Calling all watchdogs

For years, senior CIA officials have intentionally deceived parts of the agency workforce by sending internal memos containing false information about sources and operations overseas, according to current and former U.S. officials who referred to the practice as “eyewashing.” The tactic was described by agency veterans as being an infrequent but important security tactic to protect vital secrets.

It is done by inserting fake communications into routine cable traffic within the CIA, while using separate channels to convey the accurate information to the cleared recipients. While some claim it is necessary to the security of some operations, some cite it as a significant potential for abuse.

Federal law makes it a criminal offense when a government employee conceals, covers up, falsifies, or makes a false entry in an official record, and according to an article in the Washington Post, legal experts said they knew of no special exemption for the CIA.

Although the CIA’s missions regularly involve carrying out operations with the intent to deceive foreign governments, it seems fundamentally wrong to aim the same level of deceit at employees of the department.

Not only that, but there are no concrete rules governing eyewashing. In one case cited in a Washington Post article, the recipients of an overriding message were told the eyewash was the only cable that would go in agency records and the cable they were receiving would be removed from the system. That cable was later traced from an unpurged email trail.

While the CIA and other intelligence agencies in the United States are trying to secure more ways to watch the people, what are the people doing to watch them? They are asking for permissions from the government to override encrypted codes on smart TVs and other objects found in ordinary households, but if the CIA is already lying to people within the agency, there is a chance they are already concocting plans to spy on us in our homes.

A journalist’s mission should be to take a stance and be a watchdog of the government. And with the surfacing of the information that the CIA is being deceitful, it is safe to say there are some journalists out there that are fulfilling the mission quite well. However, there is more work to be done, and no journalist, or aspiring activist of any sort, should let an opportunity to be a watchdog pass them by.