Digby: "When the Free Press Becomes Equivalent to an Enemy of the State..."

[Hissyspit]

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com.br/2013/06/this-really-is-big-brother-leak-nobodys.html

This really is Big Brother: the leak nobody's noticed

by digby

This McClatchy piece (written by some of the same people who got the Iraq war run-up story so right while everyone else got it wrong) is as chilling to me as anything we've heard over the past few weeks about the NSA spying. In fact, it may be worse:

Even before a former U.S. intelligence contractor exposed the secret collection of Americans’ phone records, the Obama administration was pressing a government-wide crackdown on security threats that requires federal employees to keep closer tabs on their co-workers and exhorts managers to punish those who fail to report their suspicions.

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 employees 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.

When the free free press, explicitly protected in the bill of rights becomes equivalent to an "enemy of the United States" something very, very bad is happening.

The administration says it's doing this to protect national security and that it is willing to protect those who blow the whistle on waste, fraud and abuse. But that is not how the effect of this sort of program is going to be felt. After all, it's being implemented across the federal government, not just in national security:

MORE[p]

[cali]

1. yeah, this has been posted. glad you posted it again

reminds me of the great quote by the wonderful and brilliant EM Forster in his book of essays "Two Cheers for Democracy":

“If I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend, I hope I should have the guts to betray my country”

This is frightening and disgusting.

What next, children instructed to rat on their parents?

[Fumesucker]

3. They were instructing kids to rat out their parents in the mid to late 80's

That's when my daughter was in grammar school and the DARE program specifically told the kids to inform if they thought their parents might be using "drugs". "We only want to help your parents get the treatment they need." was the rationale given to the kids.

In one generation we went from "Kids informing on their parents is something that happens in the Soviet Union." to "Rat out your parents if they smoke a joint.".

And as we all know now most of the war on drugs was and is bullshit, particularly the part about pot.

[cali]

4. I forgot about that

my kid was in grammar school in the 90s so I guess I missed that one. whew.

[Fumesucker]

11. Oh they still do it, they're just less explicit about it now

Now it's "If you know anyone using, inform on them." and they sure don't disinclude parents.

Same rationale though, "You're helping them.".

There's no other word for it than Orwellian when you *know* your child is being taught lies and you also know if you tell your child the truth and they inadvertently blurt it out at the wrong person it could well have severe negative repercussions on your child and your family.

I read the short version of this recently and it as a parent I found it fairly disturbing, living in the buckle of the Bible Belt I was fairly careful not to use the "a" word around my kid as she was growing up, she was already questioned about why we didn't go to church and other kids were constantly inviting her to their churches. The problems wouldn't rise to the level of the people in this story but I did think back to what I said and didn't say when I was actively parenting a young child.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Presence_of_Mine_Enemies

[greymattermom]

17. my kids and all of their friends called it

Drugs Are Really Excellent

[Fire Walk With Me]

2. Don't worry anyone; Obama is a Constitutional scholar!

[pacalo]

5. This is the very *bad* part about Russia we were taught growing up.

Neighbors, friends, & families spying & informing on each other for the government: bad form. And now this is being encouraged in the United States by our president. It's over-reach.

[Jackpine Radical]

45. You're missing the point.

In Russia, the kids were being asked to rat out their parents for opposing the Very Bad Commie Government that hated freedom, and that was wrong.

Here, the kids are being asked to rat out their parents for the good of our Very Good Government that loves freedom, and that is good.

[pacalo]

50. If we weren't learning about it in school, we heard about it on the evening news.

Everyone (well, most) watched Cronkite or Huntley & Brinkley.

The kids are now grown & the tables have turned & our country has become what we were taught to look down upon. I hope I'm right when I say that I doubt many from our generation are buying the "very good government" façade.

Stop, drop, & roll ...

[delrem]

46. Yes. Bad, and inexcusable.

It contradicted the very essence of a free democratic society. The adjunct was the gulag.

In 2013 the technology and techniques of state oppression are a quantum leap more perfected - and part of that perfection is the sugar coating that makes the poison pill go down sweet.

[pacalo]

51. The sugar coating of horrible things turns bitter when people learn they've been misled.

[newfie11]

6. McCarthy would be proud

Thanks Obama

[magellan]

7. How do we step back from this now?

I don't see it.

Boy, it's gonna be a bumpy ride down.

