Wednesday 9 October 2013

NSA, Intip tetap Intip, manakala Pengawasan dihentikan oleh penutupan . . .

AFP Photo/Files/Paul J. Richards (think IN pictures @1WORLDCommunity)

SitiWanMahani - Satu panel kajian yang ditubuhkan oleh White House untuk menilai program perisikan di negara itu adalah kerana melaporkan penemuannya kepada presiden Jumaat ini. Hari sebelum tarikh akhir, walaupun, lembaga yang telah menjadi mangsa secara sukarela penutupan kerajaan.

Presiden Barack Obama diumumkan pada bulan Ogos (announced in August) bahawa pendedahan yang tidak dibenarkan dokumen keselamatan negara dan perbincangan berikutnya ia mencetuskan memerlukan penubuhan sebuah panel bebas, Kumpulan Kajian pada Perisikan dan Komunikasi Technologies.

“Kajian Kumpulan akan menilai sama ada, berdasarkan kemajuan dalam teknologi komunikasi, Amerika Syarikat menggunakan keupayaan koleksi teknikal dengan cara yang optimum melindungi keselamatan negara dan kemajuan dasar luar negara kami manakala sewajarnya iaitu pertimbangan dasar yang lain, seperti risiko pendedahan yang tidak dibenarkan dan keperluan kami untuk mengekalkan keyakinan orang ramai,” kata Presiden itu berkata 2 bulan lalu.

Hampir 1 minggu sebelum tarikh akhir 60 hari untuk menyampaikan laporan kepada White House, bagaimanapun, kumpulan ini telah meletakkan dirinya di atas ais. Politik Josh Gerstein dan Mike Allen dilaporkan pada hujung minggu bahawa seorang ahli panel 5 peribadi - bekas Perisikan Pusat Agensi pengarah Michael Morell - memutuskan untuk menarik palam pada lembaga sehingga penutupan kerajaan yang bermula pagi Selasa lepas datang ke penghujungnya.

“Saya hanya berfikir bahawa ia adalah tidak sesuai untuk kumpulan kami untuk terus bekerja manakala majoriti lelaki dan wanita daripada komuniti perisikan dipaksa untuk kekal di luar kerja,” Morell kepada Politico pada hari Sabtu. “Walaupun kerja-kerja yang kita lakukan adalah penting, ia tidak lebih penting daripada - dan terus terang saya katakan banyak yang kurang penting - daripada banyak kerja-kerja yang ditinggalkan dibatalkan oleh penutupan kerajaan, kedua-dua dalam komuniti perisikan dan di luar komuniti perisikan.”

 NSA Spying Continues While Oversight Stopped by Shutdown

A review panel established by the White House to assess the country’s intelligence programs is due to report its findings to the president this Friday. Days before deadline, though, that board has become a voluntary casualty of the government shutdown.

President Barack Obama announced in August that the unauthorized disclosure of national security documents and the subsequent discussions it sparked warranted the creation of an independent panel, the Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies.

“The Review Group will assess whether, in light of advancements in communications technologies, the United States employs its technical collection capabilities in a manner that optimally protects our national security and advances our foreign policy while appropriately accounting for other policy considerations, such as the risk of unauthorized disclosure and our need to maintain the public trust,” the president said two months ago.

Practically one week before a 60-day deadline to deliver a report to the White House, however, the group has put itself on ice. Politico’s Josh Gerstein and Mike Allen reported over the weekend that one member of the five-personal panel - former Central Intelligence Agency director Michael Morell - decided to pull the plug on the board until the government shutdown that started last Tuesday morning comes to a close.

“I simply thought that it was inappropriate for our group to continue working while the vast majority of the men and women of the intelligence community are being forced to remain off the job,” Morell told Politico on Saturday. “While the work we’re doing is important, it is no more important than - and quite frankly a lot less important - than a lot of the work being left undone by the government shutdown, both in the intelligence community and outside the intelligence community.”

James Clapper, Pengarah Perisikan Negara (James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence (Mark Wilson/Getty Images/AFP – think IN pictures @1WORLDCommunity)

“Bagaimana ini boleh jadi lebih penting daripada anak-anak bermula ujian kanser pada NIH ?” Morell diminta keluar berita DC berasaskan, merujuk kepada satu lagi program kerajaan yang telah ditangguhkan apabila penutupan persekutuan bermula minggu lepas.

