Whitehouse bans all federal employees from viewing Wikileaks material at home and work-ATS included

"You can't handle the truth"

Originally posted by sonofliberty1776
reply to post by wcitizen

 

Sorry, but whether you support the war or not, it was not illegal. Even the Obamanator voted for continued funding of the wars iirc. Either way, it was legally approved by the senate.

From the Congressional Record of July 9, 2008 - where Congress voted for impeachment of George Bush on 35 Counts, the first item is as follows:

ARTICLE I.—CREATING A SECRET PROPAGANDA
CAMPAIGN TO MANUFACTURE A FALSE CASE
FOR WAR AGAINST IRAQ
In his conduct while President of the
United States, George W. Bush, in violation
of his constitutional oath to faithfully execute
the office of President of the United
States and, to the best of his ability, preserve,
protect, and defend the Constitution
of the United States, and in violation of his
constitutional duty under Article II, Section
3 of the Constitution ‘‘to take care that the
laws be faithfully executed’’, has both personally
and acting through his agents and
subordinates, together with the Vice President,
illegally spent public dollars on a secret
propaganda program to manufacture a
false cause for war against Iraq.

www.c-span.org...


When Obama became President the war was already ongoing.

Originally posted by youdidntseeme

Originally posted by wcitizen

You fail to address two very relevant and vital distinctions here. Your superior is either ignorant or deliberately using manipulation techniques.

The level of ignorance of my superiors I do not feel is relevant when having an intellectually honest discussion of the legal implications of cablegate.

Except when you use it to support an argument you are making.

Incidentally, that right to privacy is violated every day by the government.

Incidentally, the wrongs of one entity does not justify the wrongs of another.

Please show me where I said it did.

Secondly, the Government is ACCOUNTABLE TO THE PEOPLE. A government which lies and deceives and witholds vital information from the public suppresses and therefore violates the public's right to hold its government accountable. This is a very, very serious breach of democracy and must not be allowed in a democratic country.

This is correct, the government is accountable, actually in two places, the GAO and to the people. Since the argument against the GAO will most likely be that they are also government so they cannot be trusted we will not address that. The government is accountable to the people, and the people have a chance to wield their power each election day. How the people wield their power is entirely up to them.

No, that's incorrect. The people elect a govermnent on election day. In between elections it is the duty of the people to make sure the Government acts properly, honestly and in the interests of the people and does not abuse its power. That is why there were safeguards included in law - such as the true duty of a jury - to make sure that the Government does not abuse its power. Safeguards which have been discarded over the years. For example, you don't wait until election day to impeach a President for crimes he has committed against the people, it is done (or should be) when the crime is committed.

edit: I apologize for sounding combative, i just need some to feed my -eine addiction, caffeine and nicotine...apologies

edit on 5-12-2010 by youdidntseeme because: (no reason given)

Apology accepted - no prob. You did seem to be coming across as combative but I've seen a lot worse on ATS, lol! And I can fully sympathise with the -eine/ine addictions! No offense taken and thanks!

This is funny so not only are the people overreacting on supposed secrets that are as obvious as daylight, but this fed government thing is as reactionary as the people. So far I have found nothing released on wiki leaks or any other supposed secret's revealing site's to be all that secret and defiantly not worth getting all worked up over. Who knows maybe one day when we wont go bonkers over the small insignificant stuff, some actual secrets might come out that we can go bonkers over, till then everybody needs to just chillax.

Originally posted by sonofliberty1776

Actually, if you look at the first definition, Hillary Clinton's orders to diplomats to spy on UN and other politicians and collect their DNA, etc, could conceivably be construed as treason, as could the actions of those diplomats who followed her order.

Sorry, not treason. Espionage, sure. Nations, all nations, engage in espionage. The "outrage" currently displayed is posturing. They all do it.

Well, a crime that undermines the offender's government. Ordering illegal spying on UN and allies could conceivably come under that particular definition. That's all I was saying.

reply to post by ExPostFacto


To be honest, and I speak for alot of men and women who are serving as I had, this is not a bad thing.

How many men and women in our armed forces, from any country involved in this, how many sons and daughters, sisters and brothers... that this guy put in harms way? It may not be right on what the orders are that are handed down, but innocent soldiers fighting for their country are the ones catching the bullets. All for the sake of nearly worthless information to the public. If we put political heads in office to speak for us, why do we need to be in the room with them at every meeting? What would we use this information for? Just to know? Other countries use this information to kill us and each other. I dont quite understand what all this accomplished other than bringing us all one step closer to the stone age.

