Government Considers Dissatisfaction With US Policies To Be A 'High Threat'
from the looks-like-someone's-going-to-spend-some-time-at-the-Ministry-of-Love! dept
The administration’s “Insider Threat” program was discussed here a few weeks ago. Apparently, the government has been running dangerously low on whistleblowers to prosecute and now is seeking help from its employees in identifying “threats” to the government — some of which may be no more than a cubicle away.
The national “spy on your neighbor” program (See Something, Say Something) has now been internalized by the government, which openly encourages its employees to view their co-workers with suspicion. Leaks = “aiding the enemy,” according to official documents and one can’t be too careful in this post-Snowden climate of forced transparency.
To that end, the government has introduced a couple of training modules/interactive games aimed at heightening suspicion levels in federal offices. There are two versions: one for the Dept. of Defense and one for regular “federal employees.” You score points by following the rules and outing co-workers whose behavior indicates they might up and tear the country a new one by blowing whistles.
According to the interactive brainwasher CyberAwareness Challenge, these are some of the prime indicators that a co-worker is prone to rampant acts of insider threatening.
A security training test created by a Defense Department agency warns federal workers that they should consider the hypothetical Indian-American woman a “high threat” because she frequently visits family abroad, has money troubles and “speaks openly of unhappiness with U.S. foreign policy.”
Yes. It’s true. An inherently untrustworthy foreigner has made things worse on herself by exercising her First Amendment rights and openly having her vehicle repossessed. A good citizen loves our country’s thousands of rules and policies and pays their bills on time — no exceptions.
And who in their right, non-threatening mind would want to leave the country once, much less several times? Seriously. The hassle at the airports alone would seem to be enough to deter a non-Caucasian from making more than one trip abroad.
While this example may seem stupid at best and borderline racist at worst, a spokesman for the Pentagon defended the program’s virtues in a statement to Huffington Post.
Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Damien Pickart said, “DISA was sensitive to any civil liberty concerns that might arise from any portion of the curriculum, which is why it coordinated with 26 federal agencies to ensure the maximum amount of input was received before going live.”
“When considering personnel for a position of trust that requires a security clearance, there are many potential indicators that must be considered when evaluating for insider threat concerns,” he explained. “The department takes these variables into consideration based on past examples of personnel who engaged in spying or treasonous acts.”
Several million people across the federal government have taken the training since it was released, Pickart said, and there has been only one complaint…
Anyone familiar with government work knows that increasing the number of agencies involved has very little bearing on overall quality of output. In fact, it’s more frequently noted that the quality is inversely proportionate to the number of bureaucrats involved.
And as for there being only one complaint? Well, holy shit, what did you expect? The program itself makes the none-too-subtle point that complaining about the government is a great way to end up with the word “Snowden” taped surreptitiously to your back by your newly trained co-workers.
Now, if you’re truly curious, you can attempt to play the interactive CyberAwareness Challenge. Chrome users are somewhat discouraged from making the attempt. My personal experience boiled down to a lot of load time broken up by occasional “challenges” and questions that had all the depth and nuance of a Dora the Explorer episode.
The challenge level may go up the further you proceed in the game, but I can’t offer any insight on that. The load times are so long, it’s tough to believe you’ll have a chance to round up any “insider threats” before they’ve boarded the next plane to Moscow. Or retired.
All hyperbole aside, this training program won’t do much to find insider threats, who are likely not nearly as easy to identify as the rather spurious list of “indicators” would have federal employees believe. And the last thing the government should be doing is incubating the idea that exposing government wrongdoing is only a step or two removed from actual terrorism. Attempting to weed out “dissent” by turning government employees against each other is only going to foster more of the behavior these agencies are trying to stamp out.
Filed Under: free speech, government, threats, whistleblowers
Comments on “Government Considers Dissatisfaction With US Policies To Be A 'High Threat'”
Orwell’s book was [i]not[/i] supposed to be a Government For Dummies training guide.
Obama, you’re doing it wrong.
Re: Re:
Machiavelli’s book wasn’t supposed to be a Government For Dummies training guide either, and look how that ended up.
As a species, we just can’t get enough copies of “Tin-Plated Dictatorship For Beginners”. Some days human nature just depresses me.
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What does human nature do on the bad days?
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As a species, we just can’t get enough copies of “Tin-Plated Dictatorship For Beginners”. Some days human nature just depresses me.
Excuse me, I’ve got a bestseller to write!
I consider US foreign policy to be a high threat.
Hello NSA, suck my plums.
