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| Fifth Column |
| CIA Contractor-Blogger Canned For Criticizing Policy |
| 2006-07-22 |
| Christine Axsmith, a software contractor for the CIA, considered her blog a success within the select circle of people who could actually access it. Only people with top-secret security clearances could read her musings, which were posted on Intelink, the intelligence community's classified intranet. Writing as Covert Communications, CC for short, she opined in her online journal on such national security conundrums as stagflation, the war of ideas in the Middle East and -- in her most popular post -- bad food in the CIA cafeteria. But the hundreds of blog readers who responded to her irreverent entries with titles such as "Morale Equals Food" won't be joining her ever again. On July 13, after she posted her views on torture and the Geneva Conventions, her blog was taken down and her security badge was revoked. On Monday, Axsmith was terminated by her employer, BAE Systems, which was helping the CIA test software. As a traveler in the classified blogosphere, Axsmith was not alone. Hundreds of blog posts appear on Intelink. The CIA says blogs and other electronic tools are used by people working on the same issue to exchange information and ideas. CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano declined to comment on Axsmith's case but said the policy on blogs is that "postings should relate directly to the official business of the author and readers of the site, and that managers should be informed of online projects that use government resources. CIA expects contractors to do the work they are paid to do." A BAE Systems spokesman declined to comment. Axsmith, 42, said in an interview this week that she thinks of herself as the Erma Bombeck of the intel world, a "generalist" writing about lunch meat one day, the war on terrorism the next. She said she first posted her classified blog in May and no one said a thing. When she asked, managers even agreed to give her the statistics on how many people were entering the site. Her column on food pulled in 890 readers, and people sent her reviews from other intelligence agency canteens. The day of the last post, Axsmith said, after reading a newspaper report that the CIA would join the rest of the U.S. government in according Geneva Conventions rights to prisoners, she posted her views on the subject. It started, she said, something like this: "Waterboarding is Torture and Torture is Wrong." And it continued, she added, with something like this: "CC had the sad occasion to read interrogation transcripts in an assignment that should not be made public. And, let's just say, European lives were not saved." (That was a jab at Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's trip to Europe late last year when she defended U.S. policy on secret detentions and interrogations.) A self-described "opinionated loudmouth with a knack for writing a catchy headline," Axsmith also wrote how it was important to "empower grunts and paper pushers" because, she explained in the interview, "I'm a big believer in educating people at the bottom, and that's how you strengthen an infrastructure." In her job as a contractor at the CIA's software-development shop, Axsmith said, she conducted "performance and stress testing" on computer programs, and that as a computer engineer she had nothing to do with interrogations. She said she did read some interrogation-related reports while performing her job as a trainer in one counterterrorism office. Her opinion, Axsmith added, was based on newspaper reports of torture and waterboarding as an interrogation method used to induce prisoners to cooperate. "I thought it would be okay" to write about the Geneva Conventions, she said, "because it's the policy." In recounting the events of her last day as an Intelink blogger, Axsmith said that she didn't hold up well when the corporate security officers grilled her, seized her badge and put her in a frigid conference room. "I'm shaking. I'm cold, staring at the wall," she recalled. "And worse, people are using the room as a shortcut, so I have no dignity in this crisis." She said BAE officials told her that the blog implied a specific knowledge of interrogations and that it worried "the seventh floor" at CIA, where the offices of the director and his management team are. She said she apologized right away and figured she would get reprimanded and her blog would be eliminated. She never dreamed she would be fired. Now, Axsmith said, "I'm scared, terrified really" of being criminally prosecuted for unauthorized use of a government computer system, something one of the security officers mentioned to her. Axsmith said she's proud of having taken her views public -- well, sort of. "I know I hit the radar and it was amplified," she said. "I think I've had an impact." In the meantime, she's been thinking about Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift, the Navy lawyer who successfully challenged the constitutionality of military tribunals at the Guantanamo Bay prison. The National Law Journal named Swift one of the 100 most influential lawyers in the country, but the Navy has so far passed him over for promotion. He told the Los Angeles Times then, "One thing that has been a great revelation for me is that you may love the military, but it doesn't necessarily love you." "That's how I feel," Axsmith said, recalling what Swift said. "I love the CIA. I love the mission. I love the people. It's such a great place to work." |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #11 It's just that with a nym like Idiom Police, you are rather setting yourself up for it. You can change it if you'd like, although it would be helpful, for me at least, if for a few days you would be newnym (formerly Idiom Police) -- a kindness to my creeping senility. ;-) |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-07-22 23:46 |
