CIA Blogger Fired for Criticizing Torture Policy

PetManimal writes "A contract software developer for the CIA who had a blog on the CIA intranet was fired after criticizing torture in an entry. The title of the post: something along the lines of 'Waterboarding is Torture and Torture is Wrong.' The Washington Post reports Christine Axsmith is not the only CIA blogger -- the spy agency uses blogs to let agents and other workers share information and ideas." From the article: "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.'"

Comments

Re:Two things:

[JDAustin]

Charming thing for a civilized country to be practicing & defending.

I guess we should just say please and thank you instead to get the info we need?

Fired for blogging?

[Archangel Michael]

Or is that what the contractor / software person is reporting?

There are hundreds of reasons people get fired, everyday. Even if it was over "blogging", it might not have been for criticizing "torture", but other reasons (secrecy, national defense etc). The problem is, it doesn't look good as it is reported, which is probably the whole point of this article anyway.

Bush bad
Democrats good
Amerika evil
terrorism is freedom fighting (tell that to the burka wearing clitoris missing women)
Israel bad
peace at any cost.... .... crowd.

Just as bad as the "other side", IMHO. Evil comes in many forms, which form will you take?

Re:Two things:

[Anonymous Coward]

I've heard that it is one of the worst things that you can do to someone

Is it worse than burning alive and suffocating in your office building just because you had the audacity to go to work that day?

No?

Shut the fuck up, then.

Re:Two things:

[RobotRunAmok]

I'm in those walls and I couldn't say this is a civilized country without laughing or giving it a very snide tone.

All you're really telling us is that you have not travelled much. Before you can tell whether your glass is half full or half empty you need to know the size of your glass, and, no, you can't find that out by looking something up in "wikipedia."

Re:Snark

[Anonymous Coward]

Whoever modded you up needs to have their pecker sawed off. You are not insightful because he was not being serious.

And why is everyone against torture? It is appropriate under some circumstances.

The US is absolutely civilized.

[NDPTAL85]

Its not subjective at all. The US isn't uncivilized simply because someone on the left wing is in disagreement with the current administration. Our entire code of laws and ethics is based around a civil society. We even have a "Bill of Rights" and an Amendment banning cruel and unusual punishment. The current quibble is whether this ammendment applies to non-citizens as it does to citizens. Now compare that to many other countries, even other Western countries such as the UK, German...etc which don't even garuntee freedom of speech and you can see how it is quite correct to call the US, civilized.

Then you can compare the US to those great honor killing muslim societies, or those asian countries (India, China) where there are looming massive imbalances in sex ratios because for various cultural reasons parents do not want female children....

But hey, the US is a free country so if you want to be snarky to the point of being petulant AND WRONG, then go right ahead.

Re:The US is absolutely civilized.

[lbrandy]

I reject this argument entirely. Looking to the lowest common denominator and striving to be "a little better than they are" is sickening.

Wow, did you think of that strawman up all by yourself? Definitely not, since it's used 100 times in every slashdot discussion. I am NOT using that logic nor am I striving for what you claim. I am not saying America is beyond criticism because it is "better than most". I am saying that people are forced to use that argument ("We are better than 90%...") in reponse to equally stupid arguments like "America is terrible in regards to free speech..."... and then someone (you) comes barging in with the classic strawman. The same three posts happen in every discussion... If the original statement wasn't so completely ill-worded, it wouldn't require the statement that you can so easily turn into your strawman.

Next time you reject my argument, try to understand it first.

Misleading Contribution

[toddhisattva]

She was fired for criticizing what some people call "torture."

That scaring people with water should be considered torture is completely debateable. Personally, I'm curious -- could I keep my cool with people scaring me that way?

The entire debate has become pussified. Is scaring people torture? Breaking and rebreaking bones is torture. But giving people a violent bath? What, are the prisoners cats?

I'm going to see if the idiots at ACLU and/or EFF (the same kinds of scum in both orgs) will take my case that country music is torture, that living in Austin constitutes a prison because it's a thousand miles to any country-free zone, and the Evil McChimpyBurton Administration, by licensing country music radio stations, is violating my Geneva Convention rights.

I mean, the radio stations permeate my body with EM carrying country music. They put it in my bones and blood. It upsets me! Whaaaaaa!

Re:He's lucky...

[CamelTrader]

It was a her you jackass.

Re:Two things:

[pete6677]

That's the perfect kind of torture: scares the crap out of the victim without leaving any lasting injuries. Spare me the psychobabble about mental anguish. These guys were killing Americans. If we can waterboard them for some information that saves lives, its well worth it. Amnesty International can suck it, since they have no practical solutions anyway.