Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
General Discussion
Showing Original Post only (View all)Okay...anyone want to take a shot at explaining his motivation for THIS LATEST ACTION? [View all]
Last edited Fri May 9, 2014, 03:28 PM - Edit history (2)
Obama Directive Makes Mere Citing of Snowden Leaks Punishable OffenseOnce promising the most transparent administration in history, White House reins in free speech of employees
- Jon Queally, staff writer
Directive from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) makes mention of news reporting referencing unauthorized informatin, like that leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, a punishable offense. In a new policy directive from the Obama administrative, national security and other government officials will no longer be allowed to publicly discuss or even reference news reporting that is based on "unauthorized leaks."
President Obama once promised the American people that his administration would be the most transparent in history, but after years of fights with civil libertarians trying to obtain legal memos used to justify the president's overseas assassination program, an unprecedented pattern of prosecuting government whistleblowers, the targeting of journalists, and all the secrecy and obfuscation related to the NSA's mass surviellance programs made public by Edward Snowden, that claim is now met with near universal laughter, if not scorn, by critics.
According to the New York Times:
A new pre-publication review policy for the Office of Director of National Intelligence says the agencys current and former employees and contractors may not cite news reports based on leaks in their speeches, opinion articles, books, term papers or other unofficial writings.
Such officials must not use sourcing that comes from known leaks, or unauthorized disclosures of sensitive information, it says. The use of such information in a publication can confirm the validity of an unauthorized disclosure and cause further harm to national security.
Failure to comply may result in the imposition of civil and administrative penalties, and may result in the loss of security clearances and accesses, it says.
Timothy H. Edgar, a visiting professor at Brown University, told the Times the ODNI directive is overly restrictive because it goes beyond telling officials they cannot comment on or confirm the accuracy of unauthorized leakssomething he thinks makes sense and is already covered by statutebut it bizarrely asserts that these people cannot even acknowledge the existence of a story that may have appeared on the cover of a major newspaper.
Youre basically saying people cant talk about what everyone in the country is talking about, Edgar said. I think that is awkward and overly broad in terms of restricting speech.
The new rule was first reported by journalist Steve Aftergood at the Secrecy News website on Thursday and relates to other rules that guide national security officials who are speak to the press or in public forums.
Referencing the Times reporting on the directive, the president's critics were focused on the continued hypocrisy between claims of transparency by the president and other high-level officials and the reality represented by the continued attempt to by the White House and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper to control information:
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/05/09
______________________________________
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.
-----------DOCUMENT LINKS MENTIONED IN ARTICLE----------------
Official Document:
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1156526-instr-80-04-pre-publication-review-of.html\
AND...
DOCU LINKS from "Secrecy News Website" at:
ODNI Requires Pre-Publication Review of All Public Information
Categories: Intelligence, Secrecy News Website
All employees of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence are required to obtain authorization before disclosing any intelligence-related information to the public.
All ODNI personnel are required to submit all official and non-official information intended for public release for review, says ODNI Instruction 80.04 on Pre-publication Review of Information to be Publicly Released. The Instruction was newly updated on April 8.
http://blogs.fas.org/secrecy/2014/05/odni-prepub/
InfoView thread info, including edit history
TrashPut this thread in your Trash Can (My DU » Trash Can)
BookmarkAdd this thread to your Bookmarks (My DU » Bookmarks)
19 replies, 2025 views
ShareGet links to this post and/or share on social media
AlertAlert this post for a rule violation
PowersThere are no powers you can use on this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
ReplyReply to this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
Rec (19)
ReplyReply to this post
19 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Okay...anyone want to take a shot at explaining his motivation for THIS LATEST ACTION? [View all]
KoKo
May 2014
OP
The OP title implies that Obama never does anything right. This is just the latest example.
pampango
May 2014
#17
I can't even find it on their website the- Directive from the Office of the Director of National Int
Sunlei
May 2014
#2
Thanks! The official Gov. website has to much information.Obama must be superman to keep track of it
Sunlei
May 2014
#7
This is the part that is ridiculous and over reach...but, watch them prosecute someone ....
KoKo
May 2014
#8
wish all the patriot act went away, its caused our country nothing but grief and trillions of our $.
Sunlei
May 2014
#9
I'm not sure it really goes further than what Professor Edgar says is already covered
karynnj
May 2014
#12
But..but..it will protect our delicate ears from hearing what our (allegedly "our") government does.
Tierra_y_Libertad
May 2014
#3