| #10 Idiom Police -- actually -- I'm a first class bad speller! Use to do lots of teachers' workshops, that entailed my writing stuff on a blackboard. Some teachers would totally lose control of the topic, till, I did something about that misspelled word on the board. And that became my time to let them know, during my first six years of schooling, including a spelling test every Friday, I always aced the test, got the pennys, the nickels, the candy (Snickers were a real favorite for scoring 100) got the gold stars. And would hammer them, on their teaching methods of teaching spelling! I was a product of their enlightenment of methods of teaching spelling. But, as now, even then -- I'm still the worst speller around. My Dad, on Thursday nights, would come up with some tricks, and lots of tears in studying these words, for me to memorize the spellings. Those W words of what when where why, almost cost the love of a father and daughter. Anyway... then, WordPerfect entered the world. That thrill of using an apostrophe in letter places to begin to guess at the spelling, became my life-long friend. See, this idea of looking it up in the dictionary, never made sense, because I didn't have the vaguest ideal of how to spell the word! The dictionary served me only to define the word after I found out how to spell it. Sorry -- not the correct forum for this kind of Rant! Just wanted to "pook" a little fun at you. And things are kinda "tense" around the world, and thus, around Rantburg U. Hoping a little humor would help. |
| Posted by: Sherry 2006-07-22 23:37 |
| #9 Noo their's knoyt. |
| Posted by: Wholuling Shiter7169 2006-07-22 23:08 |
| #8 Sorry -- but Rantburg University -- has lots of different kinds of professors. No worries! Thanks! There are others here that could benefit from your spelling and grammatical expertise. |
| Posted by: Idiom Police 2006-07-22 23:05 |
| #7 Idiom Police -- you forgot an apostrophe and the correct spelling on that "but leave the ladies credit alone." That just has to be, "but leave the lady's credit alone." Sorry -- but Rantburg University -- has lots of different kinds of professors. |
| Posted by: Sherry 2006-07-22 22:42 |
| #6 Yes, I'm mad as hell about this kind of crap. Yeah? And just a little unhinged as well. She posted an opinion, on a secure site, she didn't leak sensitive information to the NYT. Get some perspective. Pull her ticket, fire her, but leave the ladies credit alone. Crap like that is why some folks would like to have an open season on government workers for certain agencies. |
| Posted by: Idiom Police 2006-07-22 22:37 |
| #5 "I love the CIA. I love the mission" They why didn't you follow the f**king rules bitch? A God Damned software tester CONTRACTOR spouting her uninformed opinion straight from what she *should* know are completely biased and factually incomplete slanted MS reports. We're busting our balls out here and her cheap little lefty ass is scrawling on the virtual Walls dicking around instead of doing her job. Toss her ass out on the street and fine her company for hiring dolts. Fine her for all the legal stuff you can and put her immediately into collections and throw a lien on her hosue to ruin her credit. Arrest her and hold her for 72 hours on suspicion of fraud. Lets see her try to find a job with a ruined credit history and an arrest record - and a felony charge pending. Have a nice time living under a bridge bitch. Yes, I'm mad as hell about this kind of crap. Screw them - either join the team or be considered an opponent - an enemy, foreign or domestic and expect proper treatment. The next lefty that gets in my way gets hit. Hard. They're pissing away all the work we're trying to do then acting surprised when they get bagged for it. F**king termites on the body politic of the Nation. |
| Posted by: Oldspook 2006-07-22 20:51 |
| #4 Dumbass. Question and verify facts and reasoning. Policy is left to the politicians so as to keep the machinery that delivers said facts to the decision makers honest and unbiased. Or at least thats how it was supposed to work. You worked for the nation, not for your political faction. Why cant's the f**king lefties realize that the rules are there for a reason - and they apply to ALL? Especially on Intelink, and other internal restricted/classifed systems. Good riddance - I hope they yanked her ticket and marked her non-clearable, and untrustworhty. Buhbye Christine. Lotsa luck getting employed - and don't be surprised if there is a polygraph or 3 in your future as to leaks. |
| Posted by: Oldspook 2006-07-22 20:42 |
| #3 It was not the blogging. If one reads the article, it says "The CIA says blogs and other electronic tools are used by people working on the same issue to exchange information and ideas". It was the content of her web-log. "I thought it would be okay" to write about the Geneva Conventions, she said, "because it's the policy." The problem was that Ms Axsmith decided both promulgate her policy and derogate the official one. She likely would have been fired as well, had she blogged derogatively on specific individuals. |
| Posted by: Fordesque 2006-07-22 20:38 |
| #2 much to do about nothing. She was blogging on company time and they fired her. Anyone who blogs knows how time consuming it is. Maybe they got ticked with what she wrote, maybe not, but she's an idiot to think they'd be so enthralled by her posts that they would consider her time on her blog to be money well spent. |
| Posted by: 2b 2006-07-22 20:01 |
| #1 She's not very smart, so I don't see her departure as a loss. Since people seldom actually learn from their mistakes, altering behavior by (Duh!) thinking before acting, I would watch her closely for awhile -- that lack of circumspection and discretion will probably be repeated. |
| Posted by: cruiser 2006-07-22 18:13 |