Pada 2 hari penutupan Rabu lepas, Pengarah Perisikan Nasional James Clapper memberitahu penggubal undang-undang pada Perisikan Asing Pengawasan Akta pengawasan pendengaran yang dia tidak boleh menjamin keselamatan (couldn’t guarantee the safety) rakyat Amerika di tengah-tengah penutupan, sebagai furloughs menyebabkan kira-kira 70% peratus daripada tenaga kerja awam Amerika Syarikat kecerdasan masyarakat akan ‘Shuttered’ sehingga kerajaan dan berjalan lagi.

Semasa perbicaraan yang sama, Clapper berkata bocor dokumen keselamatan negara - harta keseluruhan yang telah semakin diedarkan di kalangan media oleh bekas kontraktor Edward Snowden bermula pada Jun lalu - telah menjejaskan keselamatan (jeopardized the safety) Amerika Syarikat juga.

“Kehidupan Rakyat adalah pada risiko di sini kerana data bahawa Encik Snowden purloined,” kata Clapper.

Tetapi manakala ‘Komander -in-chief’ dicipta panel kajian semula untuk melihat sama ada program-program yang diumumkan oleh Encik Snowden perlu turunkan, 100% peratus lembaga yang pada rehat manakala komuniti perisikan terus beroperasi, sekurang-kurangnya sebahagian. Walaupun Clapper berkata bahawa 70% peratus daripada pekerja awam masyarakat perisikan telah ‘furloughed’ pada minggu lepas, National Security Agency Pengarah Keith Alexander memberi keterangan kepada Kongres bahawa hanya kira-kira 6,000 pekerja NSA telah dihantar pulang.

Menurut anggaran Washington Post, ini bermakna hanya kira-kira 15% peratus daripada NSA sebenarnya telah ‘furloughed’, meninggalkan 30,000 atau mungkin jadi pekerja di tempat kerja.

Kajian Kumpulan pada Perisikan dan Komunikasi mempunyai sehingga Jumaat ini untuk memberi keputusan interim untuk Pres. Obama melalui DNI Clapper, yang telah ditugaskan oleh White House untuk memudahkan operasi panel itu. Berita peranan yang dikatakan anak loceng itu dalam lembaga menimbulkan kebimbangan bulan lalu selepas ia telah melaporkan bahawa majoriti daripada panel 5 orang, asalnya diterangkan oleh Obama sendiri sebagai “bebas” “(independent)” White House, terdiri daripada pegawai-pegawai pentadbiran bekas dan/atau berpengaruh Demokrat.

Laporan akhir kumpulan dan cadangan - harus mereka akhirnya mengadakan dalam masa sebagai ganti penutupan - adalah disebabkan oleh DNI dan White House pada 15 Disember.

“How could this be more important than kids starting cancer trials at NIH?”Morell asked the DC-based news outlet, referring to another government program that was put on hold when the federal shutdown started last week.

On day two of the shutdown last Wednesday, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told lawmakers at a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act oversight hearing that he couldn’t guarantee the safety of the American people amid the shutdown, as furloughs caused roughly 70 percent of the US intelligence community’s civilian workforce to be shuttered until the government is up and running again.

During that same hearing, Clapper said that leaked national security documents - a whole trove that has steadily been circulated among the media by former contractor Edward Snowden starting this past June - has jeopardized the safety of the US as well.

“People’s lives are at risk here because of data that Mr. Snowden purloined,” Clapper said.

But whereas the commander-in-chief created a review panel to see if the programs publicized by Mr. Snowden should be scaled back, 100 percent of that board is on break while the intelligence community continues to operate, at least in part. Although Clapper said that 70 percent of the intelligence community’s civilian workers were furloughed as of last week, National Security Agency Director Keith Alexander testified to Congress that only around 6,000 NSA employees had been sent home.

According to the Washington Post’s estimate, that means only around 15 percent of the NSA has actually been furloughed, leaving maybe 30,000 or so employees on the job.

The Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies has until this Friday to provide their interim findings to Pres. Obama through DNI Clapper, who has been tasked by the White House to facilitate the panel’s operations. News of Clapper’s alleged role within the board raised concern last month after it was reported that the majority of the five-person panel, originally described by Obama himself as “independent” of the White House, is composed of former administration officials and/or influential Democrats.

The group’s final report and recommendations - should they finally convene in time in lieu of the shutdown - is due to the DNI and White House by December 15.


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