[Infowarrior] - Wyden Puts Hold On Intelligence Authorization Act Over Free Speech Concerns

[Richard Forno]

Senator Wyden Puts Hold On Intelligence Authorization Act Over Free Speech Concerns

from the good-for-him dept

Once again, Senator Ron Wyden seems like one of a very small number of people in Congress actually willing to stand up against bad bills that are pushed forward with fear mongering. Earlier this year, we noted just how absolutely ridiculous it was that Senator Dianne Feinstein seemed a hell of a lot more concerned about punishing whoever blew the whistle on questionable US activities like Stuxnet, then about the questionable activities themselves. In response, she put forth some legislation that was designed to punish government whistleblowers, rather than understand why they were blowing the whistle. This bill got dumped into a key appropriations bill, the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013. In other words, Feinstein basically said that if we are to fund intelligence activities we have to crack down on whistleblowers. Shameful stuff. 

Thankfully, Senator Wyden has now put a hold on the bill, noting his concern about how it would impact free speech issues, especially as it pertained to the media reporting on national security:

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http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121114/16415821049/senator-wyden-puts-hold-intelligence-authorization-act-over-free-speech-concerns.shtml


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Just because i'm near the punchbowl doesn't mean I'm also drinking from it.