Government Secrecy Oaths Imperil Public

[Walt Starr]

Published on Wednesday December 8, 2004 by the Springfield News-Leader / Missouri
Government Secrecy Oaths Imperil Public
by Nick Schwellenbach and Peter Brand

America now has an Unofficial Secrets Act.

In an unprecedented and unwise expansion of government secrecy, the Department of Homeland Security has begun swearing its employees to silence, criminalizing the disclosure of information to the public — even if it is not classified. Such an expansion harms security, rather than improves it, and strikes at our democracy and constitutional rights.

<snip>

What's an example of information that the public can't know? The law.

Last month, while at the Boise, Idaho, airport, former congresswoman Helen Chenoweth-Hage, R-Idaho, was pulled aside for a security pat-down. Hage asked what regulation authorized the screening. Homeland Security personnel refused to tell her.

Local security director Julian Gonzalez said the regulation "is called 'sensitive security information.' She's not allowed to see it, nor is anyone else."

Steven Aftergood, a secrecy expert at the Federation of American Scientists, calls this development "the arrival of secret law."

<snip>

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1208-32.htm

So now you can be charged with a secret crime, tried ina secret court, shipped off to a secret prison where you will be tortured in secret and who knows, maybe there will be a secret execution!

[Q]

1. This is only the beginning...

...wait until we finally see (or hear about after the fact) what's in the new intelligence bill and various reincarnations of the Patriot Acts.

I don't care what anyone says...this all came about because there is no opposition party to get in the way.

[LosinIt]

2. Ohhhh, Goody! I love a good secret!

[Walt Starr]

3. Kick

:kick:

[Q]

4. Isn't it interesting that...

...a hundred posters will flock to a thread on 'gun control' and barely anyone seems interested in the creation of an American Gestapo and a government accountable to no one?

Perhaps I'm being too harsh...but I sometimes wonder if we're going out with a whimper instead of a bang?

[Walt Starr]

5. Definitely a whimper

I think a lot of threads are purposely begun so that the important threads drop off into oblivion.

[indigolady]

6. What can we say? It's a secret.

[Walt Starr]

8. Probably will remain a secret too

Shhhhhhhhhhh

[annabanana]

7. my capacity for outrage is sated.......

I fear that I am wearing out. How can things go so badly, so quickly?

[DireStrike]

9. I don't know what to say...

What can we do? :shrug:

[BeHereNow]

10. GOOD GOD! Where is the OUTRAGE???

This is SO dangerous- If I were gay, muslim
or had a documented medical record of
mental health issues, I would get the HELL out
of this country! Oh, wait...I do have a documented
medical record of mental health issues.
Holy shite- these people are SO out of control.
What the fuck are we going to do?
bhn