Pres. Obama's new Blue Scare: the "Insider Threat Program." (parade, illegal)

[wutitiz]

The new paranoia: A government afraid of itself - The Washington Post

I use the descriptor 'blue' in the sense of 'friendly forces.' We've all heard of the Red Scare, well this is the blue scare. Under the Obama admin's "Insider Threat Program"

Originally Posted by WaPo

federal employees and contractors are encouraged to keep an eye on allegedly suspicious indicators in their co-workers’ lives, from financial troubles to divorce.

In connection with the Insider Threat Program, federal law enforcement has run sting operations on some schlocky private companies that claim to teach people how to defeat polygraph ('lie detector') tests. The federal gov't runs about 70,000 polygraph tests per year.

Feds target instructors who teach how to defeat polygraph | Nation & World | The Seattle Times

The problem is that such training is perfectly legal under the First Amendment. But a trainer could be prosecuted if he knows that a client plans to use the training to lie about criminal activity. So the feds set up stings to send undercover agents who tell the trainer of various illegal plans they have in mind. Voila...busted. It's not at all difficult to imagine scenarios where a wrongful conviction could be obtained using this method. Maybe the undercover guy intimidates the trainer into shutting up. Then because he shut up, he's busted. There are limitless trips & traps in stings.

Both the polygraphs and the 'countermeasure' training are scientifically dubious. A lawyer quoted in the article compares these prosecutions to going after voodoo practitioners:

Originally Posted by Seattle Times

Citing the scientific skepticism, one attorney compared the prosecution of polygraph instructors to indicting someone for practicing voodoo.
“If someone stabs a voodoo doll in the heart with a pin and the victim they intended to kill drops dead of a heart attack, are they guilty of murder?” asked Gene Iredale, a California attorney who often represents federal defendants. “What if the person who dropped dead believed in voodoo?

The whole thing is a parade of idiocy, paranoia, and big brotherism wrapped into one...Pres. Barack Obama's great Blue Scare.

[bluesjuke]

They don't trust our veterans, those that love this country, and now even themselves.

[wutitiz]

another funny tidbit from the WaPo article (which was written by former Reason magazine guy Jesse Walker):

Originally Posted by WaPo

A[n Insider Threat Program] tutorial for Agriculture Department employees includes a long list of “examples of behaviors that may indicate an individual has vulnerabilities that are of security concern.” These include sleeping at your desk — that might be a sign of alcoholism —

Or it could just mean that the guy has sleep apnea, or an infant at home, or is bored out of his mind reading bureaucratic gobbledygook. Your federal tax dollars (& your grandchildrens) at work.

[bluesjuke]

Or... the sign of a government worker.

[wutitiz]

Interesting that none of our usual lefty suspects can respond. If Bush had done something like this, there would have been more yowling than a magpie convention.