General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsLet's Give Every NSA Employee an Anonymous Whistleblowing Opportunity
What if every NSA employee and contractor was required, once a year, to fill out an anonymous civil-liberties survey? The anonymity of respondents would be persuasively guaranteed, and a multiple-choice format would prevent disclosing any classified information.
Answering would be as easy as putting a No. 2 pencil to an answer sheet.
1. The NSA targets the communications of American citizens
a) often
b) sometimes
c) rarely
d) never
2. In the last year I have witnessed Fourth Amendment violations
a) 0 times
b) 1 to 5 times
c) 5 to 10 times
d) 10 to 100 times
e) more than 100 times
3. Civil-liberties protections used by the NSA are
a) foolproof
b) more than adequate
c) only sometimes effective
d) totally ineffective
4. Congressional oversight of the NSA is
a) if anything too onerous
b) just right
c) inadequate
d) failing to stop serious abuses
e) Congress isn't even aware of serious abuses
<snip>
There may be much better questions than these (in fact, I'd be grateful if readers and other journalists helped to formulate some of them), but you get the idea. Every NSA employee would pledge to give honest answers, then fill out the anonymous survey. The results would be tallied by an independent party and made public. Sure, abuses could easily go undetected by this method, but folks who wanted to speak out could. Want to empower whistleblowers to tip off the public to abuses without risking an Edward Snowden-style leak? This approach is for you!
<snip>
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/08/lets-give-every-nsa-employee-an-anonymous-whistleblowing-opportunity/278700/
cali
(114,904 posts)My first reaction was to giggle, but I actually think this isn't a bad idea.
hootinholler
(26,449 posts)Why limit it to the NSA?
I can see it being gamed by management, so there would need to be a way to ensure it's truly anonymous.
As an idea, I kind of like it.
jmowreader
(50,557 posts)If you work Cuban naval printer pushes (NSA guys get this) or Taliban morse pushes, you would answer this far differently than someone working narcotics traffic or Prism.
Tierra_y_Libertad
(50,414 posts)So, it would take a whistle blower (traitor, pole dancing aficionado, loner, etc) to reveal them.
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)anything else is just window dressing....