Obama Memorandum Puts Whistle-Blowers in the Crosshairs

• Administrative Conference of the United States
• Advisory Council on Historic Preservation
• African Development Foundation
• AMTRAK (National Railroad Passenger Corporation)

• Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
• Commission on Civil Rights
• Commodity Futures Trading Commission
• Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC)
• Corporation for National and Community Service
• Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency for the District of Columbia

• Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board
• Director of National Intelligence

• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
• Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)
• Export-Import Bank of the United States

• Farm Credit Administration
• Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation
• Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
• Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)
• Federal Election Commission (FEC)
• Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
• Federal Housing Finance Board
• Federal Labor Relations Authority
• Federal Maritime Commission
• Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service
• Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission
• Federal Reserve System
• Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board
• Federal Trade Commission (FTC)

• General Services Administration (GSA)

• Institute of Museum and Library Services
• Inter-American Foundation
• International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB)

• Merit Systems Protection Board
• Millennium Challenge Corporation

• National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
• National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
• National Capital Planning Commission
• National Council on Disability
• National Credit Union Administration (NCUA)
• National Endowment for the Arts
• National Endowment for the Humanities
• National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)
• National Mediation Board
• National Railroad Passenger Corporation (AMTRAK)
• National Science Foundation (NSF)
• National Transportation Safety Board
• Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)

• Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission
• Office of Compliance
• Office of Government Ethics
• Office of Personnel Management
• Office of Special Counsel
• Office of the Director of National Intelligence
• Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive
• Overseas Private Investment Corporation

• Panama Canal Commission
• Peace Corps
• Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation
• Postal Regulatory Commission

• Railroad Retirement Board

• Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
• Selective Service System
• Small Business Administration (SBA)
• Social Security Administration (SSA)

• Tennessee Valley Authority

• U.S. Trade and Development Agency
• United States Agency for International Development
• United States International Trade Commission
• United States Postal Service (USPS)

The directive puts into place the funding for the above  branches to watch their employees more closely, in order to silence the unofficial release of information.

This Presidential Memorandum transmits the National Insider Threat Policy and Minimum Standards for Executive Branch Insider Threat Programs (Minimum Standards) to provide direction and guidance to promote the development of effective insider threat programs within departments and agencies to deter, detect, and mitigate actions by employees who may represent a threat to national security. These threats encompass potential espionage, violent acts against the Government or the Nation, and unauthorized disclosure of classified information, including the vast amounts of classified data available on interconnected United States Government computer networks and systems.

Privacy in the workplace will be a thing of the past for employees, as the memorandum goes into further detail on the “Minimum Standards”.

The Minimum Standards provide departments and agencies with the minimum elements necessary to establish effective insider threat programs. These elements include the capability to gather, integrate, and centrally analyze and respond to key threat-related information; monitor employee use of classified networks; provide the workforce with insider threat awareness training; and protect the civil liberties and privacy of all personnel.

The resulting insider threat capabilities will strengthen the protection of classified information across the executive branch and reinforce our defenses against both adversaries and insiders who misuse their access and endanger our national security.

This is not good news for those who would blow the whistle on wrong-doing.  Is this a lesson learned on the part of the President from the debacle that has taken place after the murders in Benghazi? Or perhaps from the humiliation that was Fast and Furious?

The rather despicable Attorney General, Eric Holder, must be rubbing his hands together in glee, especially since the Fast and Furious scandal  put him in the hot seat. Throughout his years as AG, he has vigorously gone after government whistle blowers  – according to Bloomberg, he has “prosecuted more government officials for alleged leaks under the Espionage Act than all his predecessors combined.”

Apparently the catch phrase “If you see something, say something” doesn’t apply to government employees. If you work for the government and  you see something, the President clearly doesn’t want you to say something.   If you see something you should sit down, shut up, and for heaven’s sake, don’t use your office email.