Waging War on Leaks: Failure To Stop
Them Assures Tyranny
23 August 2012
By Stephen Lendman
On July 30, the Washington Post headlined "A bill to
stop security leaks puts a plug on democracy," saying:
Journalists and others talk to officials daily.
Background briefings are commonplace. Vital
information is discussed. Most of it is unclassified.
On May 15, HR 5743: Intelligence Authorization Act for
Fiscal Year 2013 was introduced and referred to
committee. On May 31, it passed.
On July 30, S. 3454: Intelligence Authorization Act
for Fiscal Year 2013 was introduced and reported to
committee. Enactment hasn't occurred. More on it
below.
A Senate amendment to S. 3454 permits only the
director, deputy director, or public affairs
representative of an intelligence agency to provide
"background or off-the-record information regarding
intelligence activities."
Lower level personnel perhaps with contrary views are
prohibited from stating them. At issue is government
transparency, press freedom, and the public's right to
know.
Independent investigative journalism will be
compromised. So will press and other First Amendment
freedoms. At issue are provisions listed below.
(1) Requiring Congress to be notified when
intelligence related information is publicly
disclosed. In addition, maintaining a record of all
authorized disclosures is mandated.
(2) Establishing formal leak investigation procedures.
(3) Assessing their effectiveness by expanded
polygraph testing despite its unreliability and
inadmissibility in court.
(4) Prohibiting cleared personnel from serving as paid
consultants or commentators for up to a year after
government service.
(5) Letting only designating intelligence community
officials communicate with the media.
(6) Requiring all media contacts be reported.
(7) Requiring the attorney general and director of
national intelligence (DNI) to report to Congress on
improving procedures governing leak investigations.
(8) Punishing unauthorized leakers by rescinding their
federal pension benefits.
(9) Prohibiting security clearances for unauthorized
leakers.
The Electronic Freedom Foundation (EFF) calls the
measure dangerous and "sloppily" written. It goes way
beyond stopping classified information leaks. Passage
will enact a new layer of secrecy and coverup. The
bill's problems are "extensive and severe."
A New York Times editorial called it "A Pernicious
Drive Toward Secrecy," saying:
"(M)misguided legislation….would severely chill news
coverage of national security issues. Drafted in
secret without public hearings," enactment will
undermine democracy.
Debate on vital issues will be compromised. Issues
like government spying, torture, and war won't be
discussed.
Whistleblowers will be targeted more than now.
Discussing truths too important to conceal will be
compromised. Mostly unclassified information is
affected.
The measure "draws no distinction between information
that is properly classified and the vast pile of
information that poses no national risk but has been
deemed secret thanks only to a dysfunctional system of
over-classification of government documents."
Enactment compromises constitutional rights. It passed
the Senate Intelligence Committee with one dissenting
vote. Former officials, civil liberties groups, and
outspoken journalists denounce it.
Don't count on Obama to stop it. He routinely supports
police state measures. He's targeted whistleblowers
more aggressively than all his predecessors combined.
House and Senate approval assures enactment.
Classification expert Steven Aftergood documented
worrisome bill provisions. What's "unauthorized
disclosure," he asked? Clarity about what constitutes
the media is absent. Professional journalists are
fourth estate members. What about independent writers,
bloggers, and social network contributors?
Classified information isn't defined. "Merely being
classified (doesn't) warrant exemption from disclosure
under FOIA." A court ordered the US trade
representative to release a classified document not
properly classified. So far the government refused.
The concept of unauthorized disclosure is ill-defined.
Interpretations differ. Most bill provisions apply to
elements of the intelligence community. Section 501
affects the executive branch. It requires notification
of authorized information releases.
FOIA provisions exempt classified information provided
it's "properly classified."
EFF calls the Senate measure troubling, "given that
the government's secrecy system has ballooned to
absurd proportions."
Secrecy was always excessive. However, "2011 was
particularly egregious." Washington classified 77
million documents, 40% more than the previous year.
Government employees with security clearances number
4.2 million. Air Force families are prohibited from
accessing WikiLeaks. The Air Force also bars service
members in war theaters from reading The New York
Times.
Guantanamo detainee lawyers are prohibited from
reading WikiLeaks files pertaining to their clients.
Some were publicly released. Numerous other examples
show troubling secrecy level annual increases.
Virtually everything in government related to national
security and foreign policy is now classified. Doing
so is often out of line and improper. It's done to
hide embarrassing truths, government waste,
corruption, other criminality, and serious
constitutional violations.
Former US classification czar, J. William Leonard,
calls the system "dysfunctional." It "clearly lacks
the ability to differentiate between trivial
information and that which can truly damage our
nation's well-being."
Bureaucratic overkill stamps virtually everything
secret. Leonard was Bush's secrecy chief. He's now a
vocal critic. The new Senate measure is another
attempt to subvert democracy and conceal wrongdoing
through secrecy.
Whistleblowers are especially at risk. The Times
article said FBI investigations into leaks are
"casting a distinct chill over press coverage of
national security issues as agencies decline routine
interview requests and refuse to provide background
briefings."
If enacted, new anti-leaks legislation may permanently
alter the way journalists interact with government
officials. Doing so deals democracy another blow.
EFF calls the most disturbing issue the fact that
Congress proposed the measure. According to Steven
Aftergood:
"(T)there is something incongruous, if not outrageous,
about the whole effort by Congress to induce stricter
secrecy in the executive branch, which already has
every institutional incentive to restrict public
disclosure of intelligence information."
Investigations followed previous leaks. "Substantive"
Congressional oversight followed. In contrast,
post-9/11, Congress and officials in two
administrations targeted whistleblowers with a
vengeance.
For example, New Yorker contributor Steve Coll
addressed Newsweek reporter Daniel Klaidman's book on
Obama's drone strike policy.
He discusses "the first instance in American history
of a sitting President speaking of his intent to kill
a particular US citizen without that citizen having
been charged formally with a crime or convicted at
trial."
When the New York Times discussed cyberattacks on Iran
(based on leaks), The Times said doing so was
unprecedented. It compared doing so to "the first use
of atomic weapons" against Japan.
These and other issues demand open unobstructed debate
and scrutiny. Criminalizing it is unconscionable.
Everyone has a right to know. Independent journalists
especially serve a vital service. They go where
mainstream ones won't dare. They do it because it's
the right thing to do. Anything less falls short. Free
and open societies depend on them.
Secrecy, lack of oversight, and unaccountability
prevent the public from knowing what's most important.
A firestorm of criticism got Senate Intelligence
Committee Chairperson Dianne Feinstein to consider
bill revisions. A committee aide said she and other
senators were "reviewing comments." They'll consider
changes "as the bill moves forward."
Modifications are likely before the full Senate votes.
Even Bush was less restrictive than Obama. He's more
secretive and draconian than any previous president.
He want total control over what's secret and what's
not.
EFF condemned him and congressional supporters,
saying:
Vital information secrecy, coverup, and obstruction
"have no place in a democracy that values government
transparency and prides itself on press freedom and
justice under the law."
Obama and those around him are going all out to
destroy them. Failure to stop them assures tyranny.
It's already perilously close to full-blown.
Inattention and indifference means accepting the worst
of all possible worlds. No one should tolerate them.
Resistance, not acquiescence, is essential.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached
at
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. His new book is
titled "How Wall Street Fleeces America: Privatized
Banking, Government Collusion and Class War"
http://www.claritypress.com/Lendman.html Visit his
blog site at
sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge
discussions with distinguished guests on the
Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio
Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and
Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are
archived for easy listening.
http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour
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