NSA Held Media "Seminars" To Discourage Reporting On Spy Program

[babylonsister]

Spies Prep Reporters on Protecting Secrets

By JOSH GERSTEIN
Staff Reporter of the Sun
September 27, 2007


Frustrated by press leaks about its most sensitive electronic surveillance work, the secretive National Security Agency convened an unprecedented series of off-the-record "seminars" in recent years to teach reporters about the damage caused by such leaks and to discourage reporting that could interfere with the agency's mission to spy on America's enemies.

The half-day classes featured high-ranking NSA officials highlighting objectionable passages in published stories and offering "an innocuous rewrite" that officials said maintained the "overall thrust" of the articles but omitted details that could disclose the agency's techniques, according to course outlines obtained by The New York Sun.

Dubbed "SIGINT 101," using the NSA's shorthand for signals intelligence, the seminar was presented "a handful of times" between approximately 2002 and 2004, an agency spokeswoman, Marci Green, confirmed yesterday. Officials were pleased with the program, she said.

"They believe they were very successful in being able to talk to journalists regarding our mission and the sensitivities of our mission in an unclassified way," Ms. Green said.

The syllabi make clear that the sessions, which took place at NSA headquarters in Fort Meade, Md., were conceived of not merely as familiarization tours, but as part of a campaign to limit the damage caused by leaks of sensitive intelligence.

more...

http://www.nysun.com/article/63465

[Hubert Flottz]

1. GOP = KGB!

Komitet gosudarstvennoi bezopasnosti

When we lose our freedom and liberty the terrorists win.

[Zywiec]

2. I don't think everything NSA does needs to be transparent to all

Of course, this does not apply to spying on Americans or other violations to American citizens.

[babylonsister]

3. How do you feel about the NSA 'coaching' the media? Don't you

think there's something wrong with that picture?

[Zywiec]

4. Not really. The MSM is not exactly filled with rocket scientists n/t

[babylonsister]

5. Aren't they supposed to think independently, be fair and balanced,

not have an agenda they're 'taught'? Come on. Why even bother having a media if they're just parroting the party line?

[Zywiec]

6. I think some things NSA does needs to be kept

from the general public. Obviously you want jounalists to decide what should be classified and what shouldn't be.

Why not just shut the NSA down, I mean they must not be doing anything useful except spying on Americans. I'm sure if we did a DU poll 80% of people would disband the NSA and CIA.

[babylonsister]

7. You're reading an awful lot into my post that isn't there.

Forget I asked.