So does that mean they are going to start tracking elections and anyone who votes for change is a threat?
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You don’t get to vote for SIGNIFICANT change. All you’ll ever get is a new Robama to choose
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=94zRy9zcUDI&t=6
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Didn’t you notice in the last election that even when Ron Paul came in a very close second in a debate (above Rick Perry and Mitt Romney), the media didn’t even mention him?
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0811/61412.html
You’ll never hear about change even if it’s out there because the media is part of the machine.
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I don’t know… I heard a LOT about Ron Paul during that election cycle.
Re: Re:
Haha. Silly rabbit. Change is for kids.
There are no changes allowed in American elections. Only the marketing of change is allowed.
All candidates will be bought and paid for by corporate interests before they are placed on the ballot.
Sincerely,
Overlords of the New World Order
Actual have money problem does probably make a person a higher risk as they are more likely to take money for payment and if they are disenfranchised with politicly it makes then less likely to care about there commitment to keep stuff that should stay secret, secret.
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Actual have money problem does probably make a person a higher risk as they are more likely to take money for payment
Which could be better addressed by making financial advice services available to employees.
and if they are disenfranchised with politicly it makes then less likely to care about there commitment to keep stuff that should stay secret, secret.
I presume you meant “disenchanted”.
Being disenchanted probably means you think more about politics than the uncritical person – and therefore you probably have a better idea about what really needs to be secret and what doesn’t
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Yeah, although it sounds racist, this specific profile does have a few warning signs.
Basically, they’re spending a lot of money on international travel, while not having enough to pay the bills…
Thing is, this is getting cross threaded with the whole ideology element. Past experience is, you need one OR the other to turn someone, not both. And, when I say “turn”, I really mean a coordinated intelligence agency, not, you know, “terrerusts!”
Of course, the whole thing is made worse by the fact that we know, in this day and age, all bank seizures of property are legal, right guys?
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Except you have to allow for the possibility of maybe the Indian woman placed a higher value on her family in India than on her car, so decided that the loss of the vehicle was acceptable as long as it meant she could fly home to see her loved ones.
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It will usually be the parents that are paying for the tickets back to India in my experience.
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Valuing loved ones more than material possessions? That’s pretty un-American of her. She’s probably a communist or al qaida
Re: Response to: Anonymous Coward on Aug 8th, 2013 @ 9:13am
you mean like taking money for payment? don’t judge people because of something as stupid as money
So it begins, in earnest.
The Orwellian hell is afoot. We’re(read The Government) is sliding into a sorry state of fascism along with being a hyper police state.
I wonder how long it will be before they start offering prizes for people to rat each other out? Here’s your cheese your fucking rat! Now, what have you been up to???
In other (UK based) news, David Cameron wants to repeal the Human Rights Act.
http://www.theguardian.com/law/2013/aug/08/david-cameron-human-rights-act?commentpage=3
Governments all over the place are looking to turn their countries into police states.
Welcome
to the German Democratic Republic!
Another way to detect people that are “high threats” is to check if they have a turban wrapped around their heads.
It’s true, look it up.
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But seriously, has America’s descent into paranoia reached the stage where you are flagging people based on stereotypes?
There used to be a time where espionage (and counter-espionage) was a proper black art.
Now they’ve reduced it to guesswork and paranoia. Pathetic.
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Honestly, looking back at intelligence operations in the Cold War, and for that matter, counterintelligence operations? Yeah, some of the dumbest stuff actually worked, the more sophisticated stuff had a nasty habit of fouling up.
Get a housekeeper in the Soviet embassy to throw out classified documents, and fish them out of the trash? Yeah, that worked for years.
Cultivate a spy network in East Berlin? No dice.
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You can also find them by tossing them in a body of water. If they float, they can be considered a high threat. Only the innocent sink.
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What on Earth does the USG have against Sikhs?
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You mean the turbans like non-muslim Indian Sikhs wear?
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That’s the kind of comment I can never tell whether it’s serious or not, but sadly some people really are too stupid to tell the difference. e.g. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/06/us/shooting-reported-at-temple-in-wisconsin.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
They also don’t understand that “Muslim” isn’t a race or that non-religious/Christian people of Arabic descent also exist.
Anyone who thinks they can tell if someone is a terrorist or a Muslim (and no, those are not synonyms) just by looking at them is a complete idiot.
Several million people across the federal government have taken the training since it was released, Pickart said, and there has been only one complaint…
And that complainant is now in federal custody undergoing re-education training in Room 101.
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We all know its the Indian woman in the example.
