posted by
n1
on Friday June 27 2014, @10:43AM
from the corrupt-officials-will-comply-with-redundant-new-laws dept.
from the corrupt-officials-will-comply-with-redundant-new-laws dept.
The US Congress has passed a law that will give increased protection for whistle blowers that work in government agencies like NSA and CIA. An employee that reports grievances shall not be exposed to reprisals. The law also requires Senate confirmation for the director of the NSA, a post that until now had been outside senators' oversight.
Non-staff contractors, such as Mr Snowden during his time working for the NSA, are not covered by the new protections. They had been protected under a law that was in effect between 2007 and 2012.
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Congress Passes a Law to Protect Whistle Blowers
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(Score: 4, Informative) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Friday June 27 2014, @10:51AM
Whoever said this, (apparently it may not have been Churchill) it seems appropriate right now:
"The Americans can always be trusted to do the right thing, once all other possibilities have been exhausted."
(Score: 2, Insightful) by NullPtr on Friday June 27 2014, @11:02AM
Not really. This has been down to try to convince people that if you have information on wrongdoing on behalf of your government, you can report it without risk of adverse consequences. It's been down in the light of the Snowden leaks. But Snowden himself would be executed by the government the moment he set foot on America, so we can see immediately that this is an empty, meaningless gesture which should fool no-one.
(Score: 2) by tibman on Friday June 27 2014, @02:53PM
Are you saying this law is bad then?
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Friday June 27 2014, @05:38PM
Based on the Soylent summary, it appears that way, because it does not even protect contractors, which Snowden was. This looks like it's just a feel-good measure without any teeth.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 27 2014, @07:28PM
Yes, this is a very bad law, because it has no real effect, except giving the perception to very naive people that someone is actually caring and protecting whistleblowers. In fact it may be worse than no law at all, since now they will all refer to this law and say that's how you handle things, never mind the fact that a superior officer or politician will never do anything except perhaps get a promotion for not going public.
(Score: 2) by Leebert on Friday June 27 2014, @05:48PM
I doubt it. They didn't execute Bradley Manning, for example. Remember, in their minds, they have the moral high road.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 27 2014, @11:13PM
[...] we can see immediately that this is an empty, meaningless gesture which should fool no-one.
Indeed. Whistleblowers are an endangered species. Here's one man's story.
ObURL: http://web.archive.org/web/20040408124353/http://www.orafraud.org/Oracle/terminator.html [archive.org]
(Score: 2) by cafebabe on Friday June 27 2014, @11:26AM
Well, possibilities haven't been exhausted yet because the law doesn't cover contractors and isn't retrospective.
1702845791×2
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Horse With Stripes on Friday June 27 2014, @11:47AM
This is probably just a honeypot to weed out those who are chomping at the bit to tell the truth about our government but have been scared to death ever since Snowden showed his cards.
I'd look for small stories about the government finding low level espionage within its ranks and dealing with it before these traitors blossomed into more Snowdens.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday June 27 2014, @01:36PM
The elites are scared. This is a ploy to stem the bleeding by cutting off further embarrassments. The loss of public confidence is total. They cannot return to status quo ante without very deep, painful measures that will mostly hurt them. We all know they have no appetite for mea culpas. They cannot even bear to publicly reprimand bankers who destroy the lives and dreams of millions and collude with drug mafia and tyrants.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Thexalon on Friday June 27 2014, @03:28PM
On the contrary, they know that they've made an enemy of the general public of the United States, but they also believe they can win complete victory. Here's why:
- Workers are now desperately competing for terrible jobs, with dangerous working conditions, low pay, and high education and training requirements. They will even accept wage theft. They on average have negative balance sheets, so there's virtually no chance of them starting businesses that could create an alternative to those terrible jobs, and they can't quit to do something other than work for fear of losing what little they have, and government assistance is insufficient to survive on.
- Enough politicians are in their pockets that the government won't do a damn thing to stop them. Voters are forced to choose between 2 parties that both basically support the elite's policies on everything important even if those positions are at odds with the vast majority of the country. The majority of eligible citizens don't vote in large part because of their lack of choice on anything important.
- The information that the general public gets about current events is put out by propaganda machines - Fox, CNN, MSNBC, PBS, New York Times, and quite a few others have been caught as a matter of corporate policy refusing to report on the major bad stuff done by government or elite corporations. I'm not saying there aren't indie reporters doing a good job, but the fact is that there are a lot of mainstream reporters who hear the same things the indie reporters hear and say or write nothing about it.
