Military Documents about US-Mexico Border are Now Classified to Prevent Leaks, Limit Media Coverage

The Defense Department is seeking to stamp out leaks and limit media coverage of military operations at the U.S.-Mexico border by making what historically have been unclassified orders and daily briefings classified, Newsweek has learned. Last week, military officials released operation orders for 2020 which form a new request for assistance, or RFA, from the Department of Homeland Security for continued Pentagon support on the southwest border. While previous requests have been unclassified since U.S. forces first deployed to the U.S.-Mexico border in October 2018, the latest set of orders was disseminated over a secret network called SIPR. The policy shift to classify border documents came from Lieutenant General Laura J. Richardson of the U.S. Army in response to negative news coverage and leaks of border documents under U.S. Army North's previous commander, Lieutenant General Jeffrey S. Buchanan, who retired back in July, according to three Pentagon sources with direct knowledge of the matter. The sources said that verbal commands—versus orders with a paper trail—are more commonplace under Richardson than under Buchanan's tenure...MORE