The Obama administration has launched a witch hunt to try to prevent future leaks from federal agencies, both secret and otherwise. Its new project, called the “ Insider Threat Program ,” is “examining” the psychological profiles of federal employees and their colleagues and then trying to predict which of them could pose a threat.
Is Obama and his new Insider Threat program terrorism or not? A program that anticipates the leakage of information that could be politically damaging involves creating files with very personal information from everyone involved with the Government. The program essentially encourages employees to pay close attention to the lifestyles, attitudes and behaviors of their colleagues and then report any strange or unusual behavior to their superiors.
The idea here is to be able to identify potential Bradley Mannings or Edward Snowdens, who could report to the media things that the President or others want to remain well hidden.
Profiling Leakers
A paranoid or conformist government employee will be able to target any colleague they don’t like or anyone they find odd. For example, someone who expresses liberal sympathies or says that Edward Snowden did nothing wrong. Last week, law-abiding citizens were arrested because the term they used in a Google search was “pressure cookers.” As Anthony Gucciardi points out, current laws and regulations classify 100% of the population as “terrorists,” according to the United States government. Anyone who simply reads The Guardian could easily be included in the “odd” category.
The behaviors that are said to fit the profile of a potential leaker are simply too exaggerated when you see them listed. Even more so when someone translates them in their own way and as they please. They include “he is stressed, he is divorced, he has financial problems.” According to these criteria, 80-90% of the population of the United States could be a potential security threat.
Worse yet, this program appears to violate the First Amendment to the Constitution, which guarantees freedom of speech. In other words, Obama wants to deprive federal government employees of basic rights that all Americans are entitled to. Freedom of speech exists only when speech will not embarrass the leader.
The whole plan sounds like it comes from Stalinist Russia, where children got medals if they turned their parents in to the secret police. Or maybe 1950s America, where leftists couldn't work as federal agents because of their political beliefs.
The article was published on Storyleak