Though, I gotta say, for all the 2012 buffs, this guy came just in time to make sure there were fireworks for the big 2012 display. Heh

Remember this is not just the military or even DoD, but all federal employees AND contractors. According to the chart in this link there are 2.65 million+ federal employees currently. At a non-DoD US government site that I know of federal employees are only 2.5% of the total population at the site and it is a very large site. The rest are federal contractors. This site may not be reflective of all sites so I'll be very conservative.

What we end up is a minimum of 10 - 20 MILLION people affected by this.

That is not a little thing...

Well, glad I don't work for a fed. Anyway, lots of mirrors out there. And there really isn't that much "earth shattering" "news" in those docs. ( & cables ) In fact, it all reads rather nominal for the jobs they have. A few are interesting, but that's about it so far.

Originally posted by wcitizen

When Obama became President the war was already ongoing.

That's so cool! By that logic, if my friend goes out and steals a Ferrari, I get to keep it, because it's already stolen!

I'm gonna go call my friend right now, and tell him about this really neat Ferrari I just saw...

Reading this thread I'm left with a puzzling niggly question?
Why wouldn't you want your own staff to see the information being released? YOUR OWN STAFF? it seems a very odd request or order?..............
The only thing I can think of are things like:
Your bosses are actually Aliens (cables to and from the planet Zarg)
They have been poisoning the staffs water coolers with mind altering drugs?(To make them stupid)(seems the whitehouse has had the lions share)
It's just very curious isn't it? Your own staff?


AH!! I know Christmas bonus lists and figures for the Federal Reserve

Mhhh, sounds like they are slowly trying to be in control of the population by removing some rights. I don't think this is gonna turn out so well, something needs to be done. Its the right of a civilian to be informed about whats going on.

I knew it.

The Internet as we know it...its days are numbered.

We had a good run, folks.

Originally posted by pilotdavems
...And there really isn't that much "earth shattering" "news" in those docs. ( & cables ) In fact, it all reads rather nominal for the jobs they have. A few are interesting, but that's about it so far.

WikiLeaks has only released a very small fraction of what they have.

Usually you save the best for last.

They are trying to legitimize the situation. Most of us know by now that wikileaks is a disinformation/psyop/whatever other name one can call it, it's fake. If they really didn't want certain people viewing these documents it would have been ordered with the very first leak. They are trying to look serious and act like they are really bothered. Too little, too late, this is all a sham. Count down the days until your favorite sites are pulled in the name of security.

OK, so no Federal employee can receive or read or discuss or contemplate the Wiki docs, says the Imperial Thought Police.

I assume that would include previous releases by the evil Wiki man.

If that is the case, I think we could safely say every federal employee is guilty, so we need to arrest them all and put them in a nearby FEMA camp to await having their right hand chopped off and their tongue cut out.

Problem solved!

........................

I don't think there is any news here. Viewing classified documents, without authorization, is illegal.

The government is just reminding its employees of that fact....seems silly and moot.

i think its a last ditch pathetic attempt by the government to avoid anymore leaks.

imagine if any more of the 1 million+ federal employees get inspired and disillusioned by reading the hypocrisy released on wikileaks.

What happens if all federal employees read any of the documents? Do they all get fired or put in prison? But then again the ones that fire them or put them in prison would have to know what they read was one of the documents so they would have to have read them too so I guess they would have to put themselves in prison too. Y'all go ahead and read all that stuff. Sounds like we will have GREAT results. All they want to do is dominate over everybody. When are we going to put our foot down and say enough is enough?

That's because they want to spot the insiders... DUH!
Second line.

Originally posted by ExPostFacto

"Unauthorized disclosures of classified documents (whether in print, on a blog or on websites) do not alter the documents' classified status or automatically result in declassification of the documents," the OMB said.

"To the contrary, classified information, whether or not already posted on public websites or disclosed to the media, remains classified, and must be treated as such by federal employees and contractors, until it is declassified by an appropriate US government authority."

www.google.com...

Related Articles:
edition.cnn.com...
www.bloomberg.com...
tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com...

So we all knew that eventually it would come to this. It was just a matter of time. All federal employees and that includes our military can no longer view wikileaks information, including on ATS. So if you are reading this, and are an employee of the federal government you are hereby notified on authority of the White House that if you click some link and view some of the classified information being leaked, whether on ATS or a newspaper, or through any other source you are in violation of the law. By the way, do not turn on the news channels or read the paper anymore either because they are repeating the leaks there. Just be a good employee of the government and do as you are told. I smell a class action First Amendment claim for all government employees.

edit on 4-12-2010 by ExPostFacto because: (no reason given)

edit on 5-12-2010 by SkepticOverlord because: (no reason given)

Everyone who has access to classified material should just blog it, and there would be no consequences.

Case closed, According to your opinion.

Yep.. makes a lot of sense.