You can almost hear Jack Nicholson and his famous line from the movie A Few Good Men: "You can't handle the truth!"
And in this case, the Air Force says the truth is this: a Navy prosecutor got caught spying on the Air Force after sending malware to members of its legal team and to a news organization.
The Air Force Times reports:
The bizarre turn of events stems from a decision by a Navy prosecutor to embed hidden tracking software into emails sent to defense attorneys, including one Air Force lawyer, involved in a high-profile war-crimes case of a Navy SEAL in San Diego.
The Air Force defense lawyer reported the tracking device to his information security manager, who concluded the malware was a “splunk tool,” which allowed the sender of the malware to gain “full access to his computer and all files on his computer,” Navy Capt. David Wilson, chief of staff for the Navy’s Defense Service Offices, wrote in an official memo.
[This is the case of Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher, whose trial is set to start just after Memorial Day weekend.]
And MilitaryTimes.com now reports the case has been delayed because of these revelations, and the defense attorney in the case is asking for the current prosecutors to be recused from the case.
Why in the world would the Navy send malware to the Air Force?
Apparently, it was an effort to capture IP addresses to discover who was leaking information on the Navy SEAL case to the media.
Now, however, there's an issue of trust and a question of how far the Navy's spying efforts have spread. Writes Navy Capt. David Wilson:
As of now, the Navy’s defense bar cannot be certain that the malware unleashed in these cases has been contained rather than passed through-out the Navy and Coast Guard defense services systems—a possibility now under direct investigation by the Air Force.
As our clients learn about these extraordinary events in the media, we are left unarmed with any facts to answer their understandable concerns about our ability to secure the information they must trust us to maintain. The situation has become untenable.
We asked CNN Military Analyst and SecureWorld keynote speaker Col. Cedric Leighton (USAF, Ret.) about the big picture risk that is created by this cyber surveillance.
Here are three dangers he identified.
[RELATED: Col. Cedric Leighton to present at SecureWorld Chicago on June 13]
1. Cyber civil war
"From an ethical standpoint, one government entity inserting malware into the IT systems of another government entity could unleash what amounts to a cyber civil war, with different elements of the government attacking each other in cyberspace instead of in the court room."
2. Breakdown of attorney-client privilege puts case at risk
"The alleged introduction of malware into defense attorney IT networks within both the Navy and the Air Force by Navy prosecutors or investigators is an unprecedented action and raises all kinds of legal and ethical concerns.
It may very well be illegal, since such an action would violate standard attorney-client privileges as well as Constitutional guarantees to a fair trial.
This is a very bad idea that potentially could jeopardize the case against these defendants who, assuming they are not pardoned by the President, are accused of committing very serious crimes in violation of the Law of Armed Conflict and the Uniform Code of Military Justice."
3. Chilling effect on freedom of the press
"Since this effort was designed to stop leaks to the media, it could have the effect of unmasking journalists’ sources, which could have a chilling effect on the Constitutional guarantee of freedom of the press."
At this point, at least one thing is clear: the situation has become both tense and dramatic.
Just like a scene from A Few Good Men.