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Don’t joke, it wasn’t fun.
High threats have increased by multitudes since the Snowden revelations.
Now they gonna have to watch everyone… oh wait…
Version 2
McCarthyism, v.2.
Re: Version 2
I was wondering when someone would make this connection.
Any nominees for Charlie? I tend to forget names of unpleasant people, so I can’t provide any for you. 🙁
Re: Re: Version 2
It is not really McCarthyism. McCarthyism is a witch hunt where they make accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence. This is more like Stasi behavior. Is Stazism a word? If not it should be …
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stasi
Re: Re: Re: Version 2
I thought McCarthyism was where you found an ambitious, alchoholic, patholigical liar, and then got them to take over a major political movement, just to see what kinds of crazy came crawling out.
Re: Re: Re: Version 2
The first two lines in the Wikipedia entry say:
There seem to be some similarities.
Re: Re: Version 2
I may, or may not, take offense to the previous post.
Re: Re: Version 2
Charlie McCarthyism, I could handle. Who doesn’t love wise-cracking dummies?
It’s the regular McCarthyism that scares me.
Re: Re: Re: Version 2
It has always been hard for me to tell the two apart. 😉
Now more than ever.
When considering personnel for a position of trust that requires a security clearance…
…you might as well just use a dartboard. Only ignorant, stupid, vacuous, worthless, utterly idiotic simians think that security clearances have the slightest value. They might as well be printed on toilet paper, because they’re exclusively for assholes.
can this actually be for real? grown men coming out with this sort of crap! it’s more like what kids do! there has to be so much paranoia, so much insecurity in the top echelon of the US government to have to come out with something like this, it makes me scared to think of how far things are going to be taken before something snaps and shit really hits fan! for people in the positions that these hold to be so afraid of what could happen that they want to screen every person who could be of foreign birth, why let them settle in the USA to start with?what is more worrying is the countries they are pushing these same ideas and fears to! are there actually any sane people in charge or are they all completely consumed with hysteria?
Money Issues
Money issues have long been considered a risk issue for those with a security clearance. Bouncing checks (as long as one isn’t a member of Congress, and note the plural) was one of the fastest ways to get one’s clearance revoked when I had mine. Financial worries and disillusionment are indeed factors that should be noted with regards to security clearances (they don’t, however, make one a “threat”). Travelling to meet your family semi-annually being seen as a threat factor is, IMO, ridiculous.
WRT Richard, when I was in the USAF 2 decades ago, access to simple financial advice services were available. Making them available does not mean one will necessarily use it.
Holy crap!
Do you see that!
She has provided “Adequate work quality”!
She is clearly a lazy-fat-stupid-video game playing-American hater!
The next time I see a co-worker completing their job in an adequate manner…well…never mind, that is pretty unlikely here anyway.
The problem is that there are thousands of programs many of which are likely illegal, violate the constitution, or both. The Snowden leaks are probably just the tip of the iceberg.
What the government is trying to do here is twofold. Create a sense of fear among federal workers that they are being watched, and on the off chance, prevent a person from blowing the whistle on something illegal or unconstitutional.
Both of which are extremely stupid. This sort of work environment will create stressors for people, and will more than likely increase the number of people going public on illegal or unconstitutional government actions.
Well, I’m out. If I were in the US, I’d be a clear threat. My brother is in Brussels and I’m planning on visiting him soon. I’ve spoken openly of discontent with US government policies both off and online. I also do a good job at work, very good but not fantastic (couldn’t be bothered).
Someone wanna call Oburmur’s thugs? Can’t be bothered to do it myself. I clearly should be locked up without a trial.
there has been only one complaint
They have since asked the complainer (who did so anonymously, but the NSA knew who it was anyway) a series of questions in the comfort of a facility on an island known for great weather and fine cigars.
During this interview, the complainer retracted their complaint and admitted to terrorist activities and kidnapping the Lindburgh baby.
So, we re convinced that everyone feels the program is appropriate.
Different opinions in the Pentagon are the people’s first line of defense and best hope for survival as a nation.
Reacting to real world situations as a nation is the purview of very few people on a scale. Who in their right minds would want homogeny of thought on the front lines?
Idiots club only.
F-
Only one complaint
“Several million people across the federal government have taken the training since it was released, Pickart said, and there has been only one complaint…”
I wonder what happened to the person that complained.
Re: Only one complaint
They were eaten by a grue.
Re: Only one complaint
My thought to the “only one complainer” note was “Bullshit”.
