Are "leaks" coming from "burrowed" Bush appointees, now working in civil service jobs?

[pnwmom]

When anonymous government employees leak documents that appear to be damaging to Obama (and may or may not be accurate), isn't it important to know who the leakers are?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/17/AR2008111703537.html?hpid=topnews

The transfer of political appointees into permanent federal positions, called "burrowing" by career officials, creates security for those employees, and at least initially will deprive the incoming Obama administration of the chance to install its preferred appointees in some key jobs.

Similar efforts are taking place at other agencies. Two political hires at the Labor Department have already secured career posts there, and one at the Department of Housing and Urban Development is trying to make the switch.


Between March 1 and Nov. 3, according to the federal Office of Personnel Management, the Bush administration allowed 20 political appointees to become career civil servants. Six political appointees to the Senior Executive Service, the government's most prestigious and highly paid employees, have received approval to take career jobs at the same level. Fourteen other political, or "Schedule C," appointees have also been approved to take career jobs. One candidate was turned down by OPM and two were withdrawn by the submitting agency.

The personnel moves come as Bush administration officials are scrambling to cement in place policy and regulatory initiatives that touch on issues such as federal drinking-water standards, air quality at national parks, mountaintop mining and fisheries limits.

SNIP

[Savannahmann]

1. Could be.

Or it could be Liberals who like me find the entire process repulsive and outrageous. It could be a political move, or a move on conscience.

[boilerbabe]

2. so you are onlly concerned that they got caught?

you want to know WHO TOLD? yeah i guess that follows suit by your attitudes towards manning and assange.

[pnwmom]

5. When it's not even clear that the documents are accurate

I think it's important to know who is pushing them.




http://www.businessinsider.com/is-the-nsa-prism-spying-program-a-hoax-2013-6

Twitter users have noted two inexplicable differences in the PowerPoint slides posted online by the Post and the Guardian. On a slide with the header “Dates When PRISM Collection Began For Each Provider,” there is a red box behind the PRISM logo on the Guardian version that is not present in the Post version. And the green arrow running diagonally across the slide is noticeably different in shape and spacing.

SNIP

The key to any successful hoax is to weave at least a few truths into a story that is shocking but (just barely) credible. Late Thursday night, journalist Matthew Keys tracked down two military job listings that identify PRISM as a “collection management system” and a required job skill for “intelligence officer” positions (the same title the Post story uses to describe its anonymous source). Indeed, in an updated version of its story, The Post began to walk back its claims by citing a second classified report that identified PRISM as a program to “allow ‘collection managers content tasking instructions directly to equipment installed at company-controlled locations,’ rather than directly to company servers.”

If PRISM appears in publicly accessible job postings, it’s likely to be a less important program than the articles lead us to believe. And while PRISM-derived intelligence probably was cited in over 2,400 classified intelligence reports in 2012 (including almost 1,500 delivered to the president), it is appearing less and less likely that PRISM rises to the level of the all-encompassing vacuum cleaner of the Internet that the initial reports indicated.

Why someone would provide a false or partially-true briefing and play up its importance as “a gross intrusion on privacy,” as characterized by the Post’s anonymous source, is an open question. In an environment of shrinking defense and intelligence budgets, battles for scarce resources are often fought using strategic leaks or disinformation. Or, as Clapper claims, the materials provided to the newspapers may simply be inaccurate, a frequent occurrence in government training materials that pass through numerous offices before being approved.

If everything attributed to PRISM proves to be true, there will no doubt be a serious and ongoing national debate regarding where to draw the line between civil liberties and national security. But we shouldn’t be too quick to dismiss the government’s claims that all is not as it might appear. When dealing with leaks and the murky world of top secret intelligence programs, it is best to be mindful of Hanlon’s Razor: “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.”

[graham4anything]

3. Wouldn't surprise me now that Jeb is coming back to hurt the democratic party

[Enrique]

4. no, the GOP supports Obama on this

this real scandal gets in the way of their fake scandals they've been pushing.