- The non-governmental organizations that could stop them (unions, various charities) are weak and underfunded. They are smeared regularly in the propaganda that most people call "news" (see above).
- Religious groups spend most of their time telling the middle- and lower-classes that their situation is their fault, or too small and/or poor to have any real influence.
- Internationally, there are few countries putting forward real alternatives, and those that try are subject to coup attempts backed by the United States government. The USSR, for all its many faults, kept a lot of the worst instincts of the Western elites in check, but now doesn't exist, and China has decided to embrace similar ideals as the West.
- Walk into any Walmart in the country, and you'll see the shuffling footsteps of a defeated people.
- Attempts to break out of the corporate system controlled by the elites are being crushed by that system, whether we're talking about off-the-grid power sources, sharing designs for cheap and effective 3D-printed replacements for bad products, or software that does something that the elites don't want.
I'm not saying they plan all this in a smoke-filled back room, but those rich and powerful people that choose to exercise their political clout know what is in their best interest and have the means to convince a sufficient number of people to go along with it.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday June 27 2014, @05:00PM
On the other site, there was an awesome professional troll called Jocktroll who said:
There exists the potential for shit to get really messy soon. Our Southern Border is basically an open gaping hole for people/weapons/nukes/diseases, It looks like we're going to get bogged down in Iraq again, the economy is crumbling, and Snowden/Greenwald are about to release a list of two-million Americans receiving the most severe kind of scrutiny by the NSA -- and all of that in addition to the rest of the world being pissed-off at us. Welp, we're in for a wild ride...
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Friday June 27 2014, @05:44PM
the economy is crumbling
It's funny, every time I say the economy isn't that great, or that jobs are scarce, liberals will jump in and tell me I'm out of my mind, that the economy is going great and unemployment is low.
I thought the liberals were supposed to be the ones who were on the side of the lower and the middle classes, but these days it seems like they're willing sycophants of the elites. (I'm talking about US liberals BTW.)
(Score: 1) by fadrian on Friday June 27 2014, @06:25PM
I'm a liberal. In fact, you'd probably think I'm further left than that. Currently, the economy is not going "great" for most of us. If the liberals around you are saying this then you need to meet a better class of liberals. You're probably listening to the liberal talking heads on TV. They're the ones who like to jabber like this - they're all of the "my side winning is good" ilk, so what else would they say? I remember various conservative TV heads defending the then current economy when Bush the elder was in government and the economy sucked, too, while most of my conservative friends and co-workers didn't think things were going that well.
Honestly, I doubt many of us actual rank and file liberals are crowing about our booming economy, seeing as how 80+% of that gain is still going to 1% of us (with the majority of that going to the top 0.1%).
That is all.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Friday June 27 2014, @07:04PM
If the liberals around you are saying this then you need to meet a better class of liberals. You're probably listening to the liberal talking heads on TV.
No, actually I'm talking about random internet commenters on sites like Reddit (/r/politics). I can't ever say the economy sucks without some liberal popping up and saying I'm full of shit. So I guess these random people are probably big fans of the "liberal talking heads on TV" you're referring to, because they're exhibiting the exact same behavior: "my side winning is good" so they have to defend everything "their side" does and try to paint everything in a rosy light because "their guy" is in the White House.
Honestly, I doubt many of us actual rank and file liberals are crowing about our booming economy, seeing as how 80+% of that gain is still going to 1% of us (with the majority of that going to the top 0.1%).
Yeah, that's why the current crop of liberals (or "liberals" if you prefer) really anger me, because they're basically defending and promoting the increasing disparity of wealth, which supposedly they oppose. It didn't piss me off so much back in the Bush days because the conservatives were totally blatant in their worship of wealthy people, so it was consistent for them to defend policies which promoted wealth disparity, but with liberals it's completely hypocritical.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 28 2014, @06:46AM
Grishnakh is obviously a radical ideolog.
He gets his "information" from that well-known scholar and deep thinker Roger Ailes.
His poorly-informed conception is that anyone who isn't as greedy and murderous as Attila the Hun is "Liberal".
Actual Liberals have addressed this with him before [soylentnews.org] yet he refuses to allow himself to become better informed.
That makes him a troll.
The correct action at this time is not to once again try to change his opinion.
Just mod him -1 Troll and move on.
-- gewg_
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday June 27 2014, @08:33PM
I see those things you do, but I also see tremendous anger and a heavily armed and comparatively well-educated populace that has been looking for an alternative for 30 years and not getting it. now they're realizing there is no way out through "channels."
