Obama administration to ramp up surveillance on federal employees to prevent another whistleblower

The Obama administration is ramping up their surveillance of federal employeers in an effort to prevent future Edward Snowden whistleblowers and prevent scandals involving the NSA.

photo Charles Fettinger via Flickr

U.S. intelligence officials are planning a sweeping system of electronic monitoring that would tap into government, financial and other databases to scan the behavior of many of the 5 million federal employees with secret clearances, current and former officials told The Associated Press in a Mar. 10 article.

Intelligence officials say keeping closer tabs on federal workers will alert them to rogue agents, corrupt officials, and leakers before it’s too late.

Privacy advocates and government employee union officials expressed concerns that continuous electronic monitoring could intrude into individuals’ private lives, prompt flawed investigations and put sensitive personal data at greater risk.

Supporters say the system would have safeguards.

This is the same division over Edward Snowden – is he a hero or a traitor?

“What we need is a system of continuous evaluation where when someone is in the system and they’re cleared initially, then we have a way of monitoring their behavior, both their electronic behavior on the job as well as off the job,” Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told Congress last month.

NSA Director Keith Alexander said intelligence, Defense and Cyber Command officials are collaborating on “insider threat” planning. Recently declassified federal documents show that the NSA is already conducting electronic monitoring of agency staffers involved in surveillance operations.