Surreal Concern for Wanted Terrorist's "Right to Privacy" on Part of US State Department

[jordan179]

Courtesy of Catherine Herridge, "State Department: Don't Invade Privacy of Cleric on CIA Kill List," Fox News at http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/08/26/state-department-dont-invade-privacy-cleric-on- ( Read more... )

Comments

[xuenay]

One more option occurs to me: that the law says they're not allowed to release such information, and nobody writing the law happened to think of including an exception for people on a kill list. The State Department folks are probably fully aware of how crazy "privacy considerations" are in a situation like this, but feel bound by the letter of the law nonetheless.

Bureaucracies often create incentives to go by the book and not do anything unorthodox. If you go by convention and the letter of the law, you can't really be blamed, while if you make up your own interpretations you risk getting your department sued and yourself fired. The person who made this decision may feel that he has nothing to win by authorizing a release, and a lot to lose.

[headnoises]

Also, when in doubt, do nothing and claim you thought that's what the regulations said.

[catsofblue]

I can answer this; I worked with FOIA exemptions all the time I was in Kuwait. The above poster is correct. It is illegal to give out that information to the public. Fullstop. That Fox News thinks that they deserve an exception that no other corporation or person in the world would receive says more about them than anything else.

The ACLU requested everything related to civilian deaths in Iraq. They received back reports which were all but illegible from the black boxes we digitally placed over just about everything.

[gothelittle]

To my mind, I might be crazy here, there is a difference between releasing private information on civilian deaths in Iraq and releasing private information on a terrorist who is on our kill list. Suppose more innocent people die because someone who could've taken him out just didn't have enough information to identify him?

[headnoises]

To my mind, I might be crazy here, there is a difference between releasing private information on civilian deaths in Iraq and releasing private information on a terrorist who is on our kill list.

My guess:
depends on if you're talking rationally or legally.

"Privacy laws" have all sorts of insane applications-- like parents not being told their child is HIV positive.... (STD medical privacy. I don't know if it managed to hold up legally, but I also don't know anyone testing it....)

[catsofblue]

Why would anyone need access to al-Awlaki's passport information (photo, birth certificate, etc) in order to identify him? If you go to Google there are whole galleries of recent photos, videos and recordings.

It is illegal to release that kind of information on a person. There is no reason why Fox News should have it and the State Department is acting according to the law by denying it to them. It's the same law under which the State of Hawaii refuses to show President Obama's birth certificate. Personally, I find this comforting. If they won't release the private information of both the worst US citizen ever and the President of the United States, then anyone else demanding your birth certificate, or my birth certificate, or Jordan's birth certificate has no precedent to fall back on.

[polaris93]

It may take another 9/11 or worse to wake the nation up to insanity of this sort. I hope not -- and I hope that Obama is eventually replaced by someone who is a patriot and will overhaul Homeland Security, the CIA, and the FBI so that their priorities have "protect the American people" at the top of the list. That may or may not be a vain hope; it's one reason I've been chewing what's left of my fingernails down to the quick.

Three-named wonders

[ilion7]

"... and, as we know, the CIA, both by the nature of its work (foreign intelligence as opposed to domestic counter-intelligence) and by the class origins of its personnel (upper-class as opposed to middle-class) tends to be closer to the State Department than is the FBI."

The Dept of State and the CIA ... life sinecures for the three-named wonders of the US East-coast elite.