Twittering National Secrets

Think Barkha Dutt went too far? Try Rep.Peter Hoekstra who announced his super-secret Congressional trip to Iraq on Twitter. He not only announced their arrival but also “included details about their itinerary in updates posted every few hours on his Twitter page.”

And to think this dude chaired the Intelligence Committee and we wonder how those in-charge never saw getting bogged down in Iraq. As always, the technology will be blamed but it is the monkey yielding the device that is the problem. Watch and learn from the kids.

On the other hand, if the Bush administration, as it had, kept insisting the Iraq is safe and on its path to democracy then why all the secret visits? Don’t trust your armed forces to keep you safe? Tsk Tsk…that’s not supporting or believing in your troops.

“Twittering National Secrets” [Short URL: http://www.ipatrix.com/?p=2845] was published Saturday, February 7th, 2009 at 9:07 am by Patrix, filed under Internet, Politics, United States, and tagged as Governance, Iraq, Twitter, Web 2.0, WTF. Both comments and linkbacks are closed.

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http://www.reasonforliberty.com/author/admin Gargi Dixit
Even Indian government threaten controlling media rights somedays ago, blaming Indian media about the hazards of Taj hotel, claiming that Media coverage helped terrorists, isn’t it?
One may despise Barkha Dutta on personal issues or whatever she did to that independent blogger.
but seriously do Indians understands the issue of freedom, freedom of speech included?
When UK government honored Rushdie, indians shout foul.
When Dannish PM said he can do nothing against that Dannish cartoonist, Indians got shocked [:O]
Actually Indians just cannot understand the concept of limited government.
They just couldn’t grasp that how the head of government can say that he can do NOTHING against a media person a simple reporter.
In India, people just need to burn some buses, break some offices glass windows and that makes sure to get a government sponsored ban. even the goons and mob robbers can force a government to make a person runaway from his/.her own home.

http://www.ipatrix.com Patrix
Gargi, while I agree with what you say I don’t see how it is related to this post? Do you mean to say that what the Rep.did was not wrong?

http://www.reasonforliberty.com/author/admin Gargi Dixit
Obviously not, why would i say that.
That republican was under agreement of keeping that secrecy. He breached his agreement that is why he was wrong.
What i commented was on your try to compare it with Barkha Dutta’s case.
But yes anyone who opposed Barkha Dutta’s or NDTV’s or any other channel’s covering of Taj Hotel was certainly wrong. Barkha Dutta was not under any secrecy oath or agreement regarding that. it was not Barkha Dutta’s or NDTV’s or any other news channel’s problem or point of concern, nor it was their fault. The fault was of indian intelligence and mumbai police.
Ok let me put it this way.
Why should Anyone (like that blogger who was harassed by NDTV/Barkha Dutta as they say) blame Indian Media, why should not they blame Mumbai police ATS and other services who were involved in that operation?
Were they not aware of the fact that terrorists in the hotel will be watching any/every proceeding on TV’s?
Why did not their mind work at right time to disconnect any cable connection or satelite TV channeling as the first step?
How easy it is for indians to give away their own Individual freedom on issue of terrorism.
Rather than opposing news channels, Intelligence needed to cut off any sort of TV channeling in the Taj hotel as soon as they came to know that there were terrorists inside.
So a news channel must not report about what is going on in a major city of India during a major blot against Humanity.
Indian government should enforce laws and regulations like UAPA no better than POTA, TADA. and what more? Tomorrow again when police will kill many on the name of encounters, same indians will suffer and call for someway for the removal of such brutal laws.
Just because government cannot accept its own failure, indians will opt for state terrorism.
Now let me add this too, That blogger had proper freedom to criticize barkha Dutta or NDTV, so he enjoyed his freedom, obviously his observation was wrong and futile.
Any action against that blogger on behalf of Barkha Dutta or NDTV was not only observational wrong, it was wrong on the base of right of freedom of expression.
But then as i said earlier, since indians do not realize the property rights, they just cannot understand that if a person write something/anything against anyone in a personal blog, personal diary, or book, or he paints anything how-so-ever obscene or nude, it is his freedom as it is his property. If you wanna criticize use your freedom of expression/speech on your property.
Indians rather start threatening, rioting and creating havoc in form of mob rules, BArkha Dutta and NDTV, if really harassed that bloger as some people claims (even you?) then it was no better as the action of Bajrang Dal was against that painter of gujrat who made some nude sculptor of some hindu goddess last year, or the action of VHP against M.F Hussein or that of islamic groups against Taslima Nasreen.

