The New York Times reported yesterday that a classified CIA contract worker was fired because she objected to the use of torture by the CIA:
WASHINGTON, July 21 --— A contract employee working for the Central Intelligence Agency said she had been fired recently for posting a message on a classified computer server that said an interrogation technique used by the agency against some terror suspects amounted to torture.
The employee, Christine Axsmith, kept the "Covert Communications" blog on a top-secret computer network used by American intelligence agencies. Ms. Axsmith was fired on Monday after C.I.A. officials objected to a message that criticized the interrogation technique called "waterboarding," a particularly harsh practice that the C.I.A. is known to have used on Khalid Sheik Mohammed, who is widely regarded as the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks.
I thought it was a little remarkable that there are top-secret blogs on intelligence community computer systems. According to the Times report, over 1,000 classified blogs have been running for about a year in "an experimental effort being carried out in top-secret computer forums where information and ideas are shared across the intelligence community".
But, apparently, the notion of 'shared information and ideas', doesn't include an anti-torture opinion. Ms. Axsmith is a lawyer and computer security expert. She has had top-secret security clearance for over ten-years, during which time she worked in the State Department and the National Counterterrorism Center. In her classified blog, "Covert Communications", she referred to (publicly admitted) use of waterboarding by the CIA, called it torture, and opined that "torture is wrong". She said that soon after her posting, angry CIA personnel told her that senior CIA officials were angry about the blog comments. She was then fired.
She was not dismissed for disclosing any classified information -- for one, she did not, and for another the blog entry was itself classified so that it could be accessed only by officials with top-secret or higher (double top-secret?) clearance.
She was fired for looking to start a discussion about the use of torture, the relevance of the Geneva convention, and for her opinion, contra BushCo, that "torture is wrong".
But, the punishment didn't end there. She was not only fired from her position with the CIA contractor for whom she worked, but her security clearance was removed -- thus effectively ending her long career as a consultant and contractor in the intelligence community.
A high price to pay, but she did, after all, hold the outrageous opinion that "torture is wrong". That'll never do under the Bush regime.
While your correspondent has doubts that the President or senior members of his administration were even aware of Ms. Axsmith's classified blog, much participated in the decision of the senior CIA officials to have her fired from her contracting position, the tone is set at the top. From the first, the tone set by this administration has been intolerant of contrary points of view.
A government intolerant of diversity, afraid of dissent, and quick to punish both, is itself intolerable. ITMFA
NOTE: Ms. Axsmith has a discussion of the incident in several posts on Econo-Girl, her non-classified public blog, which includes several supportive comments from her former colleagues in the intelligence community (anonymous, of course, because this is no longer a society in which there is freedom to dissent without fear of repercussion).
But, apparently, the notion of 'shared information and ideas', doesn't include an anti-torture opinion. Ms. Axsmith is a lawyer and computer security expert. She has had top-secret security clearance for over ten-years, during which time she worked in the State Department and the National Counterterrorism Center. In her classified blog, "Covert Communications", she referred to (publicly admitted) use of waterboarding by the CIA, called it torture, and opined that "torture is wrong". She said that soon after her posting, angry CIA personnel told her that senior CIA officials were angry about the blog comments. She was then fired.
She was not dismissed for disclosing any classified information -- for one, she did not, and for another the blog entry was itself classified so that it could be accessed only by officials with top-secret or higher (double top-secret?) clearance.
She was fired for looking to start a discussion about the use of torture, the relevance of the Geneva convention, and for her opinion, contra BushCo, that "torture is wrong".
But, the punishment didn't end there. She was not only fired from her position with the CIA contractor for whom she worked, but her security clearance was removed -- thus effectively ending her long career as a consultant and contractor in the intelligence community.
A high price to pay, but she did, after all, hold the outrageous opinion that "torture is wrong". That'll never do under the Bush regime.
While your correspondent has doubts that the President or senior members of his administration were even aware of Ms. Axsmith's classified blog, much participated in the decision of the senior CIA officials to have her fired from her contracting position, the tone is set at the top. From the first, the tone set by this administration has been intolerant of contrary points of view.
A government intolerant of diversity, afraid of dissent, and quick to punish both, is itself intolerable. ITMFA
NOTE: Ms. Axsmith has a discussion of the incident in several posts on Econo-Girl, her non-classified public blog, which includes several supportive comments from her former colleagues in the intelligence community (anonymous, of course, because this is no longer a society in which there is freedom to dissent without fear of repercussion).
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