[MotherPetrie]

8. K&R

[Hell Hath No Fury]

9. K&R

[boston bean]

10. Thanks I hadn't seen this

Last edited Sun Jun 23, 2013, 09:42 AM - Edit history (1)

Why are some so intent upon repeating bad history!

Loyalty-security reviews

In the federal government, President Harry Truman's Executive Order 9835 initiated a program of loyalty reviews for federal employees in 1947. It called for dismissal if there were "reasonable grounds...for belief that the person involved is disloyal to the Government of the United States."[12] Truman, a Democrat, was probably reacting in part to the Republican sweep in the 1946 Congressional election and felt a need to counter growing criticism from conservatives and anti-communists.[13]

When President Dwight Eisenhower took office in 1953, he strengthened and extended Truman's loyalty review program, while decreasing the avenues of appeal available to dismissed employees. Hiram Bingham, Chairman of the Civil Service Commission Loyalty Review Board, referred to the new rules he was obliged to enforce as "just not the American way of doing things."[14]

The following year, J. Robert Oppenheimer, scientific director of the Manhattan Project that built the first atomic bomb, then working as a consultant to the Atomic Energy Commission, was stripped of his security clearance after a four-week hearing. Oppenheimer had received a top-secret clearance in 1947, but was denied clearance in the harsher climate of 1954.
Similar loyalty reviews were established in many state and local government offices and some private industries across the nation. In 1958 it was estimated that roughly one out of every five employees in the United States was required to pass some sort of loyalty review.[15] Once a person lost a job due to an unfavorable loyalty review, it could be very difficult to find other employment. "A man is ruined everywhere and forever," in the words of the chairman of President Truman's Loyalty Review Board. "No responsible employer would be likely to take a chance in giving him a job."[16]

The Department of Justice started keeping a list of organizations that it deemed subversive beginning in 1942. This list was first made public in 1948, when it included 78 items. At its longest, it comprised 154 organizations, 110 of them identified as Communist. In the context of a loyalty review, membership in a listed organization was meant to raise a question, but not to be considered proof of disloyalty. One of the most common causes of suspicion was membership in the Washington Bookshop Association, a left-leaning organization that offered lectures on literature, classical music concerts and discounts on books.[17]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism

[Yo_Mama]

24. That is the essential question!

I would guess that it is because so many don't know the history.

[boston bean]

25. Or it's a case of some believing it could never happen to them

Their loved ones. Or that it just couldn't happen again in the US.

This article proves they are wrong about the latter at least.

[delrem]

47. bringing a frog to a slow boil. easy. nt

[steve2470]

12. k&r nt

[Doctor_J]

13. The authors of this piece just didn't get their ponies

and they're racists

[SammyWinstonJack]

14. heh

[cantbeserious]

15. But, But .... Obama Was Supposed To Be The Transparent President And Presidency - What Happened?

eom

[Eleanors38]

27. Well, can't you see through him?

[Civilization2]

16. Opposition becomes "anti-govt", then "inside threat", "aiding enemies", then a TERRORIST!

Oh what a slippery slope,.

[xchrom]

18. Du rec. Nt

[Little Star]

19. k&r

[malaise]

20. What happens when private contractors are in charge of the NSA

and are a threat to the elected government?

[KoKo]

21. Good Point...suspect we will find out eventually. n/t

[Trailrider1951]

36. It already happened

on November 22, 1963.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Dulles


This country then began its slow slide to fascism.

[malaise]

64. Good point n/t

[Trailrider1951]

68. And EVERY president since then

has known this.

[WRH2]

63. it aint over ,till it's over.

We haven't tried to shut this down yet. There are huge profits involved here. Look at the list of pols sticking up for this abomination. Paid no doubt, by the war machine.
Look at what happened to Jack Kennedy and his bother.
Diane Frankenstein: head of the so called Intelligence committee, voted for Iraq contracts for her husband. He profited 27 million.

There is a lot more damage done to our democracy than we know. It took an English journalist to help us. The 4th estate is hugely corrupt in this country.

This revelation by Mr. Snowden and Glen Greenwald has brought together a broad Bipartite coalition.

[Catherina]

22. A very important piece. Thanks n/t

[Yo_Mama]

23. Thanks for posting this article and explanation

It is important to have this debate.

The free press is not a luxury - it is a necessity to maintain an open, democratic society. The fact that we have drifted so far away from practicing this principle ought to terrify people, including people within the administration.

