Learning to Keep a Secret

What was lost in Iran, and why it won't happen again

After the cheering stops over the return of the hostages from Iran, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee plans to open hearings later this month to determine the lessons that the U.S. should learn from the crisis. Sooner or later, questions will be raised about what vital intelligence secrets were lost and how such breaches of security can be avoided in the future.

Some of the answers have been pieced together by U.S. officials with the help of information supplied by the hostages during their debriefings. It has been confirmed that as the...