Whistleblowers beware

Employees of U.S. intelligence agencies have been barred
from discussing any intelligence-related matter _even if it isn’t
classified _ with journalists without authorization, according to a new
directive by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.  Intelligence
agency employees who violate the policy could suffer career-ending
losses of their security clearances or outright termination, and those
who disclose classified information might face criminal prosecution,
according to the directive, which Clapper signed March 20 but was made
public only Monday by Steven Aftergood, who runs the Federation of
American Scientists’ Project on Government Secrecy.  Under the
order, only the director or deputy head of an intelligence agency,
public affairs officials and those authorized by public affairs
officials may have contact with journalists on intelligence-related
matters.

The order doesn’t distinguish between classified and
unclassified matters. It covers a range of intelligence-related
information, including, it says, “intelligence sources, methods,
activities and judgments....



“IC employees . . . must obtain authorization for contacts with the
media” when it comes to intelligence-related matters, and they “must
also report . . . unplanned or unintentional contact with the media on
covered matters,” the directive says.

Aftergood said
Clapper’s order could end up hurting the credibility of the U.S.
intelligence community by limiting the discussion of events to what’s
approved by his office. Alternate voices that might call attention to
inaccurate or incomplete statements will be smothered or dissuaded from
speaking out, Aftergood said.

“Whether because of deception or
error or whatever it might be, the authorized official view is not
always the right one and it is usually incomplete,” Aftergood said.

The
U.S. intelligence community already has a substantial record of issuing
inaccurate or abbreviated information to the public, from bogus and
exaggerated information on whether Iraq had weapons of mass destruction
to Clapper’s misleading testimony to Congress on the collection of
Americans’ private communications data.

Read
more here:
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2014/04/21/225055/us-intelligence-chief-bars-unauthorized.html?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=%2ASituation%20Report&utm_campaign=SITREP%20APRIL%2023%202014#storylink=cpy

Read
more here:
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2014/04/21/225055/us-intelligence-chief-bars-unauthorized.html?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=%2ASituation%20Report&utm_campaign=SITREP%20APRIL%2023%202014#storylink=cpy

I think, by the definition of "media" in the directive, it is conceivable that someone could lose his/her job by speaking to any of us since this is an open blog.



U.S. intelligence chief bars unauthorized contacts with reporters on all intel-related matters | National | McClatchy DC