[snot]

26. Can anyone cite the last time the U.S. "protect{ed anyone} who bl{e}w the whistle"???

[nashville_brook]

28. "stress, divorce, financial problems" -- if you SEE something SAY something

because if you don't you're next!

[Blue_In_AK]

53. I had all of those things simultaneously back in the '90s

Good thing I wasn't working for the government, I'd probably be rotting in a jail cell somewhere.

[bvar22]

29. Scary Stuff!

[font size=3] ...requires federal employees to keep closer tabs on their co-workers and exhorts managers to punish those who fail to report their suspicions."[/font]

Do you suppose Obama never read 1984?

Maybe we should all send him a copy.



...or maybe he just likes a Good, Orderly Nation
where the Trains Run On Time, and everyone Watches What They Say?

[cantbeserious]

33. Oh No - Not Ayn Rand - Please Tell Me It Isn't So

eom

[delrem]

49. I hate to say it but

the contradiction between fact of policy, in this 2nd term, and rhetoric, is so incredibly startling that I can not in good conscience venture a *reason* for the betrayal.

[HardTimes99]

54. Simple! The NSA has the goods on Obama, his wife or both - nt

[delrem]

57. No. I don't think it's that simple.

I think the answer has to account for the fact that Obama very much wanted to be President.
This is a guy one of whose first acts was to totally exonerate Dick Cheney. He didn't have to. He didn't have to say it out loud like that in order to do it. He could just order Eric H. Holder, Jr. to not investigate or charge, and use his political capital to wait it out. But he made it clear right away that whatever facts inquiries might turn up (like, ffs, bragging about it in the MSM), Dick Cheney had a permanent "get out of jail free" card.

Now Dick Cheney is repaying the favor by applauding Barrack Obama's work.

[HardTimes99]

59. I'd love to take an Occam's Razor approach to this and say, well, deep down,

Obama's a corporatist or some such.

Against my natural proclivity for Occam, though, is this little jewel that seems to have slipped under most people's radar:

http://news.firedoglake.com/2013/06/21/former-intelligence-analyst-obama-was-wiretapped-by-nsa-in-2004/

Because of all the breaking news in McClatchy about the much-wider 'Insider Threat Program,' I have not yet had a chance to circle back to the FDL story. Consider it merely a working hypothesis for now, an attempt to answer your question of 'why'.

Put briefly, starting in around 2003-04, when Obama began to achieve national prominence, the Bush boys (many of whom now pervade our current security services) got the drop on him or Michelle. Bill Ayers? Reverend Wright? Some other unknown skeleton from the Obamas' closet? I have no idea how such things are done at that level of power, but one might imagine a special session with Candidate Obama when he is told, "You can say x and do y, but must never do z."

I'll leave it at that for now, but if it has legs, this FDL story trumps almost all others (although that Insider Threat story is a doozy and a DUZY).

[delrem]

60. Yes, I read that report. However

However, if Obama was spied on, so was everyone else in DC. So Obama wouldn't be any way "special" in that regard because that kind of spying can "get the goods" on everyone. Nobody is a saint.

Furthermore, if Obama had a nose for freedom and privacy, he'd have done a Snowden by now. But he hasn't, he's doubled down time after time to the effect that Cheney does in fact applaud him.

[HardTimes99]

61. I think it's fair to say that no one who might know anything defintiive is talking yet and

the only talking is coming from ignorant schmoes like me who know nothing and have a predilection for too much Le Carre and Graham Greene.

Except for that damned FDL report. Can't get that thing and its implications out of my head.

So with that said, I shall STFU and keep my further ruminations to myself. But thanks for talking this through with me a bit.

[delrem]

62. Right, we can't know, it's impossible to know, but it sure is spooky.

Maybe that's the intent, getting everyone used to fearing the state.

[chimpymustgo]

66. But everyone IS being spied on. That's just one way Congress is controlled. Obama surely hasn't

shown any sort of "nose for freedom and privacy." He is a great enigma. Gives great speeches. Then does exactly what the MIC/BFEE/PTB tell him to. Every time.

[delrem]

67. Do you think "have the goods on Obama" is any excuse?

[suffragette]

30. "Don't suspect a friend, report him"

This is making me think more and more of the film,"Brazil."
The phrase above is from one of the propaganda posters in the film.

