This was apparently enacted two years ago but it's the first I've heard of it:
The government's Insider Threat Program, a comprehensive initiative that stretches across 5 million
security-cleared employees of all federal agencies and their contractors, was brought to life following an executive order from President Obama in 2011. He issued the directive after Army Private Bradley Manning sent untold numbers of classified documents to the anti-secrecy WikiLeaks website.
The initiative asks federal government employees to spy on their co-workers, reporting to program agents on their unusual behaviors, strange attitudes, financial troubles and unprecedented travel - all indicators that a 'high-risk' person might be engaged in espionage or other leaking of secret materials in a way that might cause 'harm to the United States.'
In particular, it seeks to identify threats from federal employees who might cause 'damage to the United States through espionage, terrorism, unauthorized disclosure of national security information or through the loss or degradation of departmental resources or capabilities,' according to a secret government document prepared by a task force headed by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and Attorney General Eric Holder.
The program was highlighted in a lengthy report from the McClatchy News Service, whose reporters explored how psychological profiling of former computer hackers and espionage offenders revealed patterns and traits that spy experts believed could be identified pre-emptively.
White House press secretary Jay Carney was caught flat-footed during his briefing with reporters Wednesday, admitting that a question about the Insider Threat Program 'stumped' him.\
'I confess that I did not go read the McClatchy story,' he said.
The government's own experts are questioning whether the program has value, and if it could be sacrificing personal civil liberties on the altar of enhanced security.
Eric Feldman, a former National Reconnaissance Office inspector general who oversaw spy satellite programs, said the program could create 'a repressive kind of culture.'
He told McClatchy that the answer to spotting potential leakers shouldn't be 'to have a Stasi-like response,' referringto the feared East German communists' secret police.
A Quinnipiac University Poll released Wednesday found that for the first time, a plurality of Americans believe government efforts to crack down on terrorism through surveillance of ordinary Americans has gone too far. A strong majority said they see NSA leaker Edward Snowden as a 'whistle-blower,' rather than as a 'traitor.'
Saw this over at Mark Shea's place. He adds:
Look, I get that this is a response to Assange, Snowden, and similar whistleblowers. But this kind of institutional response, in language this broad, is an engraved invitation to state brutality if the state decides to panic after the next terrorist attack or domestic crisis. Obama’s increasingly draconian attempt to create a police state and call it “safety” will only end in catastrophe if we don’t resist it, first with laughter.
It is funny that Obama, the biggest insider threat this country has ever seen, is now pushing the Insider Threat Program but our laughter should be shortlived.
