NSA employees to monitor media for leaks

[Robbien]

An updated internal policy on news media contacts may require every National Security Agency employee to stop working on their core missions and spend time on looking instead for employees who might be talking to the press. Which, of course, is the most important thing for them to be doing. After all, there aren’t any terrorists to be found.

The new policy, which was obtained by the Baltimore Sun, directs employees to “actively monitor the media for the purpose of identifying unauthorized disclosures” of classified information, the newspaper reported.

Such directives create pressure to identify more leaks, said Matthew Aid, a former NSA analyst who is writing a multivolume history of the agency. “Instead of hunting for spies within the agency, now you’re hunting for disenchanted employees who may know somebody who knows a reporter,” he said. “It’s bound to divert resources and focus.”

Some NSA veterans and security analysts said the policy imposes new responsibilities on employees. “‘Actively monitor’ means they’re supposed to go out, surf the Web and look for classified information, not report it when they find it,” said Steven Aftergood, a government secrecy expert at the Federation of American Scientists. “That amounts to a new tasking of every part of the organization to hunt for unauthorized disclosures.”

One former NSA official called the directive “bizarre.”

“We’re going to turn all of NSA into a vast media monitor?

http://www.homelandstupidity.us/2006/07/30/nsa-employees-to-monitor-media-for-leaks/

Original BaltimoreSun article

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/bal-te.nsa23jul23,0,2392810.story?coll=bal-home-headlines

[liberal N proud]

1. So I assume they will get a list of "White House APPROVED" leaks

so they know which whistle blowers to report to bu$h and then those perpetrators can then be rounded up and sent to internment camps.

This nation sounds more and more like the former USSR every day.

[Zhade]

2. Crosspost this in GD if you haven't already.

Pretty big stuff!

[Frustratedlady]

3. How will they know if it's classified....

unless they also spend time researching the mountainous categories this administration is reportedly classifying?

Sounds awfully paranoid to me....sort of McCarthy reincarnated?

[leftchick]

4. your link is not working for me

:shrug:

[Robbien]

6. Yes, the main site is down now also

Perhaps it will be up again in a little while.

[Robbien]

7. The site is back up

but the entry is gone. Here is the link to the original Baltimore Sun article on which the blog based their entry. The original article gives the same information:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/bal-te.nsa23jul23,0,2392810.story?coll=bal-home-headlines

[leftchick]

8. Thank you Robbien

I can't believe this isn't front page news everywhere. Oh, wait, Yes I can!

:(

[Mnemosyne]

5. H. Res. 895

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c109:3:./temp/~c109RMFkGP::

Resolved, That the House of Representatives--

(1) supports efforts to identify, track, and pursue suspected foreign terrorists and their financial supporters by tracking terrorist money flows and uncovering terrorist networks here and abroad, including through the use of the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program;

(2) finds that the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program has been conducted in accordance with all applicable laws, regulations, and Executive Orders, that appropriate safeguards and reviews have been instituted to protect individual civil liberties, and that Congress has been appropriately informed and consulted for the duration of the Program and will continue its oversight of the Program;

(3) condemns the unauthorized disclosure of classified information by those persons responsible and expresses concern that the disclosure may endanger the lives of American citizens, including members of the Armed Forces, as well as individuals and organizations that support United States efforts; and

(4) expects the cooperation of all news media organizations in protecting the lives of Americans and the capability of the government to identify, disrupt, and capture terrorists by not disclosing classified intelligence programs such as the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program.