Top House Republican: US has gone too far in allowing access to intelligence since 9/11

Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) said Sunday the U.S. has gone too far in disseminating classified information in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, saying it is something that must be revisited after classified defense documents were leaked online in recent months.

“From the 9/11 Commission, we learned that we needed to more widely disseminate classified information so that people had actionable intelligence that they could piece together puzzles,” Turner said on CBS’s “Face The Nation.” “Clearly, we’ve gone too far in where we have an instance where someone in Massachusetts who’s looking at documents with respect to war plans in Ukraine.”

Turner was pointing to Jack Teixeira, the 21-year-old Massachucetts Air National Guardsman who was arrested last week in connection with the leaked information that first appeared in an online gaming community that the man allegedly led. The information showed NATO intelligence about the war in Ukraine.

Turner, who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, said there was no reason for Teixeira to know the type of information he may have had access to in his position in the Air National Guard.

“Clearly he was having access to documents that he should not have had access to, and someone should have been paying attention, tapping him on the shoulder, and ending that access,” Turner said. “There was no need to know for him of the information he was accessing.”

Turner said the House Intelligence Committee would be holding hearings into the leaked information, trying to find which changes need to be made to how information is distributed.

“We’re going to be having hearings on this,” Turner said. “That’s what our committee is gonna be looking at is, how do we make certain we make changes.