, Columnist
Democracies Should Trust But Verify
Citizens deserve more public facts about intelligence judgments used to justify decisions on war and peace.
Let him give more answers.
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On Monday, U.S. and U.K. law enforcement agencies issued a rare joint warning to businesses to keep their routers safe from "Russian state-sponsored actors." Most will take precautions and not question the information. And yet, because live in democracies, it's worth asking the question: How do these agencies know this?
Evidentiary standards for government narratives concerning everything from cybersecurity to Syria have deteriorated so much that Western democracies are giving their citizens almost as little useful information on matters of national security as the Russian regime's notorious propaganda machine gives Russian citizens. That is not only insulting to the public, it's also dangerous in a democracy.