that the guy was working for the KGB and all the info wound up at Dzerzhinsky Square.
And I think that sums it up... on a purely pragmatic level.
But it remains morally reprehensible.
That sounds very much like the reason Jonathon Pollard is still serving a life sentence for passing US secrets about Arab order of battle information to Israel back in the ‘80s. His defenders, of which I am not one, claim he was only helping an ally, however he compromised US security and violated his oath. There was talk that the info passed to the Israelis fell into Soviet hands due to leaks in their security services.
During the same era a naval analyst by the name of Morrison, from a family of distinguished historians, sold a satellite photo of a Soviet aircraft carrier under construction to Jane’s Defense Weekly, it was the cover photo one week.
I remember that he too was prosecuted though I don’t recall his punishment.
People entrusted with secret information have no business deciding for themselves what to do with it if no other reason that they may compromise methods and reveal capabilities by doing so.
Thanks for bringing up “The Fourth Protocol”.
I’d forgotten the name of that movie...but it sure did influence
the way I feel about government operatives that decide they are
suddenly the owners and dispensors of state secrets.
They are the “loose cannons” that need to be securly stowed away...
behind bars.