Valerie Plame Quotes

At the time, the President thought the accusation about the White House was unlikely and just the accusations of political enemies and he said he would fire anyone who made such a leak. The quote became memorable when it came out that it there were two White House leakers, including the President’s closest political advisor, Karl Rove. Thereafter, the President not only did not fire anyone, but refused to even discuss the matter saying that there were potential criminal proceeding underway.

Snowden, was a contract worker for Booz Allan assigned to the National Security Agency (NSA). He felt that some of the NSA activities were illegal and unethical and tried to complain to NSA officials who rebuffed him. Despite the fact that he had signed an agreement not to do so, he copied many critical, classified documents that exposed much of the NSA activities that the NSA officials had denied existed—including lying under oath to the Senate. Laura Poitras, the journalist, was not accused or suspected of anything. However, on the belief, that Snowden might have given her some classified material, the American government prevailed upon the British to seize her personal computer. Snowden made the programs public as the highest level intelligence officials were lying to Congress about them. The position of the US Government was that Snowden had violated American Law. Others praised him for revealing illegal activities in which the government was engaged and was lying about including to the Congressional oversight committees. Snowden repeatedly outsmarted the government and ended up getting asylum in Russia. In the case of the computer material, he had encrypted the material using “strong encryption” which most computer experts believe is impossible even for the best code breakers and computers to crack. See {628105} . In this quotation he argues that all journalists should use strong encryption on ALL of their notes and other materials that they receive from confidential sources. Government officials had tried to keep strong encryption secret even though it was invented by a private scientists with no government support or involvement. They failed, but have been trying to find a way to defeat strong encryption since. Ironically, most non-technical private individuals and companies do not use it even though it is quite easy and the software is free. Editors and publishers are ambivalent in that they could not comply with court orders or show them to employees even though it is their own property if the individual reporter or the source did not want them to.

The leaks not only did not stop, but they became worse than ever.

Trust is undermined in 2 ways. Allies and others who speak or negotiation with the government in confidence, lose trust in the government to maintain the appropriate level of confidentiality and security over information. And second, citizens lost trust in the government because they have been secretive and kept information from the citizenry that usually is just embarrassing or being kept secret to avoid opposition. Worst is when the leak shows that the Government has been lying to the public. Where there are what the public regards as legitimate secrets, public trust is not diminished, but those instances are not typical.