Saturday, July 29, 2006

a name for people in government

* winterpatriot at bradblog interviewed sibel about the Tice thing. Sibel:
"So the people we call "whistleblowers" shouldn't be anything special. This is what all government employees should be doing. And if they did, we wouldn't call them whistleblowers. We wouldn't have a name for them. We'd have a name for the other people in government instead."
funny.

* nyt:
"A federal grand jury has begun investigating the leak of classified information about intelligence programs to the press and has subpoenaed a former National Security Agency employee who claims to have witnessed illegal activity while working at the agency.

The former employee, Russell D. Tice, 44, of Linthicum, Md., said two F.B.I. agents approached on Wednesday and handed him the subpoena, which requires him to testify next Wednesday before a grand jury in Alexandria, Va.

The subpoena, which Mr. Tice made public on Friday, says the investigation covers “possible violation of federal criminal laws involving the unauthorized disclosure of classified information.” It specifically mentions the Espionage Act.
[]
The decision to compel testimony before a grand jury is an indication of the seriousness of the inquiry. The Eastern District of Virginia has often been chosen by the Justice Department for national security cases because the federal court there is generally thought to be favorable to the government.
[]
The American Civil Liberties Union denounced the subpoena as part of an effort to cover up government wrongdoing.

“Courageous federal employees like Mr. Tice who bring hidden truths to light, letting lawmakers and the American people know when official misconduct has occurred, perform a valuable public service,” said Caroline Fredrickson, director of the A.C.L.U.’s legislative office in Washington.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sibel is exactly right. A gov't employee who brings wrongdoing to light is protecting the people and shouldn't be called something that implies "snitching".

It's time we thought of a name for those in gov't who suppress the truth to protect themselves from being discovered at illegal and seditious activites.

NeoNutzi is my favorite. I'll bet others can think of some doozies.

lukery said...

lol. we're off to a good start.