CIA software tester fired after taking stand on Geneva Convention

[dajoki]

WP
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/20/AR2006072001816.html?nav=hcmodule

Top-Secret World Loses Blogger
CIA Contractor Is Fired When Internal Post Crosses the Line

By Dana Priest
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 21, 2006; Page A15

Christine Axsmith, a software contractor for the CIA, considered her blog a success within the select circle of people who could actually access it.

Only people with top-secret security clearances could read her musings, which were posted on Intelink, the intelligence community's classified intranet. Writing as Covert Communications, CC for short, she opined in her online journal on such national security conundrums as stagflation, the war of ideas in the Middle East and -- in her most popular post -- bad food in the CIA cafeteria.

But the hundreds of blog readers who responded to her irreverent entries with titles such as "Morale Equals Food" won't be joining her ever again.

On July 13, after she posted her views on torture and the Geneva Conventions, her blog was taken down and her security badge was revoked. On Monday, Axsmith was terminated by her employer, BAE Systems, which was helping the CIA test software.

As a traveler in the classified blogosphere, Axsmith was not alone. Hundreds of blog posts appear on Intelink. The CIA says blogs and other electronic tools are used by people working on the same issue to exchange information and ideas.

CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano declined to comment on Axsmith's case but said the policy on blogs is that "postings should relate directly to the official business of the author and readers of the site, and that managers should be informed of online projects that use government resources. CIA expects contractors to do the work they are paid to do."

A BAE Systems spokesman declined to comment.

[Eric J in MN]

1. It created controversy that she expressed support for the announced policy

...of following the Geneva Conventions, because it's not the actual policy under Bush.