Even when defense and intelligence operations are shrouded in extreme secrecy, a former top government press official said the mission should never change: to inform, educate and, when necessary, protect lives.

During his service as chief spokesperson at the CIA and Pentagon, George Little told the National Press Foundation Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellowship that the obligation was often put to the test – in the extreme.

At the CIA, Little’s tenure coincided with: the deadly raid on Osama bin Laden’s hideout in Pakistan; the agency’s so-called enhanced prisoner interrogation program; and the wind-down of the war in Iraq.

“I truly do believe that the role that the press plays in our system is foundational and essential, and I always thought that even during the tough moments when I was in government,” Little said.

“On the one hand, I saw my job as to inform. In other cases I saw my job as to protect, especially when it came to classified information.”

Little acknowledged the government’s tendency to over-classify information. But during “sensitive operations, when lives were at stake, I really felt a heavy burden early on to help protect lives.”

“Whether it was the lives of CIA officers or our assets, those who we recruit to work against their own countries to provide us information and to keep us safe, (or) if it were at the Pentagon dealing with sensitive military operations…”

Little described perhaps the greatest test of his tenure as the days leading to the secret assault on bin Laden’s compound.

Little said he and a tight circle of CIA colleagues spent months preparing for the public response to the raid, separate packages that included 33 pages detailing a successful operation and 33 pages for “complete and unadulterated failure.”

As the May 1, 2011 operation approached, the pressure to maintain secrecy only mounted, as Little said that even his family was not aware of the work that kept him at the CIA late into the night.

“I was not very popular at home,” Little said, adding that he developed a cover story for why he was a no-show at a child’s school events.

There was even more anxiety that a leak might find its way to the press.

Little said he had considered such a scenario, suggesting he was prepared, nonetheless, with offers of exclusives with key players in the raid in exchange for a promise to maintain the operation’s integrity.

What deals was he considering?

“Any and all. Any and all. Any and all.”

Access the full transcript here.