{"id":28511,"date":"2023-09-15T13:17:22","date_gmt":"2023-09-15T20:17:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=28511"},"modified":"2023-09-15T13:17:24","modified_gmt":"2023-09-15T20:17:24","slug":"pentagon-funded-study-warns-dementia-among-u-s-officials-poses-national-security-threat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2023\/09\/15\/pentagon-funded-study-warns-dementia-among-u-s-officials-poses-national-security-threat\/","title":{"rendered":"PENTAGON-FUNDED STUDY WARNS DEMENTIA AMONG U.S. OFFICIALS POSES NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"WASHINGTON,<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/a><\/a>BECOME
A MEMBER<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., looks on during a news conference with Senate Republicans at the U.S. Capitol on July 26, 2023, in Washington, D.C.\u00a0Photo: Drew Angerer\/Getty Images<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sens. Mitch McConnell and Dianne Feinstein, who have access to top-secret information, recently had public health episodes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ken Klippenstein<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

September 12 2023, 3:17 p.m. (TheIntercept.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AS THE NATIONAL security workforce ages, dementia impacting U.S. officials poses a threat to national security, according to a first-of-its-kind study by a Pentagon-funded think tank. The report, released this spring, came as several prominent U.S. officials trusted with some of the nation\u2019s most highly classified intelligence experienced public lapses, stoking calls for resignations and debate about Washington\u2019s aging leadership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who had a second freezing episode<\/a> last month, enjoys the most privileged access to classified information of anyone in Congress as a member of the so-called Gang of Eight congressional leadership. Ninety-year-old Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., whose decline<\/a> has seen her confused<\/a> about how to vote and experiencing memory lapses \u2014 forgetting conversations<\/a> and not recalling<\/a> a monthslong absence \u2014 was for years a member of the Gang of Eight and remains a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, on which she has served since 2001.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study, published by<\/a> the RAND Corporation\u2019s National Security Research Division in April, identifies individuals with both current and former access to classified material who develop dementia as threats to national security, citing the possibility that they may unwittingly disclose government secrets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIndividuals who hold or held a security clearance and handled classified material could become a security threat if they develop dementia and unwittingly share government secrets,\u201d the study says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MOST READ<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Pentagon-Funded Study Warns Dementia Among U.S. Officials Poses National Security Threat<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As the study notes, there does not appear to be any other publicly available research into dementia, an umbrella term for the loss of cognitive functioning, despite the fact that Americans are living longer than ever before and that the researchers were able to identify several cases in which senior intelligence officials died of Alzheimer\u2019s disease, a progressive brain disorder and the most common cause of dementia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs people live longer and retire later, challenges associated with cognitive impairment in the workplace will need to be addressed,\u201d the report says. \u201cOur limited research suggests this concern is an emerging security blind spot.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

MOST HOLDERS OF security clearances, a ballooning class of officials and other bureaucrats with access to secret government information, are subject to rigorous and invasive vetting procedures. Applying for a clearance can mean hourslong polygraph tests; character interviews with old teachers, friends, and neighbors; and ongoing automated monitoring of their bank accounts and other personal information. As one senior Pentagon official who oversees such a program told me of people who enter the intelligence bureaucracy, \u201cYou basically give up your Fourth Amendment rights.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet, as the authors of the RAND report note, there does not appear to be any vetting for age-related cognitive decline. In fact, the director of national intelligence\u2019s directive on<\/a> continuous evaluation contains no mention of age or cognitive decline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the study doesn\u2019t mention any U.S. officials by name, its timing comes amid a simmering debate about gerontocracy: rule by the elderly. Following McConnell\u2019s first freezing episode, in July, Google searches for the term \u201cgerontocracy\u201d spiked<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe president called to check on me,\u201d McConnell said when asked about the first episode. \u201cI told him I got sandbagged,\u201d he quipped, referring to President Joe Biden\u2019s trip-and-fall incident during a June graduation ceremony at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado, which sparked conservative criticisms about the 80-year-old\u2019s own functioning.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Google Searches for \u201cGerontocracy\u201d Skyrocket After McConnell Episode<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

While likely an attempt by McConnell at deflecting from his lapse, Biden\u2019s age has emerged as a clear concern to voters, including Democrats. Sixty-nine percent of Democrats say Biden is \u201ctoo old to effectively serve\u201d another term, an Associated Press-NORC poll found<\/a> last month. The findings were echoed by a CNN poll<\/a> released last week that found that 67 percent of Democrats said the party should nominate someone else, with 49 percent directly mentioning Biden\u2019s age as their biggest concern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As commander in chief, the president is the nation\u2019s ultimate classification authority, with the extraordinary power to classify and declassify information broadly. No other American has as privileged access to classified information as the president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S.\u2019s current leadership is not only the oldest in history, but also the number of older people in Congress has grown dramatically in recent years. In 1981, only 4 percent of Congress was over the age of 70. By 2022, that number had spiked<\/a> to 23 percent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2017, Vox reported<\/a> that a pharmacist had filled Alzheimer\u2019s prescriptions for multiple members of Congress. With little incentive for an elected official to disclose such an illness, it is difficult to know just how pervasive the problem is. Feinstein\u2019s retinue of staffers have for years sought to conceal her decline, having established a system<\/a> to prevent her from walking the halls of Congress alone and risk having an unsupervised interaction with a reporter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the public controversy, there\u2019s little indication that any officials will resign \u2014 or choose not to seek reelection. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After years of speculation about her retirement, 83-year-old Speaker Emerita Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., stunned observers when she announced on Friday that she would run for reelection, seeking her 19th term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CONTACT THE AUTHOR:<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Ken Klippenstein<\/a>ken.klippenstein@\u200btheintercept.com<\/a>@kenklippenstein<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BECOMEA MEMBER Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., looks on during a news conference with Senate Republicans at the U.S. Capitol on July 26, 2023, in Washington, D.C.\u00a0Photo: Drew Angerer\/Getty Images Sens. Mitch McConnell and Dianne Feinstein, who have access to top-secret information, recently had public health episodes. Ken Klippenstein… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1077,660],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28511"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28511"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28512,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28511\/revisions\/28512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}