Winehole23
08-14-2012, 02:01 PM
That the Obama administration has waged an unprecedented war on whistleblowers (http://www.salon.com/2012/02/09/obamas_unprecedented_war_on_whistleblowers/) is by now well-known and well-documented (http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/06/obamas-whistleblowers-stuxnet-leaks-drones), as is its general fixation on not just maintaining (http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/04/expert_consensus_obama_aping_bush_on_state_secrets .php/) but increasing (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/26/us/politics/new-rules-to-curb-leaks-and-catch-leakers.html) even the most extreme (http://www.salon.com/2012/03/30/the_most_transparent_administration_ever%E2%84%A2/) and absurd (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/24/us/government-documents-in-plain-sight-but-still-classified.html) levels of secrecy. Unsurprisingly, this ethos — that the real criminals are those who expose government wrongdoing, not those who engage in that wrongdoing — now pervades lower levels of the Executive Branch as well.
Last night, McClatchy reported (http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/08/13/162153/national-reconnaissance-office.html) on a criminal investigation launched by the Inspector General (IG) of the National Reconnaissance Office, America’s secretive spy satellite agency, against the agency’s deputy director, Air Force Maj. Gen. Susan Mashiko. After Mashiko learned that four senior NRO officials whose identities she did not know reported to the IG “a series of allegations of malfeasant actions” by another NRO official relating to large contracts, Mashiko allegedly vowed: “I would like to find them and fire them.”
Moreover, after McClatchy published stories (http://www.mcclatchydc.com/polygraph/) in June about the agency’s abusive and problematic use of polygraph tests to root out leakers, top agency officials made statements “taken as a threat that polygraphers who raise similar concerns about the agency’s practices — even to the inspector general — would be punished or criminally prosecuted as leakers.” As usual in today’s Washington, punishment is solely for those who expose high-level wrongdoing, and secrecy powers are primarily devoted to shielding the wrongdoers.
http://www.salon.com/2012/08/14/secrecy_creep/
Last night, McClatchy reported (http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/08/13/162153/national-reconnaissance-office.html) on a criminal investigation launched by the Inspector General (IG) of the National Reconnaissance Office, America’s secretive spy satellite agency, against the agency’s deputy director, Air Force Maj. Gen. Susan Mashiko. After Mashiko learned that four senior NRO officials whose identities she did not know reported to the IG “a series of allegations of malfeasant actions” by another NRO official relating to large contracts, Mashiko allegedly vowed: “I would like to find them and fire them.”
Moreover, after McClatchy published stories (http://www.mcclatchydc.com/polygraph/) in June about the agency’s abusive and problematic use of polygraph tests to root out leakers, top agency officials made statements “taken as a threat that polygraphers who raise similar concerns about the agency’s practices — even to the inspector general — would be punished or criminally prosecuted as leakers.” As usual in today’s Washington, punishment is solely for those who expose high-level wrongdoing, and secrecy powers are primarily devoted to shielding the wrongdoers.
http://www.salon.com/2012/08/14/secrecy_creep/