From WNYC in New York, this is NPR's On the Media. I'm Brooke Gladstone.

And I'm Bob Garfield. In an internal memo released to Congress this week,

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld invade against leaks to the press.

He said they cost the lives of Americans and diminished, quote,

our country's chance for success in the war on terror.

Rumsfeld's memo followed reports in the New York Times, written by Eric Schmidt,

that outlined in surprising detail plans for a future U.S. invasion of Iraq.

We're joined by Scott Armstrong, founder of the National Security Archive,

and occasional OTM leakologists.

Scott, welcome back to the show.

It's good to be here, Bob.

All right, you've seen Secretary Rumsfeld's July 12th memo.

What do you make of it?

July 12th, Rumsfeld is sending around to his senior staff.

A reminder to get your people under control, the classified information is not

to be leaked, the impact of leaks can have major consequences.

It was attached to a CIA memo that was written in the middle of June, which he'd seen

in the middle of June.

That memo dealt with Al-Qaeda and the fact that Al-Qaeda makes use of information it reads

in the press and defeating counterterrorism and counterintelligence activities of the government,

if that had been the critical point, it would have been circulated by Rumsfeld in the middle of June.

It wasn't. It was in the middle of July, and it was because of that Schmidt article

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