Oh No! Big Brother (James Clapper) Puts His ACES In A Row.

"Those of us who serve our country are increasingly treated like the suspects we pursue"








"....today's AP article in which the DNI (Director of National Intelligence) aka Big Brother, now feels it necessary to subject over five million federal employees to continuous monitoring inside AND outside of the workplace for signs of espionage, all because of the four or five individuals (Snowden, Ames, Walker, Hansen) who decided to betray their country.  When have intrusions into our private lives gone too far?  Those of us who serve our country are increasingly treated like the suspects we pursue."




                                               --- concerned federal employee with high security clearance.  


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With all of the NSA cell phone debate going around, it has become abundantly clear that most American's simply do not care about the issue of privacy as it relates to our cell phones and our internet usage.  Despite identity theft and the insistence from Rand Paul that our cell phone's are "none of their damn business", we remain essentially unchanged in our perspective.  In great part because we always assumed that certain aspects of our lives were never private, and even more were sacrificed by the events of 9-11.  Let this be an example of what happens when you don't stand for principles.

Big Brother  James Clapper (Director of National Intelligence)

What today's Big Brother update signifies is that the DNI is more than a seeing eye. The DNI is looking to live up to a mystical reputation  by putting the ACE's in a row.

“What we need is a system of continuous evaluation where when someone is in the system and they’re cleared initially, then we have a way of monitoring their behavior, both their electronic behavior on the job as well as off the job,”  Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told Congress last month.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/us-intelligence-officials-monitor-federal-employees-security-clearances/

What Clapper was eluding to has apparently been in the works for some time and is expected to mimic a program that has been in place in the airline industry, in banking and apparently the Pentagon uses it under the name ACES (Automated Continuous Evaluation System). Clapper announced this program before congress as a needed program, but the ACES system has moved beyond conversation having passed several pilot tests already  and may soon be implemented in more departments that just the Pentagon. 

The NSA meta data collection confirms the concept of Big Brother watching you and I to some degree, but remains overblown for the most part.  The reality that Big Brother is doing whatever they deem necessary to federal employee's has moved beyond a popular myth, this is a confirmed agenda.  Dividing lines between employment and individual privacy may soon take on  a breach that could fracture the spectrum of freedom, especially in the realm of employment.

ACES is not collecting metadata either. ACES is after real data about real people who deserve the right to a level of anonymity outside of work.   To subject federal employees to continuous counter espionage treatment sets a precedent that every corporation could someday justify as a reasonable expectation of employment.  Clearly in this matter, employment, and not national security, is the reason by which this program is being justified.  

In other words, if this program is deemed reasonable, then federal employee's, and anyone too close to them, could be an indirect victim of the continuous evaluation system. Without proper warrant, ACES could tap and track my wife and children because they are connected to my phone account which has triggered the automated system.  This is just one of the many scenario's that come to mind.

Traitor: Eric Snowden

If there ever was a Pandora's box, this might be it.  Sacrificing freedom should never be a condition of employment, but ACES makes for the highest stake employment compromise in our history. ACES is more than a slippery slope, it is an overreach that will cause casualties if implemented.  When the first casualty of this system arises, I expect the government response to resemble the Stand Your Ground law in which the victims will be silenced for the sake of the system.

Sadly, Eric Snowden has forced the hand of government to put its ACES in a row so that no other internal breach occurs without some evidence of prevention efforts. However, unless ACES eliminates espionage, what is it for? Doesn't every country conduct espionage efforts?  Isn't spying and information leaking simply par for the course, and if so, is ACES actually attempting to create a James Bond fail safe?

Admit it. Bond will never be denied and ACES will eventually need to justify itself in the lives of  the federal employee's it seeks to continuously evaluate.  

This time Big Brother has gone way too far.