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)You want "Nixonian"? This, right here, this is Nixonian, if Nixon had grown up in East Germany [View all]
The Snowden Effect, Special Sunday Edition
By Charles P. Pierce
at 10:36am
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/Big_Brother_Takes_A_Government_Job
Sooner or later, we're all going to start paying more attention to the folks at McClatchy than we do to the kidz at Tiger Beat On The Potomac. It was some of them who kept warning us that the Bush administration case for going to war in Iraq was shot through with moonshine and bullshit, but the courtier press got itself dazzled by mushroom clouds, aluminum tubes, African uranium, and Colin Powell, aka The Most Overrated Man In The World, and off to war we went. Now, they've come out with a gigantic story revealing, in detail, that the Obama administration is the most fertile environment for paranoids since the Nixon people first cut a check to Egil Krogh.
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.
You want "Nixonian"? This, right here, this is Nixonian, if Nixon had grown up in East Germany. You've got the entire federal bureaucracy looking for signs of "high-risk persons or behaviors" the way Nixon sent Fred Malek out to count the Jews. You've got created within the entire federal bureaucracy a culture of spies and informers, which will inevitably breed fear and deceit and countless acts of interoffice treachery. (Don't like your boss at the Bureau Of Land Management? Hmm, he looks like a high-risk person. Tell someone.) And this is the clincher.
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.
I don't want to hear about "safeguards" because I don't believe in them any more. I don't want to hear about "transparency" any more because the president lost his privileges on that word when he cited the secret rubber-stamp FISA court as the vehicle for transparency last week. I don't want to hear about "oversight" because, really, stop kidding us all. And I especially don't want to hear about how all the administration's really done is "formalize" programs that were already in place, as though giving the creation of a culture of informers the imprimatur of the presidency makes it better. This, after all, is what you're "formalizing," as dramatized on June 13, 1971 by the Oval Office Players, Richard M. Nixon, artistic director:
President Nixon: Doesn't it involve secure information, a lot of other things? What kind of-what kind of people would do such things?
Kissinger: It has the most-it has the highest classification, Mr. President.
President Nixon: Yeah. Yeah.
Kissinger: It's treasonable. There's no question it's actionable. I'm absolutely certain that this violates all sorts of security laws.
President Nixon: What-what do we do about it? Don't we ask for an-
Kissinger: I think I-I should talk to [Attorney General John N.] Mitchell.
President Nixon: Yeah.
Kissinger: It has the most-it has the highest classification, Mr. President.
President Nixon: Yeah. Yeah.
Kissinger: It's treasonable. There's no question it's actionable. I'm absolutely certain that this violates all sorts of security laws.
President Nixon: What-what do we do about it? Don't we ask for an-
Kissinger: I think I-I should talk to [Attorney General John N.] Mitchell.
President Nixon: Yeah.
No, Mr. Current President, this is not business as usual. This is not even the NSA sifting through e-mails and phone calls. This is giving Big Brother a desk in every federal agency and telling him to go to work.
(snip)
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)
138 replies, 25357 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 (110)
ReplyReply to this post
138 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
You want "Nixonian"? This, right here, this is Nixonian, if Nixon had grown up in East Germany [View all]
nashville_brook
Jun 2013
OP
Telling us there are whistleblower protections while instituting this program is insulting.
dkf
Jun 2013
#1
Just a fucking minute. This is spinning into another quantum level of pure stupidity.
Buzz Clik
Jun 2013
#2
whistleblowing vs leaking -- how does this dynamic not smack of the loyalty trope?
nashville_brook
Jun 2013
#5
That was a quote from the David Frost interviews a couple of years after resignation.
Zen Democrat
Jun 2013
#118
An online tutorial titled "Treason 101" teaches Administration employees to recognize... spies
nashville_brook
Jun 2013
#17
What information, when disclosed, constitutes a crime against "The United States?"
DirkGently
Jun 2013
#19
this is beyond creepy and the worst part is it makes me want to agree with republicans when they see
NoMoreWarNow
Jun 2013
#121
Well the government is too big, but I wouldn't jump on their bandwagon too soon...
rwsanders
Jun 2013
#135
conveniently undermines government functions while funding sequestration does its job
nashville_brook
Jun 2013
#117
It's fun to think that this is about some kind of courageous act of whistleblowing.
ucrdem
Jun 2013
#31
There are connections aplenty for anyone with eyes. Here's a few to get you started:
ucrdem
Jun 2013
#48
It's been plastered all over DU since WaPo Guardian launched this baloney. Start here:
ucrdem
Jun 2013
#47
it's fun to think being a true partisan believer is some kind of courageous
nashville_brook
Jun 2013
#56
the enforcers are actually always those in the hottest seat: a self-consuming system can produce
MisterP
Jun 2013
#97
Yep. Complete with lies, CYA statements, and the pursuit of the whistle blower.
Tierra_y_Libertad
Jun 2013
#28
Ask President Kennedy. Oh yeah, he was murdered in the street at midday for opposing war power.
Zen Democrat
Jun 2013
#93
Good point. I think Godwin's law is really implied anytime one compares someone to a
stevenleser
Jun 2013
#102
but...it's racism! it's a GOP plot! it's a bird it's a plane...it's Super Strawman!
nashville_brook
Jun 2013
#89
the inconvenient truth about civil liberties is that while folks might trust Obama like a brother
nashville_brook
Jun 2013
#116
Hilarious hyperbole. The only thing this will achieve is to scuttle dialogue on this issue.
stevenleser
Jun 2013
#76
Hey speaking of hyperbole did your coworker Rachel ever come up with that
Bluenorthwest
Jun 2013
#98
I posted it. It's up to you to decide. I'm not responsible for other journalists' claims or what you
stevenleser
Jun 2013
#99
Pierce has written a lot on Obama, and I don't think he has been uniformly positive at all
NoMoreWarNow
Jun 2013
#122
well, I really doubt (at this point) that Obama is doing anything just to anger his liberal base
NoMoreWarNow
Jun 2013
#128
i thought 1984 would be fully implemented under a republican president but i was wrong
madrchsod
Jun 2013
#119
if this is allowed to continue, it will be "fully implemented" beyond imagination
nashville_brook
Jun 2013
#120
but I learned here on DU that Obama was not conducting any "war on whistleblowers"?
NoMoreWarNow
Jun 2013
#126