Who:
Article's Author: Scott Shane
- Donald Trump - 45th President of the United States of America
- Steven Aftergood - the director of the Project on Governmental Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientist
- John Lloyd - a veteran British journalist and founder of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University
- Max Frankel - The New York Times top editor
- Salmon Abedi - the Manchester Arena bomber on May 22, 2017
- John McLaughlin - a former acting director of the C.I.A.
- George W. Bush - 43rd President of the United States of America
- Barack Obama - 44th President of the United States of America
- James Comey - former F.B.I. Director fired by Donald Trump after discovering possible collusion of the Russian government in 2016 United States Presidential election
What:
"Is there something particularly American about leaking? Some national allergy to protecting government secrets?" The rhetorical question is asked by Scott Shane in this article to characterize a social inference about the American attitude and whistle-blowing - the act of making public information which is considered private and reserved to secrecy from ordinary citizens.
As President, Donald Trump seems to portray a caricature of governmental secrecy - portraying more of what is known in common idioma as a faulty wind-bag. "He blithely passed on to the Russians sensitive counterterrorism intelligence from Israel - and publicly seemed to confirm the breach after his staff denied it. Speaking by phone to widely scorned president of Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, Mr. Trump revealed the presence of two nuclear submarines off North Korea, a highly unusual disclosure." These two examples of Presidential information handling provide a glimpse into the nature at which Donald Trump seems to pass high-ranking information along to officials who may perhaps cause hesitation from many citizens who had access to such information before leaking.
The attitude that is cultivated in the United States which prizes the act of leaking or full-press coverage of events and stories is protected by our U.S. Constitution. "To sum up what distinguishes the United States in a nutshell: It's the First Amendment," said Steven Aftergood, "The concept of a free press has been integral to the American idea since its inception. That's not true even of other democracies. The press here even has the right to be irresponsible, which it sometimes is." Steven Aftergood justifies the characterization of the American leaker culture by calling upon the First Amendment right to free press as an embedded philosophy which rules our press and grants press authors the liberty of printing anything regardless of top secrecy this coming with the stipulation that although providing the public with the truth when the truth is often difficult to discern, also results in the lack of accuracy or mishandling of the truth. John Lloyd states, "the counter-secrecy culture in the United States was shaped not only by the First Amendment, but also by the 'quite radical' interpretation of the 1971 Pentagon Papers case, which prohibited the government from ordering that leaked information not be published." In the 1971 Pentagon Papers case, it was ruled that the government may not prohibit the publication of leaked information from the 1971 Pentagon Papers. While serving as The New York Time's Washington bureau chief, Max Frankel, stated in an affidavit a classic statement of the journalists' position on leaks: "Without the use of 'secrets' there could be no adequate diplomatic, military and political reporting of the kind people take for granted, either abroad or in Washington." Mr. Frankel's affidavit presents the proliferation and affluence of a free press when there exists no government secrets which prevent the true and genuine nature of reporting with an honest perspective and intention for matters of diplomacy, military coverage, and political reporting.
The larger story of America and leaks is more complicated, especially since the 2001 terrorist attacks. It was only through the illegal leaks of classified information did the public initially learn of the C.I.A.'s secret prison and use of torture, the N.S.A.'s eavesdropping without court orders and the details of American drone strikes. In fact, Barack Obama ran for president in part against what he considered the excesses of counterterrorism programs under George W. Bush, as disclosed by leaks- but Mr. Obama's administration then prosecuted far more leakers than all previous presidents combined. It was during the Obama administration that Edward Snowden was charged of two counts of violating the Espionage Act of 1917 and theft of government property - considered him a traitor to the United States of America.
Although, not shy of being vocal when facing the public about what seems to be going on in his mind at whatever mood he's in which may accidentally take the form of a leak, Donald Trump has regularly expressed his resentments about the F.B.I., James Comey, and congressional investigations between his associates and Russia. Contrasting these resentments, the president shocked Israelis by sharing highly sensitive information with visiting Russian officials about an Islamic State plot. After his aides refused to confirm that the source of the intelligence was Israel. The case with the Philippines came when the Philippines released a transcript of a call between Mr. Duerte and Mr. Trump to which some military officials were dismayed to see that the American president had discussed the general location of the two nuclear submarines, part of a stealthy Navy force called "the Silent Service."
When:
Published: Friday, May 26, 2017
May 22, 2017 - Monday: Terrorist Attack - Manchester Arena bombing by Salmon Abedi during an Ariana Grande concert
Where:
The United States of America and the United Kingdom.
Why:
In Britain for example, instead of the First Amendment, the British have the Official Secrets Act, which allows the government to ban in advance the publication of government secrets and prescribes punishments not just for leakers, but also for the journalists who publish the information. The article was written in part as a result of the reaction of the British government - specifically the Greater Manchester Police officials who were angered by the United States leaking the name, Salmon Abedi - the Manchester Arena bomber on May 22, 2017, before the British coroner could match an identification card found at the scene to the bomber's body. Their frustrations were justified by the British officials who feared that publish Salmon Abedi's name would have prompted relatives and possible co-conspirators to evade the police, although that appeared not to have happened. John McLaughlin did not blame the British for temporarily halting routine intelligence sharing in response to the leaks, saying, "It's particularly damaging in a terrorism case."
Opinion:
I love and cherish the fact that we live in a society and culture that embraces the right to free speech, expression, assembly, and press - even to the extent that it allows vitriolic demagogues like Donald Trump to run vicious campaigns against the better interests of Muslims, women, semites, African Americans, and whatever other hated group persecuted at those crap-shoot of a campaign rally. The right to a free press is our best effort at generating truthful information and accurately portray the society we actually exist in. I have hesitations when discussing the purpose of secrecy even in highly classified cases or terrorism cases. Considering a social phenomena I believe would take place if terrorist information were unleashed to the public so that everyone is informed and aware of the security there would be more security throughout the world as now you have agents within every citizen of the globe against terrorism - prepared and calm citizens versus unprepared hysterical citizens. Of course this ask that citizens be secure and prepared; and being prepared, stronger in there dealings with terrorism situations as the number of terrorism interactions will instinctively grow but not any more than if these situations weren't kept secret. We would just need to train a global public and individual citizen to understand that sometimes terrorism happens but if we are better prepared, then we can be safe in any scenario. Now as far as classified cases, I believe the only reason we hold secrets is to cover something up or prevent someone from knowing something bad. We should allow these secrets to become public as they are relics of an antiquated system and the sooner we realize the flaws of our current existing system as evidence by secret information the sooner we can achieve a truly utopian society. Yes, some scars are deep, but we are resourceful and can find resolution to anything - preventing these problems from happening again by first training people to understand the repercussions or taxations of re-imbursement and by disallowing the ability to cover up for a mistake - disallowing the disregard of culpability.
As far as dissemination of leak-worthy news, that should be handled with care as we wouldn't want leaked information to result in dramatic terrorist reactions across the globe. This information should be organized by the agencies that secure this information and released to publishing houses with strict adherence to time-sensitive intervals and with citizen security and protection through terrorism preparation campaigns.
Donald Trump presents a completely different issue. We have a President who appears to have a pre-determined agenda lacking intel on a multitude of scenarios and appearing to be in collusion with entities that have shared unstable relations with the United States. My opinion, he is both inexperienced in governmental, social, and political affairs and probably just doesn't know much political or social history about the United States and its national and international affairs causing him to either unintentionally leak significant information or intentionally release information which others could view as a leak.
No comments:
Post a Comment