
This Really is Big Brother: The Leak Nobody's Noticed - kelnos
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com.br/2013/06/this-really-is-big-brother-leak-nobodys.html
======
droithomme
These requirements for pairing and that everyone working in sensitive
intelligence work will now have to spy and tattle on their fellow workers is
interesting in that it includes the Peace Corps in the directive. Peace Corps
being added to the list of organizations that have to spy on each other for
disclosure of classified information is interesting since in 1996 the white
house announced that the CIA had not been using the Peace Corp for spying for
over 20 years. Currently the Peace Corps requires applicants to promise they
have never worked for the CIA. Not the NSA though, other intelligence
agencies, or subcontractors of the CIA. Just directly for the CIA.

[http://www.peacecorps.gov/jobs/workingpc/eligibility/](http://www.peacecorps.gov/jobs/workingpc/eligibility/)

[http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Peace_Corps](http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Peace_Corps)

[http://clinton6.nara.gov/1996/07/1996-07-17-press-
briefing-b...](http://clinton6.nara.gov/1996/07/1996-07-17-press-briefing-by-
mike-mccurry.html)

Peace Corps being a front for US military and intelligence operations has been
called a myth, but including them in this directive about classified
information is going to smash the claim this is really a myth.

~~~
hga
When I see _the freaking Education Department_ on the same list I have to
wonder if something else isn't going on. Where is national security implicated
there? For that matter, the Social Security Administration?

Now, there's good reason to suppress certain types of leaks from those
organizations, they have a lot of private data on Americans (Obamacare put all
government guaranteed etc. student loans going forward into the government,
and a quick skim of Wikipedia
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student_loans_in_the_United_Sta...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student_loans_in_the_United_States))
indicates the DoEducation is naturally involved).

But that's not been a problem as long as I can remember, so I somehow doubt
that's the intention of this insanely broad program. As I've mentioned in
other akin discussions, I remember Nixon, and this feels like Nixon to the Nth
degree.

~~~
moens
Its important to understand that from _some people 's perspective,_ the whole
point of Federally funded education is indoctrination. In which case it would
be very important to identify those who are, "frustrat[ed] with co-workers or
the organization."

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alan_cx
Another example of authority protecting itself by invoking national security
scares, patriotism, etc.

Quite disgusting that the idea of outing internal wrong doing or failure is
some how helping enemies. Its not the outing that helps enemies, its the wrong
doing that help enemies.

Besides, "what has the government got to hide"...... Yeah, fecking loads, just
like we all have!!!! Difference is, we individuals have the right to make
mistakes and, well, be human, but when a government does it, it has no right
to hide. None.

Whistle blowing IS a duty, NOT treason. Treating decent citizens as the enemy
is treason. In a "democracy", the people are the country, not the government.

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olefoo
This is a very chilling article. One element of the fallout of Snowden's
escapade will be that private industry will be required to participate in and
be a part of the same security policies; and this will be true of companies of
all sizes and in all industries.

Right now you think of responsible positions dealing directly with mission
critical information as being those where a security clearance is required.
But if this trend continues it will soon be hard to find ANY job that pays
reasonable wages and does not require a security clearance. Hotel maids,
busboys, janitors on up the scale.

And let's be clear; this would be welcomed by many employers because it
provides legitimacy to a whole panoply of abusive practices.

It will also have other subtle chilling effects on our ability to innovate as
a country. Does your startup make technology with security implications or
applications? Are you going to turn down a meeting from In-Q-Tel? If you take
a contract to supply data management tools to the DOE, and one of the
conditions is that people on the project must have some specific level of
background check? You can pass a background check now; but what if they
interview someone who hates you? Or worse, if the person who is conducting and
grading the background check wants to fail you; with career ending
consequences if they succeed...

This is a very ugly thing that is loose and growing now; it will touch each
and every one of us who is actively involved in the economic life of America.

~~~
pekk
You have missed it, but private industry was already required to participate
in governmental security policies long ago, when we began to privatize
intelligence work to companies like Booz Allen. It shouldn't be surprising
that the government will make compliance to its security policies a condition
of this kind of contracting.

I don't see any reason to think that random maids at La Quinta in Little Rock,
AR are going to need security clearances.

~~~
olefoo
The point I was trying to make is that there are some powerful forces that
will drive the expansion of "security culture" far beyond what seems
reasonable to us now.

The .gov has always required contractors working on sensitive matters to have
clearances. But the point I'm focussing on is the broad expansion of what
qualifies as "security sensitive information".

And maids have physical access to rooms where people may be storing both
personal, corporate and government information; it's easy to imagine someone
making an argument that they should be subject to a criminal records check and
possibly more stringent requirements for the luxury suites...

Especially since the security process gives management extreme leverage in
labor negotiations and ensures that there is an absolute power imbalance
between employees and employers.

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mtgx
This started since Wikileaks. Remember when they wouldn't allow government
employees to even read Wikileaks-related articles on Facebook, and risked
being fired if they were sharing them?

[http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/05/world/05restrict.html?_r=0](http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/05/world/05restrict.html?_r=0)

How is he able to say that info is _still_ classified after it was made
public? I thought that once a classified document is leaked to the press and
made public, it becomes public knowledge and can't be called classified
anymore. Did that law change in the past few years or something?

~~~
wheaties
No, absolutely the opposite. Only way a classified document becomes
unclassified is when they say it's unclassified. In fact, often times they
can't even say something that is classified is classified. You're just
supposed to report it to your security officer and then they send it up the
chain of command. If you have the ability to yank it down, you do.

------
hga
I wouldn't say _nobody_ has noticed, the right of center blogs I follow or
maybe Drudge linked to this. Those of you who follow the MSM can tell us if
it's getting any coverage there.

Side note: you really know this is out of hand when the _Department of
Education_ has such a program. _Really_ hard to see any national security
implications of leaking there....

