Posted by
Steve Smith on
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/The-AP-kerfuffle-tp7583146p7583474.html
>>> Nobody I ever worked with who had various high clearances seemed to
>>> be able to acknowledge that their honor might *require* them to
>>> break their oath? Is it that hard of a concept or did they not
>>> understand the nature of "honor" in the first place?
>> No one is going to go on the record over a subjective concept like
>> honor. They're probably afraid to respond if the question is posed
>> in non-specific way and they aren't sure if its treatment would be
>> clearly treated by classification rules; they don't want people to
>> get the impression they don't take it seriously.
So... can anyone here give a hypothetical answer to my hypothetical
question? Can honor ever trump oath? Using the Snowden case as an
example (whose factual details may or may not apply, but in fact *might*).
To make it less subjective or more specific:
If you promised (took an oath) not to reveal anything declared "Secret"
in the course of your employment for say ... Booz-Allen-Hamilton...
while working on... say... NSA projects... and you find out that ...
say.... the NSA is doing precisely something they are prohibited by
law from doing which directly contradicts the Constitution (in the form
of the 4th amendment), and they are doing it sweepingly and as a matter
of agency-wide policy and apparently with the full knowledge of the rest
of the Intelligence community as well as the entire staff in the White
House, including and especially the President...
My only excuses (to my conscience) for NOT speaking up might be:
I am not sure I understand the entirety of the situation
This fact, while technically dead-nuts wrong, is not really that
important
(everybody suspects and are not railing against it already?)
I don't know Snowden's motives, but if I found myself in his shoes
(pre-disclosure) I could very well be huddling in the Moscow Airport
waiting for an offer of asylum and a mechanism to move into the care and
protection of said government. Or more likely sitting in prison,
listening to the wild hype being thrown around for/against me.
I feel (now) like I dodged a bullet... I *was* careful what I exposed
myself to (especially facts about specific current affairs, and
controversial agency(s) policies) lest I end up in Snowden's Orange
Jumpsuit.
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