Chelsea exposes dangerous nature of Insider Threat Program
March 22, 2016 by the Chelsea Manning Support Network
The overly broad ‘Insider Threat’ program could have thousands of government employees under surveillance, revealed a document obtained by Chelsea Manning and released by the Guardian last week.
‘Insider Threat’, created as a response to Chelsea’s disclosure of documents to Wikileaks in 2010, encourages government employees to examine each other for potential personality traits and motives that might fall in line with a future “threat”—or whistleblower.
Chelsea, still imprisoned at Fort Leavenworth, filed a Freedom of Information Act request to receive the profile they created of her as an example. It labels Chelsea as “disgruntled”, “ideological”, and having “financial difficulties”—all of which are supposedly indications of motive.
In her new Guardian op-ed, Chelsea assesses the danger of this broad language: “Agencies implementing the Insider Threat program could examine anyone. Such subjective labeling could easily be applied to virtually every single person currently holding a security clearance.”
The program is, “modern-day McCarthyism that has friends and colleagues spy on and report each other,” says Jessleyn Radack, whistleblower and attorney for Thomas Drake and Edward Snowden.
“It effectively stifles workplace free speech, dissent and is openly trying to deter whistleblowers.”
The profile further implies that Chelsea’s gender identity is somehow relevant to her disclosure of documents, and could have been a warning. And although obviously aware of Chelsea’s gender identity, the program consistently calls her ‘Bradley Manning’ and uses male pro-nouns. This is a bizarrely backwards stance for an administration that has been so accepting of the LGBTQ community on the surface.
Chase Strangio, attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, told the Guardian the implication of the document was that anyone who pushes back on injustice against LGBT people within the military should be considered an insider threat.
“They are using her gender identity to suggest it fits into an offender profile. We are seeing that argument used over and over again in Chelsea’s case.”
The overly broad ‘Insider Threat’ program could have thousands of government employees under surveillance, revealed a document obtained by Chelsea Manning and released by the Guardian last week.
‘Insider Threat’, created as a response to Chelsea’s disclosure of documents to Wikileaks in 2010, encourages government employees to examine each other for potential personality traits and motives that might fall in line with a future “threat”—or whistleblower.
Chelsea, still imprisoned at Fort Leavenworth, filed a Freedom of Information Act request to receive the profile they created of her as an example. It labels Chelsea as “disgruntled”, “ideological”, and having “financial difficulties”—all of which are supposedly indications of motive.
In her new Guardian op-ed, Chelsea assesses the danger of this broad language: “Agencies implementing the Insider Threat program could examine anyone. Such subjective labeling could easily be applied to virtually every single person currently holding a security clearance.”
The program is, “modern-day McCarthyism that has friends and colleagues spy on and report each other,” says Jessleyn Radack, whistleblower and attorney for Thomas Drake and Edward Snowden.
“It effectively stifles workplace free speech, dissent and is openly trying to deter whistleblowers.”
The profile further implies that Chelsea’s gender identity is somehow relevant to her disclosure of documents, and could have been a warning. And although obviously aware of Chelsea’s gender identity, the program consistently calls her ‘Bradley Manning’ and uses male pro-nouns. This is a bizarrely backwards stance for an administration that has been so accepting of the LGBTQ community on the surface.
Chase Strangio, attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, told the Guardian the implication of the document was that anyone who pushes back on injustice against LGBT people within the military should be considered an insider threat.
“They are using her gender identity to suggest it fits into an offender profile. We are seeing that argument used over and over again in Chelsea’s case.”
Read more analysis from VICE, ShadowProof, the Guardian, BoingBoing, TechDirt, TruthDig, and BetaNews.
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