http://www.ipatrix.com Patrix
Gargi, While I do not condone any media regulations imposed by the government, I’m not quite sure that Barkha Dutt and NDTV are completely in the clear. In spite of the failure of communication between the police forces and the media due to systemic failure on part of the crisis response team and the police force, I would still hope that NDTV holds itself to a higher standard as dictated in its journalism code of ethics. Reporting of the event was done purely from the TRP ratings perspective and not to inform the public (irrelevant questions, faulty and misinformed assumptions, etc.)
Even in the example you cite even if television access to the hotel was cut, it can be argued that showing a response team’s strategy and preparation live on TV would result in those moves being transmitted to the terrorists via sat phones as was done. And without getting into whether we agree with the blogger’s opinions or not, we should defend his right to express it, right?

http://www.reasonforliberty.com/author/admin Gargi Dixit
Reporting of the event was done purely from the TRP ratings perspective and not to inform the public
That is what I am mentioning, any news channel is logically and rationally free to look for increasing TRP in howsoever way it do so. The only criteria which can restrict it is, the news they show may/should not be simply falsehood or propaganda and nothing else.
lets say if you have a shop or venture why won’t you try everything possible on honest ground to increase popularity of your venture?
A news channels is surely not doing a charity work for making india aware. it is working for increasing its profits, that is how it creates and provides further jobs. And yes if one supports charity work than they can think of relying on sabotaged, unspecific and government controlled DD news systems too, one can think of Chinese cesorship too. its not a reasonable way though.
The sector of security on the other hand, is responsibility of other department completely independent of any News Channel.
About defending bloggers right, i already did that in my previous post.
yet anybody claiming Barkha or NDTV wrong about presenting the Taj hotel scenario as it is, is simply making the same mistake again. he is simply trying to provide an ostrich escape for the failure of intelligence not only in failing to check the incoming of terrorists from that side of boundaries, but also failing in assessing the situation of 26/11 at right time and making right moves. We say they are martyrs, I more feel like they are unequipped and fools. Anyways, i know governments cannot provide proper security measures for citizens although they can expect citizens to sacrifice their freedoms, afterall individual is doomed to be ruled.
Anyways since we disagree on this point, I feel like you will disagree on the issue of Blackmailing too. So what do you think, is it legal or illegal; to blackmail? I would like to have reasonable answer, and yep it is your freedom either to answer or not to answer.

http://www.ipatrix.com Patrix
Gargi, I’m not advocating placing restrictions on any business even news channels based on the manner they choose to run their business. But you did mention that – “the news they show may/should not be simply falsehood or propaganda and nothing else”. In fact, the news channels have been accused of exactly that e.g. the Trident hostage situation – reporting there were none when in fact there were quite a few; continued shooting at CST, etc. News reporting as much as it is a business, is also a profession and is bound by their self-imposed code of ethics. Many within the profession and their primary consumers were offended by their practice and made their opinions clear. To justify what they did on the basis of increased TRPs alone would not only be callous but also be harmful to the business in the long-term.
Re: the blogger; just because he chose to critisize the news media does not imply that he condones the actions of the authorities. Speaking for myself, I hold the government more responsible for failure in intelligence and proper crisis response.
I’ll take a look at your post on blackmailing soon.

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