[pnwmom]

7. It helps the GOP because it's causing

Obama to lose support from his base, at the same time that the other fake scandals are attacking him from the right.

And all of this is happening at the beginning of his administration, when they have the biggest reason to try to undermine him.

If the leaker is so concerned, why didn't he leak four or six or seven years ago? Why now?

[Skidmore]

6. That's occurred to me more than once too.

I think Cheney left a part of his shadow government behind. There are still quite a few neocons around afraid of losing their cash cows should wars wind down.

[Puzzledtraveller]

8. there are definitely leaks whether you agree with what was leaked or not

I had to wonder, who's really pissed off about something? Someone mentioned Susan Rice, that's small stuff, this is a much bigger axe that is being ground.

[pnwmom]

11. But are the documents being leaked accurate?

And is the interpretation of them accurate?



http://www.businessinsider.com/is-the-nsa-prism-spying-program-a-hoax-2013-6

Twitter users have noted two inexplicable differences in the PowerPoint slides posted online by the Post and the Guardian. On a slide with the header “Dates When PRISM Collection Began For Each Provider,” there is a red box behind the PRISM logo on the Guardian version that is not present in the Post version. And the green arrow running diagonally across the slide is noticeably different in shape and spacing.

SNIP

The key to any successful hoax is to weave at least a few truths into a story that is shocking but (just barely) credible. Late Thursday night, journalist Matthew Keys tracked down two military job listings that identify PRISM as a “collection management system” and a required job skill for “intelligence officer” positions (the same title the Post story uses to describe its anonymous source). Indeed, in an updated version of its story, The Post began to walk back its claims by citing a second classified report that identified PRISM as a program to “allow ‘collection managers content tasking instructions directly to equipment installed at company-controlled locations,’ rather than directly to company servers.”

If PRISM appears in publicly accessible job postings, it’s likely to be a less important program than the articles lead us to believe. And while PRISM-derived intelligence probably was cited in over 2,400 classified intelligence reports in 2012 (including almost 1,500 delivered to the president), it is appearing less and less likely that PRISM rises to the level of the all-encompassing vacuum cleaner of the Internet that the initial reports indicated.

Why someone would provide a false or partially-true briefing and play up its importance as “a gross intrusion on privacy,” as characterized by the Post’s anonymous source, is an open question. In an environment of shrinking defense and intelligence budgets, battles for scarce resources are often fought using strategic leaks or disinformation. Or, as Clapper claims, the materials provided to the newspapers may simply be inaccurate, a frequent occurrence in government training materials that pass through numerous offices before being approved.

If everything attributed to PRISM proves to be true, there will no doubt be a serious and ongoing national debate regarding where to draw the line between civil liberties and national security. But we shouldn’t be too quick to dismiss the government’s claims that all is not as it might appear. When dealing with leaks and the murky world of top secret intelligence programs, it is best to be mindful of Hanlon’s Razor: “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.”

[siligut]

13. Susan Rice is just part of it

I can't find the post, but it was regarding the fact that Obama seems to be finally taking the reins. Susan Rice's appointment is just part of that.

[siligut]

15. The PRISM leak probably had more to do with Xi Jinping's visit

From what we knew regarding the summit and Xi Jinping's visit, concern for Chinese spying on its own citizens was on the agenda. Now what the press is saying about the summit is in regards to hacking. Xi Jinping's father was head of the Communist Party Propaganda Department. He is not naive in techniques of manipulation.

[libodem]

9. Of course!

They are little more than useful idiots with unaccredited degrees from Bob Jones University.

[randome]

10. I really, really hate conspiracy theories.

But...maybe.

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[pnwmom]

12. And this wouldn't require a conspiracy.

Just a dedicated right-winger doing what he thought he should do.

Don't you wonder why this person decided to come forth right now, on the heels of the three other fake scandals, instead of some other time in all the years since the Patriot act was first passed?

[siligut]

14. I wouldn't doubt it

The clerk types who lay low are key to conspiracies.