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Obama's Insider Threat Program Turns "Colleagues Against Each Other"
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=10904.... So let's start with talking about the current state of affairs for whistleblowers in the United States. In the last segment I mentioned President Obama has used the Espionage Act against whistleblowers more than every other president combined. And now there's an "insider threat" program that encourages federal employees to report suspicious actions by their coworkers. Have us understand why are these practices so dangerous, so dangerous to bringing the truth forward to the public.
COLEMAN-ADEBAYO: Well, I think we first have to identify or define what a suspicious act is, because according to the Insider Threat Program a suspicious act is any kind of activity that places stressors on various employees. And so, for example, a stressor can be financial difficulties at home. A stressor can be difficulties with your children. A stressor can be a health-related issue. Those are the stressors that this act is addressing as a problem for the administration. That's very important for you to understand.
So, for example, if an employee goes to lunch with a colleague and she's bemoaning the fact that her 15-year-old son is giving her a lot of problems, that's a stressor, that's a problem, and the employee who is listening to this narrative must go back to the Insider Threat office at their agency and report that their colleague is having problems with her 15-year-old son. Or if you find out that one of your colleagues is having trouble paying their mortgage, that is a stressor that must be reported.
DESVARIEUX: And if you don't report it?
COLEMAN-ADEBAYO: And if you don't report it, there are all kinds of penalties, including being fired from your job. So essentially what this act has done is to take a chapter out of the Stasi, out of East Germany, in which you basically turn colleagues against each other. Basically they're rewarded for snitching on each other. So you break up any possibility of community inside the organization, any possibility of collegiate relationships inside of the organization, and you basically have everyone looking over their shoulders trying to determine whether or not someone is going to snitch on them, whether that narrative is truthful or not.
So you can imagine how this can be--this kind of executive order can be abused. If you want to get rid of a colleague, all you have to do is, you know, go to the Insider Threat office and say, I heard that Mary said that she's having trouble with her husband....
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Obama's Insider Threat Program Turns "Colleagues Against Each Other" (Original Post)
Demeter
Nov 2013
OP
AnotherMcIntosh
(11,064 posts)1. Everything for the security of the "Homeland."
In WW II, didn't we beat the Germans? Why do politicial leaders and administrators in this country now have to emulate the worst of the post-WW II culture of the Soviet occupied East Germany? Why do we have to follow them?
enough
(13,262 posts)2. This is also going to prevent a lot of good people from being willing to work for the government.
Eventually the government will be staffed entirely by people who find this sort of thing acceptable.
struggle4progress
(118,356 posts)3. Here's the Executive Order these crackpots are babbling about:
October 07, 2011
Executive Order 13587 -- Structural Reforms to Improve the Security of Classified Networks and the Responsible Sharing and Safeguarding of Classified Information
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/10/07/executive-order-structural-reforms-improve-security-classified-networks-
blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)4. Hallmarks of a Police State. WE. ARE. THERE.