Former FTC CTO Ashkan Soltani Denied Security Clearance, Perhaps Because He Helped In Reporting On Snowden Docs
from the bad-news dept
Ashkan Soltani is a well known privacy expert who (among other things) worked with Barton Gellman at the Washington Post to analyze the Snowden documents for story worthy information -- an effort that won that series a Pulitzer Prize. Soltani has been hugely instrumental in reporting on other privacy-related issues as well, including being a part of the team that also a Pulitzer Prize finalist for the Wall Street Journal's excellent What They Know series on digital privacy issues. Basically he has a long history of doing great journalism around privacy. For most of the last year, he was also the Chief Technology Officer at the FTC. Back in December, it was announced that he had moved over to work for the federal government CTO, Megan Smith, in the White House as a senior advisor. The CTO's office has been collecting some fairly amazing tech talent recently.However, now, just a few weeks after Soltani took the job in the White House, he's announced that he's left the job because he's been denied the security clearance necessary to do his job:
Bittersweet end to my stint in government — I’m disappointed to announce my departure from @whitehouseostp pic.twitter.com/nYlBI1b2ur
— ashkan soltani (@ashk4n) January 29, 2016I am disappointed to announce my departure as Senior Advisor to the White House Chief Technology Officer, Megan Smith.Soltani says he won't speculate, but from the rest of his statement it's not hard to guess what the real reason is: his work with the Snowden documents in 2013. Back when Soltani first went to the FTC in late 2014, you had folks like former CIA and NSA boss Michael Hayden whine about his work on the Snowden documents and suggest it makes it inappropriate for him to hold a government job.
Smith hired me in December from the Federal Trade Commission, where I had served as Chief Technologist since late 2014. My mandate was to help Smith and her team work through hard questions on consumer privacy, the ethics of big data, and the recruitment of skilled technologists to government.
Those are vital issues, which have occupied me in and out of government, and I will continue to contribute what I can in other venues.
Last week the White House Office of Personnel Security notified me that I would not receive the security clearance necessary to continue to work at the White House. I'm told this is something that happens from time to time and I won't speculate on the reasons. I do want to say that I am proud of my work, I passed the mandatory drug screening some time ago, and the FBI background check was still underway. There was no allegation that it was based on my integrity or the quality of my work.
I was honored to serve at the FTC and in the White House. I wish the CTO and her amazing team success in the important work ahead.
"I'm not trying to demonize this fella, but he's been working through criminally exposed documents and making decisions about making those documents public," said Michael Hayden, a former NSA director who also served as CIA director from 2006 to 2009. In a telephone interview with FedScoop, Hayden said he wasn't surprised by the lack of concern about Soltani's participation in the Post's Snowden stories. "I have no good answer for that."And then you had former NSA General Counsel (and proud Techdirt hater), Stewart Baker arguing that Soltani should be barred from government work for his work on the Snowden docs:
Stewart Baker, a former NSA general counsel, said, while he's not familiar with the role Soltani would play at the FTC, there are still problems with his appointment. "I don't think anyone who justified or exploited Snowden's breach of confidentiality obligations should be trusted to serve in government," Baker said.So it doesn't take too much reading between the lines to suggest that those in charge of handing out security clearance decided to "punish" Soltani by denying him clearance.
Of course, beyond being generally screwed up, it also is a bit ironic since Soltani's role was supposed to be about convincing techies to work in government. Want to know how not to do that? It's by pettily "punishing" Soltani for his journalism work.
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Filed Under: ashkan soltani, ed snowden, ftc, megan smith, michael hayden, security clearance, stewart baker, white house
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Could be a lot worse
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Re: Could be a lot worse
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West Coast [was Re: Re: Re: Could be a lot worse]
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CIA - Kidnaps, tortures, kills prisoners.
FBI - Cooks up 'terrorist' plots, roping in the dumbest and/or most mentally challenged people they can find to point to as the 'terrorists' they 'heroically' managed to save the american public from.
Given the above, and the fact that the government hates nothing more than a whistleblower exposing it's activities to the public, yeah, I'm sure they'd much rather that anyone with a working moral compass find work elsewhere. They want people who follow orders, not people who think about them.
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NOT talking about it is the 'sin', NOT facing up to the corrupted system is the problem...
YOU are the problem when you call for abject authoritarian acceptance of any/all outrages foisted on us all...
unless/until the critical mass of sheeple bare their fangs at Empire will anything change...
power NEVER devolves voluntarily...
NEVER...
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There needs to be some hostility towards some of the stuff going on in the government.
It's not productive and it hurts everyone involved...
Not productive for those in the wrong. It's good for everyone else, my little apologist friend.
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So what are you left with? No government at all? Good luck with that ayn rand bullshit - that's a world where the Trump company town outright surveils you and your only recourse is to be a hermit living in a cave.
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Drug Testing and Security Clearances
However, in some cases, if there is 'sufficient' reason to suspect illegal drug use they can make you choose between taking a drug test or having your clearance revoked. But that is not part of getting cleared, only in cases where you've done something really stupid while holding a clearance. FWIW, they can also revoke your clearance for other penny-ante things like getting too many speeding tickets.
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Qualifications
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WH wanted someone to lean on Facebook & Twitter
Soltani wouldn't do it.
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Revenge
Just ask them.
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Dear Michael Hayden
Mark Felt - Watergate
Daniel Ellsberg - Pentagon Papers/Vietnam
Linda Tripp - Monica Lewinski
Frank Serpico - NYPD (1973)
Bradly Manning - US Army/Wikileaks
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political security clearance
continuity of government itself is the threat.
If the FBI can't obey their oath, and go get that bitch then
the United States is finished.
I would have Loretta Lynch arrested (right now), and Eric Holder and on down the line. Heading over to the IRS... Heading over the the FCC... Heading over to the USDA... Heading over to
See all these are not needed. They aren't in the Constitution!
Thy oath breaking horsepoo is mega assanine
That's the STATE of the United States Of America
Until these leaders have Nausea every day all day, 24/7 cause they are SCARED-- they aren't FEELING The people's will (let alone begin to understand the anger) yet.
See instead I been feeling butterflies 24/7 and up nights for security cause I watched as oath breaking law after law has come down in the past 15 years.
We can't even have an honest discussion about that which enabled this horsepoo.
I have one last question. Do you really want a fight? I mean one that risks everything? That's really the only thing holding it together isn't it. People too scared to give up what they got. The Irony is they will have NOTHING if this horsepoo agenda goes forward.
(this stuff is my opinion not a THREAT)
Dumb all over with a little ugly on the side - Frank Zappa
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It's an interesting conclusion, but I tend to go along with the much simpler thing: He was implicated in some way with Snowden, and as such, there is a flag on his file that won't permit him to get the security level needed. I don't attribute to malicious action what is more easily explained by the mundane methods by which data is collected, reports submitted, and names added to little lists that say "don't let this one in".
Anyone who touched anything from Manning or Snowden can pretty much assume they will never, ever have enough clearance for this sort of job.
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Considering it's common knowledge by now that would prevent basically every American that read the news. Awesome.
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How is that different from what Mike said?
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Not data, but someone's view.
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I don't think of it as malicious, just the facts.
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—— Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 1951
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Banality noun ba·nal·i·ty \bə-ˈna-lə-tē, bā-, also ba-\
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