Opinion:
US govt keeps journalists under watch
by Daya GAMAGE
The United States Government’s cabinet-level national security
agency, Department of Homeland Security has ensured the keeping of tabs
on who is saying what and why. The Department’s National Operations
Center (NOC)’s Media Monitoring Initiative is going out of its way to
spend time, money and resources on watching over those that help bring
news to the masses.
The NOC and its Office of Operations Coordination and Planning (OPS)
collects personal information of news anchors, journalists, reporters or
anyone who may use “traditional and/or social media in real time to keep
their audiences situationally aware and informed.”Surveillance is
extended to what foreign officials say and for what purpose. Apart from
monitoring ‘foreign officials’, it has been revealed that the Department
of Homeland Security (DHS) is mainly tracking media stories that
“reflect adversely” on the US government.
Through these media stories, profiles of journalists are gathered,
why these journalists cover and write particular stories, and the effect
of those stories are analysed. Also included in the roster of those
subjected to the spying are government officials, domestic or not, who
make public statements, private sector employees that do the same and
“persons known to have been involved in major crimes of Homeland
Security interest,” which opens the possibilities even wider.
Whereas the Department of Defence is charged with military actions
abroad, the Department of Homeland Security works in the civilian sphere
to protect the United States within, at, and outside its borders. Its
stated goal is to prepare for, prevent, and respond to domestic
emergencies, particularly terrorism.
Immigration, naturalisation
On March 1, 2003, DHS absorbed the Immigration and Naturalization
Service (INS) and assumed its duties. In doing so, it divided the
enforcement and services functions into two separate and new agencies:
Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Citizenship and Immigration
Services.
The investigative divisions and intelligence gathering units of the
INS and Customs Service were merged forming Homeland Security
Investigations. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Privacy Office
(PRIV) and OPS/NOC decided to further broaden the program’s capability
to collect additional information, including limited instances of
personally identifiable information (PII).
When one interprets the “personally identifiable information,” the
activity is really no different from what journalists gather as news
interests. The majority of the personally identifiable information
refers to the collection of names of journalists and public speakers for
the purpose of following those sources for news and other information.
According to the Department of Homeland Security’s own definition of
personal identifiable information, or PII, such data could consist of
any intellect “that permits the identity of an individual to be directly
or indirectly inferred, including any information which is linked or
linkable to that individual.”
Previously established guidelines within the United States
administration say that data could only be collected under authorisation
set forth by written code, but the new provisions in the NOC’s write-up
means that any reporter, whether a well-known celebrity, influential or
prominent or a budding blogger, can be victimised by the agency.
All of the above and many more about the US Government’s strict
surveillance of print and electronic media networks, ‘personally
identifiable information’ about media personnel and foreign officials,
what they say and from where they get their news stories, why they go
after such stories, and why the government wants to know what people say
and who is saying what were disclosed as a result of a Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA) law suit instituted by a Washington-based public
interest research centre, Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC).
Court order
On a court order, the Department of Homeland Security was legally
bound under the FOIA to disclose the ‘monitoring program’ which was put
in place since February 2011. The DHS, on court order, disclosed the
285-page document on January 11. What was revealed in the DHS document
that was placed before the court under the FOIA law suit was that the
program would be executed, in part, by individuals who established
fictitious user names and passwords to create covert social media
profiles to spy on other users.
As the result of EPIC v. DHS, a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit,
EPIC has obtained nearly three hundred pages of documents detailing a
Department of Homeland Security’s covert surveillance program on print
and electronic media, other web sites and journalists attached to them.
The documents include contracts and statements of work with General
Dynamics, a private security and research company, for 24/7 media and
social network monitoring and periodic reports to DHS. The documents
reveal that the agency is tracking media stories that “reflect
adversely” on the US government. The records reveal that the DHS is
paying General Dynamics to monitor the news. The agency instructed the
company to monitor for “[media] reports that reflect adversely on the US
Government, DHS, or prevent, protect, respond government activities.”
The DHS document says: “….provide valuable information or imagery
that can be used to corroborate and or reconcile first reports. The
Contractor shall understand DHS critical information requirements and
monitor open sources news coverage for incidents and with a perspective
of how a story may be related to other important ongoing events and DHS
activities. The Critical Information Requirements (CIR) are: Potential
threats and hazards to the homeland, to DHS, other Federal agencies,
State and local response units, facilities, and resources; private
sector; public safety; identifying events with operational values and/or
corroborating critical information; Identifying media reports that
reflect adversely on the US Government, DHS or prevent, protect, respond
or recovery activities.”
Public reaction
The DHS, in this media monitoring endeavour, is attempting to
“capture public reaction to major government proposals with homeland
security implications.” As another strategic devise, the DHS instructed
the media monitoring company, General Dynamics, to generate “reports on
DHS, Components, and other Federal Agencies: positive and negative
reports on FEMA, CIA, CBP, ICE, etc. as well as organisations outside
the DHS.”
These are all in the 285-page Department of Homeland security (DHS)
document. The DHS instructed the company to “Monitor public social
communications on the Internet.” The records list the websites that will
be monitored, including the comments sections of The New York Times, The
Los Angeles Times, the Huffington Post, the Drudge Report, Wired, and
ABC News.”
Under the DHS operational plan now revealed, the United States
government is engaged in the collection of information of the following
persons, what they say or write and why;
The names or profiles of anchors, newscasters, or on-scene reporters
who are known or identified as reporters in their post or article or who
use traditional and/or social media in real time to keep their audience
situationaly aware and informed. This surveillance is also extended to
foreign government officials who make public statements or provide
public updates; foreign government spokespersons who make public
statements or provide public updates; foreign private sector officials
and spokespersons who make public statements or provide public updates.
The Drudge Report, a major Internet news website which is also on the
DHS list of surveillance in a comment said “It just sounds scary
because, well … it’s the government. And while it’s healthy to be
skeptical of government, people – especially journalists – must practise
restraint and resist the urge to whip others into a frenzy over what
amounts to browsing news stories to stay abreast of current events and
activities.”
Courtesy: Asian Tribune
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