The complainers went to their various supervisors and complained vigorously, and perhaps humorously. For example, in the late 80s, at an aerospace company, I went to my supervisor and asked to take my drug test at my desk, because I was very busy. In the staff meeting where they announced “random” “drug” “tests”, I asked how big the bottle was, noting that I had a very large bladder.
That is, a lot/all of complaints just don’t get past first level managers, no matter how biting the criticism is. Complaints certainly don’t get past the department level manager, who will claim to have forwarded them “up the ladder”, when in fact, the complaint paperwork went in the wastebasket.
Huh?
Thinking back on the news, the leakers most prominently in the public mind have all been (East)Indian broke travellers – Snowden, Manning, Cheney and his buddy Skipper who leaked a CIA agent’s identity, Ellsberg… Do we see a pattern as to what ethnicity/gender should be watched? Add in all the cold-war spies (supposedly Ethel Rosenberg was just a stooge for her husband who called the shots) and pretty much all of them are white, male… Turbans are sorely under-represented, as are women.
Re: Huh?
Pretty sure that if their photos are anything to go by, Snowden and Manning are Caucasian. Do they have family in India, I don’t care and it doesn’t matter.
Re: Re: Huh?
Oh, yes, Snowden, manning, Ellsberg, Cheney and his buddy Scooter (not the muppet, I think) are all East Indian Females. That explains their disregard for government secrecy requirements.
Re: Re: Re: Huh?
Sorry, when I wrote that reply to you, I was reading your comment wrong. I thought you were saying that Manning, Snowden et al were Indian, now that I’ve re-read it, you actually didn’t.
The really scary part is that if Snowden didn’t do anything, people would have just carried on with their lives without so much as a single thought about privacy issues….
This makes it clear that the federal government is not a servant of the people but a rouge organization only interested in growing it’s own power and influence much like any other corporation in assistance.
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Goddamn reds!
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They’re making this all up!
We immediately classify people based on rather stupid criteria, and if you read the slide shared in this article carefully, you’ll notice the “speaks openly about unhappiness with U.S. foreign policy” as one of the criteria.
What is our world, and our country coming to? This type of approach immediately does 2 things that I’m concerned about…
1. It creates fear, especially the kind for “speaking out” in our supposedly free country.
2. This type of “training” immediately boxes people into categories, so BEFORE you meet a person, you’ve immediately classified them (within the context of employment at this Government agency).
You don’t even get to know a person before they now must prove to you they don’t fit this “box”.
This. Is. Sad.
So because she has financial difficulties, travels to India, and speaks her mind… she is high risk.
Wow.
good lord what kind of monster have I become?
I had to re take this “training” last month apparently I have become a medium threat. It may be time for me to find a new line of work.
Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custode?
Now we know, the watchmen are watched over by their fellow watchmen with steely-eyed paranoia…
I can’t wait for this program to be updated in the near future; also making one a threat risk if they haven’t reported a few colleagues in the last year or so under said program. This dog will forever chase it’s wagging tail.
Giving Whistleblowers a Free Training Kit!
This is great! The kit tells every potential whistleblower exactly what to avoid doing so they don’t get caught before they tear the government a new one.
Call it the Snowden Effect. 🙂
“DISA was sensitive to any civil liberty concerns that might arise from any portion of the curriculum, which is why it coordinated with 26 federal agencies to ensure the maximum amount of input was received before going live.”
I think this is supposed to read
“DISA was sensitive to any civil liberty concerns that might arise from any portion of the curriculum, which is why it coordinated with 26 federal agencies to ensure the maximum amount of input was received and ignored before going live.”
Wondering
I wonder if this program has DRM in it?
http://www.amazon.com/Stasiland-Stories-Behind-Berlin-Wall/dp/0062077325
Another good instruction manual to go with 1984.
The reason the load time is so long, is due to every file being downloaded off your computer.
Before we go blaming
People like to chastise Obama for this stuff, when it was happening long before him. “Are you, or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?”
Student loans
Anyone who is (a) having trouble paying off their student loans (b) travels outside the US and (c) openly participates in dissident websites (like Techdirt) probably *is* a security risk — or at least, has a higher chance of pulling a Snowden than someone who does none of the above.
I’m a medium-high risk government worker! Watch out!
Wonder what the clappers profile would look like
Content is everything
This appears to be a training system put in place to help identify potential security leaks. So, if you have an employee who can travel out of the country quickly and easily; and they also speak openly at the DoD about their political beliefs then they probably should at least be shown to HR. This is more a company doing damage control and trying to put a cap on the constant leakage than it is the government profiling everyday citizens.