Intelligence Chief Clapper Bars Employees From Talking to
Media
Monday, 21 Apr 2014 04:20 PM
By Joe Schaeffer
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has issued a directive
barring intelligence workers from talking to the media, even about unclassified
matters, without permission.
"Employees… must obtain
authorization for contacts with the media" on intelligence-related
matters, and "must also report… unplanned or unintentional contact with
the media on covered matters," the directive states, the Federation of
American Scientists’ Project on Government Secrecy reported Monday in a blog
post on its website.
The directive was issued March 20
and expresses its purpose as establishing "Intelligence Community (IC)
policy on contact with the media to ensure a consistent approach for addressing
media engagement across the IC and to mitigate risks of unauthorized
disclosures of intelligence-related matters that may result from such
contacts."
Although the new policy declares
"the IC is committed to sharing information responsibly with the public
via the media to further government openness and transparency," it goes on
to detail all the circumstances in which intelligence workers are not allowed
to speak to the media without first acquiring permission from superiors.
The directive "does not
distinguish between classified and unclassified intelligence information"
in determining what falls under the realm of "covered matters,"
Steven Aftergood, head of the Project on Government Secrecy for the FAS,
reports.
The directive bluntly states that
"no substantive information should be provided to the media regarding
covered matters in the the case of unplanned or unintentional contacts.
Authorization for a particular contact on covered matters does not constitute
authorization for additional media engagement."
It also warns employees that
"contacts with the media that involve support to projects such as books,
television programs, documentaries, motion pictures, and similar works related
to covered matters require consultation with the DNI ."
Aftergood notes that "the new
Directive creates an anomalous situation in which routine interactions that are
permissible between an intelligence employee and an ordinary member of the
public are now to be prohibited if that member of the public qualifies as
'media.'
"So under most circumstances,
an intelligence community employee is at liberty to discuss unclassified
'intelligence-related information' with his or her next-door neighbor. But if
the neighbor happened to be a member of the media, then the contact would be
prohibited altogether without prior authorization."
The Obama administration has been
heavily criticized for its attempts to control information released to the
media and the public. The Associated Press reported in October that Leonard
Downie Jr., a former executive editor of The Washington Post, wrote an analysis
that concluded, "in the Obama
administration’s Washington, government officials are increasingly afraid
to talk to the media.
"The administration's war on
leaks and other efforts to control information are the most aggressive I've
seen since the Nixon administration, when I was one of the editors involved in
The Washington Post's investigation of Watergate," Downie wrote.
In January, New York Times
Executive Editor Jill Abramson accused President Obama of operating "the
most secretive White House" she has ever covered.
"I would say it is the most
secretive White House that I have ever been involved in covering, and that
includes — I spent 22 years of my career in Washington and covered presidents
from President Reagan on up through now, and I was Washington bureau chief of
the Times during George W. Bush's first term," Abramson told Al Jazeera in an interview.
Aftergood believes the new
intelligence regulations are designed to secure total control of all
intelligence information revealed to the media and citizenry.
"Essentially, the directive
seeks to ensure that the only contacts that occur between intelligence
community employees and the press are those that have been approved in advance.
Henceforward, the only news about intelligence is to be authorized news," he
wrote.
James Clapper
James R. Clapper
is a director at the Office of the
Director of National Intelligence for the Barack Obama administration, and was an executive director, military
intelligence programs for Booz Allen
Hamilton.
Note: Melissa Hathaway
was the cyber coordination executive for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and a principal at Booz Allen Hamilton.
John Michael
McConnell was a director at the Office
of the Director of National Intelligence, and is the vice chairman for Booz Allen Hamilton.
Booz Allen
Hamilton is a contractor for the National
Security Agency (NSA).
Edward Snowden leaked
information about the National Security
Agency (NSA), and an employee at Booz
Allen Hamilton.
Paul
F. Anderson was a senior partner at Booz
Allen Hamilton, a trustee at the University of Chicago
Hospitals, a trustee at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and a trustee
at the Aspen Institute (think tank).
Michelle
Obama was a VP at the University of Chicago
Hospitals, and a lawyer at Sidley Austin LLP.
Barack
Obama was an intern at Sidley Austin
LLP.
R.
Eden Martin is counsel at Sidley
Austin LLP, and the president of the Commercial
Club of Chicago.
Newton
N. Minow is a senior counsel at Sidley
Austin LLP, and a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago.
Lester Crown
is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, the chairman for the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and was a
lifetime trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank).
James S.
Crown is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and a trustee
at the Aspen Institute (think tank).
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Aspen Institute (think
tank), and the Brookings Institution (think tank).
George Soros
was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society.
Joel
Z. Hyatt is an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think
tank), and was a co-founder & CEO for Current Media, LLC.
Current
TV was a division of Current Media,
LLC.
Al
Jazeera acquired Current TV.
Cyrus F.
Freidheim Jr. is an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think
tank), a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and was a managing
director at Booz Allen Hamilton.
Robert S. Osborne
is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and the EVP & general
counsel for Booz Allen Hamilton.
Booz Allen
Hamilton is a contractor for the National
Security Agency (NSA).
James R. Clapper
was an executive director, military intelligence programs for Booz Allen Hamilton, and is a director
at the Office of the Director of
National Intelligence for the Barack
Obama administration.
National
Intelligence Council reports to the Office
of the Director of National Intelligence.
Chas. W. Freeman
Jr. was the chairman nominee at the National
Intelligence Council for the Barack
Obama administration, is a trustee at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank), and a
director at the Atlantic Council of the United States
(think tank).
Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace (think
tank) was a funder for the National
Intelligence Council.
George
Soros is the founder & chairman for the Open Society Foundations.
Open
Society Foundations was a funder for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank), and the Atlantic Council of the United States
(think tank).
Charles O.
Rossotti is a director at the Atlantic
Council of the United States
(think tank), a director at Booz
Allen Hamilton, and was a commissioner for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
Booz Allen
Hamilton is a contractor for the National
Security Agency (NSA), and a contractor for Obamacare.
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