CIA Blogger Fired for Anti-Torture Post
Christine Axsmith, a software contractor for the CIA, was fired when she posted a blog entry to the agency's closed network stating her opposition to torture. The post started like this: "Waterboarding is Torture and Torture is Wrong." Such a sad confirmation of our government's dismal human rights policies that so obvious a statement qualifies as grounds for termination.
A software contractor for the CIA was fired when she posted a blog entry to the agency’s closed network stating her opposition to torture. The post started like this: “Waterboarding is Torture and Torture is Wrong.” Such a sad confirmation of our government’s dismal human rights policies that so obvious a statement qualifies as grounds for termination.
Rock Solid JournalismWashington Post: Top-Secret World Loses Blogger CIA Contractor Is Fired When Internal Post Crosses the Line
By Dana Priest Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, July 21, 2006; Page A15
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.
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