4 ms·
Misleading. The alumn was probably just giving a heads-up on the matter. From gawker (http://gawker.com/5705639/us-military-in-iraq-tries-to-intimidate-soldie
by Volscio 16y ago
Misleading. The alumn was probably just giving a heads-up on the matter.
From gawker (http://gawker.com/5705639/us-military-in-iraq-tries-to-intimidate-soldiers-into-not-reading-wikileaks http://gawker.com/5705639/us-military-in-iraq-tries-to-intim...):
"State Department spokeswoman Nicole Thompson got back to us. She said that she's unaware of any State employees issuing any "directives" to any schools about what students should and shouldn't write on social networks. But would State look unfavorably upon a prospective employee who had written about the leaked cables on Facebook? "To talk about current events is one thing," she said. "Would talking about it make you ineligible for a job at the State Department? No. But to go into detail, and propagate information that was illegally obtained—I don't think that's a good move for anyone. Not Julian Assange, not Wikileaks, and not any U.S. citizen.""
- danielnicollet 16y agomisleading? maybe. but if you read the diplomatic cables, and if you look at them as an example of the modus operandi of the state dept., you can honestly and rationally wonder if this official (along with others maybe) wasn't ordered to go disseminate this kind of fear in some of the leading academic institutions... as a matter of testing the response or just as a matter of getting youth to reconsider any public support they might choose to give to the wikileaks movement here. At least, this tells you what a high ranking state dept. official thinks of student political engagement behind the ideas carried by this movement. These ideas are perceived as an indicator of a potential for treason in any individual being considered for government work.
- Volscio 16y agoI went to Columbia's SIPA competitor, Georgetown MSFS, and received that mail via a fwd from an MSFS'er's friend at Columbia. All it says is "alumnus" and it's highly possible it's just some recent grad who is now some functionary at State or maybe even some junior FSO. Knowing a lot of new FSOs, they're all totally paranoid about doing anything wrong.I would not suspect right off the bat that it was some high-level plan at intimidation. It's probably someone being proactive, like I originally said.At best, it's still misleading because you didn't have more information to leap to "OFFICIAL STATE DEPARTMENT STATEMENT OR DIRECTIVE".