NSA Officials Setup A Tumblr Blog To Keep Tabs On “Transparency”

By Bridget Aladro
The State Weekly

In a desperate appeal to the American Public, The National Security Agency launched their blog, IC on the Record (http://icontherecord.tumblr.com) through the popular microblogging website, Tumblr. Although there are some very official looking seals, declassified information and a footnote at the bottom reading “This website is maintained by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence”, it still comes across as an empty gesture. The man behind it all is James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence, who created the blog in the interest of transparency regarding the NSA. He means to provide the public with pertinent information regarding the privacy and security of United States citizens…on Tumblr.

Clapper explains that the goal of IC on the Record is to “provide the public with direct access to factual information related to the lawful foreign surveillance activities carried out by the intelligence community. In addition to comprehensive explanations of the authorities under which the intelligence community conducts foreign surveillance, the site will address methods of collection, use of collected data, and oversight and compliance.” It should be noted that when asked, at a Congressional hearing in March, whether the NSA collected any type of data on millions of Americans, Clapper responded: “No sir.” He was also criticized recently for misleading a Senate hearing by denying that the NSA collects information about American citizens.

It seems that the public might be more interested in a little more direct access to the unlawful domestic surveillance instead. President Obama supported the commencement of IC on the Record by telling reporters “The intelligence community is creating a website that will serve as a hub for further transparency, and this will give Americans and the world the ability to learn more about what our intelligence community does and what it doesn’t do, how it carries out its mission, and why it does so.”

Jameel Jaffer, deputy legal director at the American Civil Liberties Union, isn’t buying it. He says “on the same day the president promised more transparency on surveillance issues, the CIA filed a brief in one of our ‘targeted killing’ cases arguing that it could not release legal memos about the drone program, could not release civilian casualty numbers, and for that matter could not even acknowledge that the agency had played any role in targeted killings.” So much for furthering transparency. In fact, just this past Friday, President Obama defended the NSA saying that Americans should expect and tolerate, what he regarded as, “modest encroachments on privacy” in the name of security.

As the NSA embarks on their blogging journey the skepticism grows. Their release of information has been on a need-to-know basis with U.S. citizens not being privy to the majority of the details and offenses surrounding the surveillance program. Darrell West, director of governance studies at the Brookings Institution, muses that NSA’s new open door policy isn’t “a seismic shift towards a greater transparency.

The federal government put these documents out under duress.” To offer a rebuttal, Shawn Turner, a spokesman for the Director of National Intelligence counters: “There is no disagreement across the community with regard to whether or not we need to be more transparent and it is just a question of determining how far we can safely go.” If America was looking for open communication and honesty from the NSA, chances are, they won’t find it on Tumblr.

Sources :

1. The State Weekly
2. Image Credit

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