Interesting piece written by a Foreign Service Office at the Huffington Post about his recent experiences with my former employers at the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, reportedly for including links to Wikileaks in a personal blog post.  I found his claim that “Every blog post, every Facebook post, and every Tweet by every State Department employee, they told me, must be pre-cleared by the Department prior to ‘publication’”, presumably attributable to one of the DS agents interviewing him, especially interesting in light of the number of State Department personnel, including career security officers, who I know maintain personal accounts on Facebook.  My post from last November on the Wikileaks issues still stands, and 15 years removed from the Department I’m not going to try and comment on what DS should or shouldn’t be doing to investigate a specific leak case.  I am giggling quite a bit though, and not at Van Buren’s situation.

Spent a lot of the day laughing at the posturing over the latest Wikileaks release.  No surprises in the substance or tone State’s diplomatic traffic.  Nothing unexpected in how the United States conducts its foreign policy or manages its embassies either.  Jaw-dropping shock and awe (in a ROTFLMAO sort of way) though that the procedural security for handling of classified information has devolved in the 14 years since I left the government to the point that government spokesmen can plausibly claim a 23 -year-old Army PFC not only had access to so many documents that he had so little need to know, but that the technological safeguards in place did nothing to prevent him from downloading and e-mailing hundreds of thousands of documents to whoever he wanted, even while sitting in the middle of Iraq.

I know individual accountability has all but vanished in federal service, and in the nine years I worked with Diplomatic Security I was only aware of one Agency (certainly not mine) that held supervisors accountable for the security lapses of the sections and staff, but I’m really having trouble reconciling the concept that the federal government can properly handle information in the modern age with what PFC Manning is alleged to have been able to do single-handedly.

Very glad though that the First Amendment still has enough life left in it that the voters are able to see the sad state of the government’s information security efforts, not that it matters.  The problems are deep enough and systemic enough that I can’t see any politician having the courage to make the information colander in Washington an issue.

I rant here periodically about the Business of Law™, but I have to say I’m relatively happy to be where I’m at in life.  For those who’ve joined us recently and haven’t perused the archives (beware the virtual dust bunnies), a quick recap: prior to starting law school in 1996 I spent nine years with the Diplomatic Security Service in the State Department, a tenure that involved two overseas tours in La Paz and Lome.  Despite a lot of good memories and accomplishments that I remain proud of, overall I was happy to leave.  Contract guards were one of the biggest headaches overseas, and today I’m reminded again of how happy I am to be out of the business. 

Interesting article on my former federal employers in the Washington Post today.  [via Towleroad.]  Nice bit contrasting their openness and policies toward non-traditional families with the ‘don’t ask-don’t tell’ crowd accross the river.  There was some well-written, if way too short, history on the gay and communist witchhunts in the Department during the 1950s.  I’m not as wild though about the final paragraphs in the article about the role of security clearances in the personnel system.  They took a swipe at my former colleagues in Diplomatic Security without really exploring the issues.  Nothing about the extent other agencies outside of State influence the standards for granting security clearances.  Nothing about how employees can be kept as employees, not not allowed meaningful work, because of the differing standards for employment and access.  I’m not going to go there because I’ve been away for over ten years, but it would certainly be nice to see someone take a stab at it with current information, hint, hint, nudge, nudge.

The great winding up of the law practice is going slower then planned, but it is going. Everything else in the slightly retooled life is going well. I’m not sure yet if I call this the third career or just a minor course adjustment in the second career. For those counting; the first was my time as a security officer in the Diplomatic Security Officer and the second includes at least the three law jobs (public defender on the rez, associate at the law firm from hell, and solo practitioner). I guess I’ll have to wait awhile before I decide where the current gig fits in.

It was a good day working for unnamed corporate america, and a good time at the gym afterward. Work involved a morning in the air conditioned office and an afternoon in the field. The gym was a light workout: swimming and a spell in the sauna. A nice way to slow the brain after a long work day. I’m getting into a rhythm with the field work and the outside work and the personal work. Not a rut but a rhythm. Some (beings/people/clients) who used to get a lot of my time don’t like their current smaller percentages much, but aside from Pongo, their opinions really don’t matter that much. I’m enjoying the current percentages.

But as content as I am sitting here in my boxers and blogging while scarfing Ben and Jerry’s, others are having good lives too. Go read The Mighty Jimbo.