[DirkGently]

31. "The Insider Threat Program."

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.

Unacceptable, inexcusable, indefensible.

[cantbeserious]

32. Roger That - We Have Become Our Worst Fears From The Cold War

eom

[WillyT]

34. HUGE K & R !!! - Thank You !!!

[myrna minx]

35. K&R.

[kenny blankenship]

37. And it's not like we really have much of a free press left, that is willing to take

an adversarial role vs. the Officialdom in order to find out what's really going on for the citizenry and their readership.

But even a corporate controlled, pet press of lapdogs and stenographers is too much freedom for elites and the political class to tolerate.

[closeupready]

42. Yes. As proof, look what David Gregory tried to do to Greenwald -

this morning.

Essentially, he accused Greenwald of being a journalist.

[undergroundpanther]

38. oh shit

you know where I go to get therapy they have just annouced last week,they've joined in with a fed program to tie physicalhealth to mental healthcare on the surface it sounds 'innovative'.But I have a feeling it has ultirior motives.especially considering the stuff that happened recently my regular physical doc.I used to see the guy,then one day I was switched to a lady doc a "new hire" she was cool,seemed to have her shit together on health issues .This thing happened like a month or two ago after I had vented my frustrations to her and said some stuff about politics to her on my way out,I was told by another staff she was "ex nsa".Now I'm fucking pissed and scared.

Because I got pstd,I have a political stance and Sometimes what the govt.does pisses me off, or triggers me I'll rant to keep myself together.I feel like this federal support may come with some unsavory strings attached. I know the so called elites see people like me as a useless eaters but on top of that the ptsd,andthe poltics,I don't feel all that good about going there when the federal assistance and new 'staff' get there.Also the NSA probaby has my entire psych history,twenty times over. Fascism indeed it makes me so fucking mad,disgusted and dispairing.I feel targeted,not directly but who knows it might be.

[FirstLight]

39. ...

so as I graduate next year with my BA in journalism finally...I will be added to the list of potential threats of this country for choosing to write and speak truth as my profession... but i may already be on some type of list for being a member HERE and voicing my opinions as well...

nothing we say or think is free from scrutiny anymore...and anything we say can and will be used against us in a court of law....

[blkmusclmachine]

40. We're all Germans now.

[closeupready]

41. So I heard Kim Kardashian's mom, Kris Jenner, is getting a talk show

this fall - aren't you excited?!

[dkf]

43. "When the Department of Education is searching for "insider threats" something's gone very wrong."

[GoneFishin]

48. Agreed. Something is up that has been off everyones radar. Why the hell would they be on

alert in agencies that really have no connection to security?

One thing that occurs to me is that maybe these other agencies have been doing file dumps of citizens records over to the NSA and that is what they don't want leaked.

I don't think the snooping stops with just phone records. For example, I assume that big chain stores are selling their sales transactions linked with synchronized security video of the customers at the corresponding register.

[cantbeserious]

44. K & R

eom

[Blue_In_AK]

52. Thank you

I just commented on another thread that this is probably more disturbing to me than the NSA stuff. I just can't believe that they're putting this kind of pressure on federal employees to rat on their co-workers. What country is this again?

[sigmasix]

55. which free press is that?

There is no such thing as a free press in America. I've seen plenty of evidence of a corporate press and right wing press- I've even noticed some conspiracy mongers that disguise themselves as a free press.
But actual American free press? That was made a thing of the past 30 years ago. One of the reasons our political system is so messed-up is the lack of an effective free press. News-for-profit business models force the truth to take a back seat to sensationalism and partisan hysteria. DU is subject to the right wing echo chamber effect just as much as any other "news" aggregator/discussion group. The difference is that DU members have access to a wide range of narratives and contextual knowledge- which tends to subvert the intentions of the right wing noise machine almost every time.

[patrice]

56. When you do something for any kind of benefit to one's self, that action is NOT free, it's paid and,

thus, the action is shaped by the benefit for which it is performed.

Just as there is no Left in the USA, there is also no Free Press.

[patrice]

58. We'd be able to recognize an authentically free press by it's ability to both support & criticize PO

The closest we come to that that I can think of is Rachel Maddow, who obviously does not work for free.

[malaise]

65. What free free press? They must mean the corporate owned press

When the free free press, explicitly protected in the bill of rights becomes equivalent to an "enemy of the United States" something very, very bad is happening.