US Intelligence Officials To Monitor Federal Employees With Security Clearances 186
First time accepted submitter Trachman writes in with news about a monitoring program designed to help stop future leaks of government documents. "U.S. intelligence officials are planning a sweeping system of electronic monitoring that would tap into government, financial and other databases to scan the behavior of many of the 5 million federal employees with secret clearances, current and former officials told The Associated Press. The system is intended to identify rogue agents, corrupt officials and leakers, and draws on a Defense Department model under development for more than a decade, according to officials and documents reviewed by the AP."
One would hope (Score:5, Insightful)
I can't imagine why they wouldn't monitor people with access to secret clearances. I know they polygraph them all the time and regularly perform spot checks for law enforcement violations, etc.
Don't want the government knowing everything about you? Don't request secret clearance from it.
1984 Cascade (Score:5, Insightful)
Whistle blowers (Score:5, Insightful)
The best way to prevent leaks like those that have happened lately is to have a REAL, RESPONSIVE, FUNCTIONAL whistle blower program so people do not have to take the law into their own hands.
An alternative solution. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Fourth Amendment (Score:5, Insightful)
br> I'm less interested in crying for the poor, poor, clearanceholders and more interested in why a touch over three percent of the US labor force spends its time pushing classified paper.
Re:One would hope (Score:4, Insightful)
TOP SECRET might, but there is TOP SECRET w/Poly as a separate clearance so me thinks that might be the only one that gets it sometimes. This isn't '24'.
Re:Fourth Amendment (Score:2, Insightful)
'unreasonable' is meaningless when national security is involved. I don't particularly like it, but civil rights go out the window when there's actual national security concerns. Now, whether there really are any justifying this is another question entirely
Re:Fourth Amendment (Score:4, Insightful)
1. Because Government is a Big Business (about 40% of the GDP [usgovernmentspending.com]) and,
2. The Military Industrial Complex is a large portion of that (particulars unimportant for now) and
3. The MIC arguably does deal in quite a bit of classified paper ("We have top men looking into that....") and, most important
4. When you have the only tool you know how to use is a Top Secret stamp, everything looks like a Classified Document.
Bullshit (Score:5, Insightful)
Civil rights never go out the window. As a cleared government employee I have not waived my civil rights and would never do so. I have agreed to allow some intrusive inspection of my life but I still have and will always have my civil rights.
Idiots like you who think that national security trumps all are what is wrong with today's national security infrastructure.
Re:Fourth Amendment (Score:4, Insightful)