Tag: leaks

Obama’s crackdown views leaks as aiding enemies of U.S.

President Barack Obama’s unprecedented initiative, known as the Insider Threat Program, is sweeping in its reach. It has received scant public attention even though it extends beyond the U.S. national security bureaucracies to most federal departments and agencies nationwide, including the Peace Corps, the Social Security Administration and the Education and Agriculture departments. It emphasizes leaks of classified material, but catchall definitions of “insider threat” give agencies latitude to pursue and penalize a range of other conduct.

Government documents reviewed by McClatchy illustrate how some agencies are using that latitude to pursue unauthorized disclosures of any information, not just classified material. They also show how millions of federal employeees and contractors must watch for “high-risk persons or behaviors” among co-workers and could face penalties, including criminal charges, for failing to report them. Leaks to the media are equated with espionage.

“Hammer this fact home . . . leaking is tantamount to aiding the enemies of the United States,” says a June 1, 2012, Defense Department strategy for the program that was obtained by McClatchy.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/201…

Maybe Obama could hire Kos to ferret out any liberals.  

Even if Markos is unwilling, shouldn’t be too hard to spot any employees that seem in urgent need of taking a leak.

Best,  Terry  

Is Glenn Greenwald endangering America?

To listen to U.S. security officials, the columnist who revealed secret surveillance by the U.S. National Security Administration has exposed to terrorists the methods that the American government uses to prevent attacks.

Greenwald rejected and took issue with that argument in an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Monday.

“I think that suggestion is so ludicrous that it’s actually an insult to the intelligence of the people at whom it’s directed,” he told Amanpour from Hong Kong, where the man who leaked intelligence on the NSA program is in self-imposed exile.

“Any terrorist that’s unaware that the government wants to [spy on them],” Greenwald said, “is a terrorist incapable of writing his own name, let alone detonating a bomb successfully on American soil.”

That has to be the stupidest question asked in the week since the revelations at the extent of the NSA spying on Americans was revelled by the Guardian and the Washington Post.   How is holding government accountable for its actions endangering anyone?   What gives the present administration the right to continue the subversion of the 4th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution? Absolutely nothing.  Yet because these programs where conceived under the Bush administration  and no President feels the need to abrogate a power once enshrined they felt the need to data mine every Americans telephone calls and e-mails.  You never know that recipe for apple pie could literally be a killer.    

After the seizure of AP’s phone records, we ask if the US is still the land of the free for journalists and sources.

On May 10th, the Associated Press news agency received an email from the US Department of Justice saying that records of more than 20 phone lines assigned to its reporters had been secretly seized as part of an investigation into a government leak.

The government claimed it was a matter of national security, while the AP called it an unprecedented intrusion into its newsgathering operations. But should the journalistic community be so surprised? With the Obama White House’s track record on whistleblowers and WikiLeaks, the move to spy on AP seems consistent with an administration more committed to secrecy than ever before.

The United States is really starting to act like those one party democracies which are so abundant here in Asia.  In those countries the governments use national security laws, which like the USA Patriot Act are so broad in there scope that anyone can be prosecuted under them.   Singapore and Malaysia are prime examples of this.  While South Korea my have elections and governments change one can still be arrested and prosecuted for simply  reposting tweets from North Korea’s official account all done using sarcasm.    

Originally posted at Polizeros.com

Bloggers like Bob Morris of Polizeros have pointed out that even some who are typically rebellious in their rhetoric are condemning Julian Assange (while there are people like Jonah Goldberg and Chuck Schumer calling for his head), so I think it’s worth pointing out how historically important Assange (and Wikileaks, of course) could be.  With the caveat that we have all yet to see the effects of what Wikileaks is doing, he has the potential to play two essential and complementary roles: radical anti-authoritarian and someone who makes it safe for others to voice similar opinions.