President Donald Trump has intensified Obama’s war on leaks to silence whistleblowers who bring scrutiny to his administration, and the impact on journalists is largely unknown. “I’m Edward Snowden – Stop Watching Us,” Berlin, 2013. The administration intercepted the communications of journalists in Espionage Act prosecutions and even treated journalists as co-conspirators in leak cases. The Obama Justice Department’s use of the 1917 law enabled the government to institute “insider threat programs” to effectively intimidate and discourage whistleblowers from revealing corruption. President Barack Obama’s administration, which included Vice President Joe Biden, prosecuted more leakers or whistleblowers under the Espionage Act than all previous presidential administrations combined. At the time, it was “probably the largest governmental inspection program affecting Americans ever undertaken.” The FCC had to shut down their investigation into the SHAMROCK program, which was an international telegram-spying program that existed from August 1945 to May 1975. 798, which is a part of the Espionage Act that applies to “communications intelligence.” “After the NSA’s SHAMROCK program was revealed by the press in 1976, the FCC opened an investigation, as the disclosure to the NSA by the phone companies of customer communications violated federal communications law.” FCC Chairman Richard Wiley told Congresswoman Bella Abzug during a hearing that carriers “refused to answer the FCC’s questions” because of secrecy rules in 18 U.S.C. It relies on a much older example of government abuse of secrecy laws. NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden’s disclosures saw an increased focus in expanding government protections against privacy abuses, but the bill’s summary does not attribute this amendment to Snowden’s impact. Law enforcement pressure was so significant that Moore took a break from his work in the internet security industry. “The initiative sought to find widespread vulnerabilities using automated computer programs to uncover the weaknesses across the entire internet.” law enforcement warned him he may be vulnerable to prosecution because he operated a project called Critical.IO. Moore, the creator of Metasploit, which is an “ethical hacking tool,” told The Guardian that U.S. (New America Foundation)Īdditionally, a summary indicates it would shield “cybersecurity experts from prosecution when they publish research showing discoveries of government backdoors in encryption algorithms.” The government would not be able to invoke secrecy laws to shut down reviews of their conduct.ĭemocratic Senator Ron Wyden. Those with whistleblower protections would be able to provide classified information to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB), and inspector generals to help them investigate privacy abuses.
The legislation would also protect disclosures of classified information related to signals intelligence to any member of Congress.
It would protect members of the press who “solicit, obtain, or publish government secrets” from prosecution. This bill ensures only personnel with security clearances can be prosecuted for improperly revealing classified information.” Last month, Wyden said in a press statement, “The Espionage Act currently provides sweeping powers for a rogue attorney general like Bill Barr or unscrupulous president like Donald Trump to target journalists and whistleblowers who reveal information they’d rather keep secret. Under legislation proposed in Congress, the United States government would not be able to prosecute journalists such as WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange who publish classified information.ĭemocratic Senator Ron Wyden and Representative Ro Khanna introduced the Espionage Act Reform Act to reaffirm “First Amendment protections for journalists” and ensure “whistleblowers can effectively report waste, fraud, and abuse to Congress.” Department of Justice headquarters in Washington.
0 kommentar(er)
