Clapper Signs Media Directive Gagging Intelligence Workers

Last month Director of National Intelligence James Clapper
signed a directive banning the employees of some government
agencies from discussing intelligence-related work with the
media.

Read the directive below:

In the directive “media” is defined as “any person,
organization, or entity” that is “primarily engaged in the
collection, production, or dissemination to the public of
information in any form, which includes print, broadcast, film and
Internet” or is “otherwise engaged in the collection, production,
or dissemination to the public of information in any form related
to topics of national security, which includes print, broadcast,
film and Internet.”

In an email, the Government Accountability Project’s national
security and human rights director, Jesslyn Radack, rightly
points out that the directive “is a clear extension of the
executive branch’s war on national security whistleblowers.”

This latest action is a clear extension of the executive
branch’s war on national security whistleblowers. It is a grotesque
twist for James Clapper to limit public knowledge about government
activity when he himself has been responsible for lying to Congress
and misleading the public about the government’s overreaching mass
surveillance programs.

The lie in question can be watched below. In March last year
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.)
asked Clapper, “Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on
millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?” Clapper responded,
“No, sir.” Wyden went on to ask, “It does not?” Clapper responded,
“Not wittingly. There are cases where they could inadvertently
perhaps collect, but not wittingly.”

Under a heading titled “Policy,” the directive says:

The IC [Intelligence Community] is committed to sharing
information responsibly with the public via the media to further
government openness and transparency and to build public
understanding of the IC and its programs, consistent with the
protection of intelligence sources and methods.

Remember, the Obama administration is supposedly “the
most transparent administration in history.”