~~~
t0dd
It's all quite surreal, isn't it? At least people seem to be waking up. Bravo
to HN for keeping up the coverage and not letting these outrageous revelations
fade to a whimper.

~~~
hga
Surreal? Perhaps.

For me, it reifies all I learned Nth hand about things like The Big Lie.
Growing up and studying WWII history I had to accept that it worked, but I
never really understood _how_ until ... hmmm, went to college in 1979,
read/skimmed the _Boston Globe_ that my student group had a subscription to
and e.g. saw how much it lied through omission. The 21st Century has taken
this to the Nth degree in the US.

That was when I switched to really detailed study of the Protracted Conflict
(the Bolsheviks vs. the world) and it was e.g. easy to understand what the big
deal about revolutionary truth vs. bourgeois truth was about.

------
ada1981
<< A Defense Security Service online pamphlet lists a wide range of
“reportable” suspicious behaviors, including working outside of normal duty
hours. >>

Certainly the _only_ plausible explanation that salaried gov employees are
working overtime is that they are spies -- at least we can all agree on this.

------
zipfle
It seems like the more draconian and restrictive the rules for TLA employees
get, the more TLA work ends up getting done by outside contractors whose chief
qualification to do it is that they aren't bound by stifling TLA restrictions.

------
t0dd
Unquestionably disturbing. Imagine what hasn't been revealed to us yet.

------
wheaties
what's the old wives tail go? Throw a frog in boiling water and he'll jump
right out. Put the same frog in a pot but slowly raise the temperature and
he'll boil. Slowly and surely they'll attempt to chip away at our rights for
our own protection in a misguided attempt to make their lives and duties
easier to perform.

~~~
hobs
Also, a frog is smart enough to jump out of the water irl.

------
newsmaster
The world is turning to shit.

~~~
lignuist
It already happened, but now people are starting to recognize the smell.

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btilly
The worst bit is the one that says that you are supposed to turn yourself and
others in for failing to report reasonable suspicions.

Let loose a directive like that in a large bureaucracy, and the guaranteed
result is a lot of CYA behavior. Which, ironically, will lessen how much
information flows.

~~~
jotaass
That's exactly the environment in my country in the 40's to mid 70's. You were
obliged to inform the state of suspicious activities of your fellow citizens
(things like reading the wrong sort of books or indulging in private
gatherings) and were promptly compensated when you did so, whether you were
being truthful or just really didn't like your neighbor. The infamous PIDE
(secret police) is considered one of the most effective police forces in
history, partially because of these sorts of tactics and how they managed to
creep their way into every aspect of society. This is not something I'm proud
to be associated with our history.

Of course that was dictatorship era Portugal. More than 40 years ago. I wasn't
even born. But things have a way to come around again, one way or another,
when we let ourselves get too comfortable and forget history or just trust too
much on the competence of others.

------
discountgenius
> “If this is done correctly, an organization can get to a person who is
> having personal issues or problems that if not addressed by a variety of
> social means may lead that individual to violence, theft or espionage before
> it even gets to that point,” said a senior Pentagon official, who requested
> anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to discuss the issue publicly.

Looks like there's some senior Pentagon officials who have a peer they can
snitch on.

------
e3pi
>“Hammer this fact home, ...punish those who fail to report their security
suspicions"

Not Gotwin, but STASI Law. Here, today, is mom's good ol' apple pie USA.

------
websitescenes
I see a propoganda machine at work. As far as I'm concerned, Obama is still
the best president we have had in my adult life. He makes decisions based on
reason and not belief. This is bad for politics as usual and this is why this
slander campaign exists. Obama is not communist, Muslim, a dictator or
anything like that. I am really surprised that even hacker news readers are
being infected by right wing propoganda. When did it become cool to be a
conservative? Please don't let fear enable an abandonement of logic. I operate
off of proof and bottom line is, most of the allegations against Obama cannot
be proven with facts but only hearsay. What I see is logical people being
turned into the sheep they once despised.

~~~
crgt
Do you see the 4th Amendment in tatters? Is that the propaganda machine at
work? It seems like there's plenty of blame for both sides of the aisle and
blindly defending the Administration with platitudes seems counterproductive.

~~~
websitescenes
The constitution has been in trouble for a long time. There has been a
consistent degradation. Obama absolutely did not set these programs into
motion, most of these secret programs are relics from the war on terror that
fear enabled. Do I see a degradation in the 4th? Sure as hell I have but it's
been happening for a long time. Now your pissed about it because the media
tells you so. This is the right wing fear factory at work.

~~~
crgt
Some people have been upset for awhile, and many of them now see the potential
for change given the increased visibility of the issues. Personally, I'm not
angry because of what the media tells me. If anything, I'm more frustrated
with what they don't report. But mostly I'm frustrated because our government
seems comfortable disregarding our rights at will. That's not a partisan
issue, nor is it the media hype factory at work. Framing it as such is deeply
counterproductive.

~~~
websitescenes
I agree with your sentiments but to not recognize that there are political
agendas at work is not only counterproductive but also extremely naive.

