there are clearly some 'privatization' issues here. it will be interesting if/when this matter goes to the courts ...

similar issues have been raised regarding killing and torture in iraq and afghanistan by private contractors.

and as we know, private contractors were held responsible for the production of weapons of mass destruction in nazi germany. but that was then.

is that is part of the current administrations War on whistleblowers.

The government effectively maintains that sharing information about American policies with the American public is as bad as secretly dealing top-secret information to one of our enemies.

More importantly, scroll down to the bottom of the article to the section under "Your Data in a Driftnet"

In other words, even as the government has increasingly been targeting whistleblowers as spies, it has made it easier — potentially far, far easier — for law enforcement to access the contact information of journalists the government deems to be witnesses, via their communication with sources, to a “crime.”

I think this is what it feels like when you're fighting assimilation into the Borg -- a whole lot of fear and no place to hide.

The central defense in the Eichmann trial was that he was just following orders. That didn't sell well in the Israeli courtroom ..