Is ATS a National Security Risk?

Are there employees of ATS that filter out classified information posted by members or visitors? Personally, I do not have security clearance, so most likely I would not know what is classifed or non-classified.

I love ATS, so I would hate to see the government set in motion programs that would reduce its scope or that would bring its demise.

God Bless ATS!!!

If someone posts classified material, and we become aware of the fact that it's classified, the material will be removed.

To my knoweldge there are no dedicated ATS employees who do nothing but look for classified information. Presumably that's the job of the various agencies who traffic in classified information.

If they lose it, they can put in the legwork to find it again. Just my opinion...

Not as much as the New York Times

I think posting classified information would be against the rules unless it's already generally available in the msm.

To me, a post would be a national security risk only if it posed a diagram, chemical elements, and environment. I have never seen anything such posted on ATS.

Originally posted by WyrdeOne
If someone posts classified material, and we become aware of the fact that it's classified, the material will be removed.

Even if the "classified material" would uncover the truth about, oh say 9/11, or the existence of extraterrestrial life?

While I understand the legal issues, I also believe that there is a moral issue involved with such a disclosure.

Just makes me say, hmmm.....

Originally posted by Mechanic 32

Originally posted by WyrdeOne
If someone posts classified material, and we become aware of the fact that it's classified, the material will be removed.

Even if the "classified material" would uncover the truth about, oh say 9/11, or the existence of extraterrestrial life?

While I understand the legal issues, I also believe that there is a moral issue involved with such a disclosure.

Just makes me say, hmmm.....

Good points...
Whats the use of proving U.F.O.s if the military has it classified, the documents would be taken down.

I have a Secret security clearance (give not as high as a TS/ SCI or anything of that nature,) and I was posting on ATS for a long time before my background investigation. I did not catch any flack for ATS.

In my undergraduate years I worked for GlobalSecurity.org and we got in a whole lot of trouble for posting 2 Marine Corps field manuals that were deemed "techinically" classified. They got mad at us, but still could not do anything.

I wouldn't worry.

Mechanic
I can honestly say that if I was given classified documents that provided insight into 9/11, I would not post them under any circumstances. I would, however, probably end up discussing what I knew in the context of hypotheticals and allusions. While I could be putting myself at risk by doing so, at least I wouldn't be endangering this community for which I care so deeply.

I really think we have something here that's worth preserving, yaknow?

There is a moral obligation, I agree. But how does it serve the greater good if we get ourselves shut down because we're unwilling to remove a schematic or a memo? It's not a hill to die on...

Originally posted by WyrdeOne
There is a moral obligation, I agree. But how does it serve the greater good if we get ourselves shut down because we're unwilling to remove a schematic or a memo? It's not a hill to die on...

Good points, WyrdeOne. But it shows that pursuit of truth is a catch-22.

In your hypothetical scenario, you would be unable to disclose any positive evidence. I.e., actual documents. Therefore many will discount your claims, since you cannot back it up, due to not wanting to post classified material.

But in order to prove it, you would need the very documents that you were unable (legally) to post.

In light of this, the truth may never be revealed.

Its just as easy to put the classified information out on the p2p networks, rapidshare,megaupload etc and then post the links on various boards.

Doing this from inet cafes should solve the problem of you getting traced as well and once its out there its out there to stay.

Theres no way the US gov. will be able to put millions of people to jail for having downloaded it

Trust the power of P2p

Originally posted by Fett Pinkus
Theres no way the US gov. will be able to put millions of people to jail for having downloaded it

In the United States, there's absolutely no law against downloading leaked classified material and there's nothing against publishing it either -- unless you were the original source with access the material and leaked it.

That doesn't mean that those responsible for the leak won't be "dealt with" shortly following it. Legality becomes a technicality when no one's around to witness anything.

Just the truth from one man's perspective.

TheBorg

If it was, we wouldn't be posting here...

Anyone who posts something that is like a "national threat", the post is removed btw

In reality, we could end up making a judgement call.

During the AT&T/NSA fiasco, we linked to items designated "classified material" that were in the possession of EFF.org. In this case, knowledge of the documentation that revealed NSA involvement in monitoring AT&T Internet traffic served the greater good. If a similar case were to arise, where distribution of the "classified material" served a greater good of public awareness (without risking lives), we would likely support it.

That being said, any "classified material" that compromised ongoing security efforts, endangered lives, or otherwise put lives at risk would certainly be a candidate for swift removal.

Sometimes I wonder what classified information really, really is . . .

leaked information is no longer classified anyway and we have to understand that who is the ones that set the rules of what is deemed classified . . .

Any information can become classified as long as our government feels that it should be classified.

More often than not the so call classified is nothing more that information that our government holds so the public do not get to find out how they are deceiving the nation and us the public behind our backs.

So far, most of the so call classified information that has gone public is actually information that we as the people of this nation have all the rights to know.

So classifying information is nothing more than an attempt by the government officials . . . elected by the people to protect themselves.

I believe that a democratic elected government should be transparent to his people.

ATS is the best place to discuss and to bring to light any type of information that is to help the American people understand why our government does what it does, that can affect us as a nation.

And to speculate on why it feels that information should be hidden from the regular public.

That is how conspiracies are born and for conspiracies to thrive or die.