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.
