Inside the Ring

Mr. Barstow said in an e-mail that he did not want to comment specifically but noted that the Times’ public editor, Clark Hoyt, found the IG report to be “highly flawed.”

“Many others have noted significant errors, or even branded it a ‘whitewash,’ ” Mr. Barstow said. “They have pointed out, for example, that the report erroneously identified Gen. McCaffrey as having no ties to any defense contractors.”

Retired Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey, an NBC analyst, runs his own defense-consulting business.

The IG report listed Gen. McCaffrey as one of the analysts who had “no direct affiliation with defense contractors.”

“[I] suggest the New York Times should not have allowed Barstow to selectively mine the DoD IG report to defend his articles - and again attack me,” Gen. McCaffrey said. “How could he not mention sworn testimony from a senior defense official that noted DoD anger at my criticism of Rumsfeld and the Pentagon? All of America expects excellence from the New York Times. This article today by Barstow is journalism which lacks integrity.”

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates suspended the briefings after the Times’ first story appeared.

Said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman: “I’m certain the new public-affairs leadership will want the opportunity to review this program before making any determinations about its future.”

China cyberwarfare

The U.S. government’s most senior counterintelligence coordinator warned recently that China is among the most aggressive nations involved in attacking U.S. government and private-sector computers.

Joel F. Brenner, the national counterintelligence executive, disclosed in a speech April 3 that the problem of foreign cyber attacks and spying is growing.

“Counterintelligence used to be a challenge for the FBI, CIA and the military,” Mr. Brenner told a meeting of the Applied Research Laboratories at the University of Texas at Austin.

“Now it’s a challenge for every private firm that lives on a network - which means all of them.”

Mr. Brenner then listed several examples of what he termed the real threats faced by security specialists.

In one case a U.S. company held negotiations with the Chinese “only to realize midway through that the Chinese know every one of their bottom line positions as a result of having hacked their network.”

Another case involved a U.S. security expert who traveled to Beijing and shortly after turning on his personal digital assistant found that by the time he reached his hotel that “a handful of beacons” or tracking software had been remotely inserted into the device.

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