ACLU Calls For Protection of Illegal Leaking

The ACLU continues its fight to cripple America's counterterrorism capability by deliberately conflating illegal domestic espionage with "whistleblowing". From an ACLU press release:

The ACLU noted that whistleblowers often suffer retaliation for disclosing embarrassing information. In recent weeks, the Department of Justice has announced that it will investigate the disclosure of an illegal National Security Agency domestic eavesdropping operation approved by President George W. Bush. However, the ACLU noted that the attorney general has yet to investigate which laws were violated by the program - despite repeated calls for such an inquiry from members of Congress. Without the disclosure from that whistleblower, Congress and the public would continue to be unaware of the warrantless surveillance by the NSA.

As I've noted previously, a "whistleblower" is someone who has knowledge of fraud, abuse, or gross mismanagement and reports it through the channels provided to every Federal employee, usually through an Office of Inspector General. Making disclosures to the Press is not whistleblowing. At best, it's espionage. At worst, treason.

The ACLU knows the difference, after all, they have enough lawyers in their group. However, at present it suits the ACLU's purposes to pretend that espionage and whistleblowing are one and the same. It's shameful that the ACLU has chosen to misrepresent self-aggrandizing media whores as being the same as the people who have the integrity to become real whistleblowers.

Via Stop the ACLU.