Web Site Publishes Secret Cia Briefing

A private Web site has published a secret CIA overview of the U.S. intelligence community prepared for Japanese intelligence officials visiting the agency’s headquarters in 1998.

The briefing containing information on CIA budgets and personnel trends was posted by John Young, 64, a New York City architect whose Web site has displayed government documents on intelligence and encryption issues since 1996.

Last month, Young published an unedited version of a secret history of the 1953 CIA-mastered coup in Iran that was originally published on The New York Times Web site with portions blacked out.

Young said he received the 1998 CIA briefing by e-mail from an anonymous source in Japan.

An unnamed senior intelligence official quoted in today’s Washington Post said official visitors from the Japanese agency were authorized to receive the secret briefing at CIA headquarters in June 1998.

“Public disclosure of that information is troubling,” the official said. “In terms of the information, it is not insignificant. We’re always concerned when classified information is disclosed publicly.”