Historically that is when revolutions happen. we shall see if america is immune to history.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 1) by BananaPhone on Friday June 27 2014, @03:27PM
Government corruption is best measured on how bad whistleblower laws are in that country.
If the laws for "Non-staff contractors" were any good, Snowden would be home.
This law just homogenizes the processing of whistleblowers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 27 2014, @11:54AM
If people report issues to their superiors who ignore them, nothing gets fixed and the reporter supposedly won't get punished. However, to change something they will have to go public, just like Snowden, and as you notice, this is not protected in anyway.
Us gov is so much smoke and mirrors, all words and no action. Sickening. Land of the free my ass.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 27 2014, @12:00PM
A news article that references a law with no links to the ACTUAL content is not a well-written news article. This leaves me a bit perplexed.
1. The House and Senate just passed the 2014 fiscal year agreement this week, not the 2015 fiscal year.
The passed agreement is here:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c113:S.1681: [loc.gov]
2. The 2015 fiscal year proposal has only been introduced to the House, and as you can see it's just the usual template for intelligence authorizations with no annual details filled-in yet:
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-113hr4661ih/pdf/BILLS-113hr4661ih.pdf [gpo.gov]
3. The article says the pertinent info is in section VI. There is no section VI. I think they meant title VI?
As usual, I love how the FBI is explicitly exempt, even though they're no longer a law enforcement agency. :)
(Score: -1, Troll) by Lazarus on Friday June 27 2014, @12:25PM
Considering that Snowden is a traitor, not a whistleblower, it's good that it doesn't apply to people like him. Snowden crossed the line into traitor as soon as he revealed our foreign espionage methods. If he stuck with revealing illegal domestic surveillance he would have been a hero, but that's not the kind of guy he is. Instead he's the type to hang out with America-hating activist blogger Glenn Greenwald.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 27 2014, @12:30PM
How much are you people paid these days? Must be hard working there.
(Score: 2) by Subsentient on Friday June 27 2014, @12:58PM
The extent of the US spy machine is a crime in and of itself. Anybody can see that.
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
(Score: 3, Insightful) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Friday June 27 2014, @01:04PM
The TLAs deliberately have blurred the lines between domestic and foreign espionage, there's no way Snowden could expose one without the other.
(Score: 2) by Rune of Doom on Friday June 27 2014, @02:56PM
Government stooges are already on top of this one, I see. Their key rule? Try to make everything about Snowden, never the NSA. And never, ever mention the government's support for Al Qaeda in Syria, Gen. Alexander's rapid decamp to the private sector, US Marshals ordering local law enforcement to lie to judges, or anything of the sort. Because, "Snowden's a traitor" is somehow more important than ubiquitous
(Score: -1, Troll) by Lazarus on Friday June 27 2014, @02:57PM
Offtopic, really? Looks like the cult of Greenwald is present here.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 27 2014, @03:13PM
Bitchin about a moderation is about as petty as one can get.
It reflects poorly on the quality of reasoning behind the arguments you've made.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday June 27 2014, @07:23PM
It's actually quite reasonable, if you've made decent arguments, an also reply to any points made against them. Doesn't seem to fit here, but the general rule isn't a useful one.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Thexalon on Friday June 27 2014, @02:05PM
Chelsea Manning, John Kiriakou, and Thomas Drake all released information about illegal activities by their respective agencies between 2007 and 2012, all had previously gone to their respective IGs prior to releasing the information to the public and were ignored, all experienced career retaliation because of it, and all were thrown in prison for it (Manning for 2 years without trial under conditions considered torture by international agencies). When it's something important, whistleblower laws mean approximately jack squat, because "national security".
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 27 2014, @04:05PM
Actually going the official way of the corresponding law did the exact opposite of the intended (or officially intended) effect: It made sure that the agencies knew about those, and could make their life miserable.
True whistleblower protection would need that the person you contact is outside the system and will under no circumstances release any identifying information. Although even that may not be enough, given the NSA spying on communications.
(Score: 2) by BradTheGeek on Friday June 27 2014, @02:53PM
It is perfectly okay to complain to your boss. And now you cant be reprimanded for -that-.
However when your performance reports suffer, or you get accused of varying things to the point where you are fired or even criminally charged, well that's a wholly different matter isn't it?
(Score: 2) by istartedi on Friday June 27 2014, @04:05PM
"Oh boy! Congress passed a law. Now I can finally expose the truth without fear of reprisal" said the most naive whistle-blower ever.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.