Simon From Washington Post, Go Back

Picture courtesy: incredibleindia.org

What and how much does a Journalist from a publication in the United States know about Incredible India to write an article  like that about our Prime Minister and our country?

By Francis Adams

Who is this Simon from Washington Post who has so zealously written the "India’s ‘silent’ prime minister becomes a tragic figure" ?
 Isn't he aware of "Simon Go Back"? If not, someone should send him a copy of Bollywood star Akshay Kumar's latest movie Joker.
  To the world: Do not point a finger at our vibrant and bright India. We know what we are doing. Our economy, in the face of all the painful problems the rest of the world is suffering, is illuminating. Don't believe it? Ask Business Birdie.
   We have taken giant strides, since we achieved independence in 1947, to reach the pinnacle of success. And we have the Chairman Emeritus of a global company, Infosys, to attest that claim.
   Yes. It is true that India does not, officially, acknowledge the finding of Transparency International that has ranked it 95th this time from a list of 183 countries on the Less Corrupt Nations list or the  Corruption Perceptions Index.
    Our decision-making skills and timing are on par, if not better than the developed countries, prompting India's poster boy of global business, Lakshmi Mittal, now based in the United Kingdom, to spread his wings to other markets.
   We have the world's better, if not best, companies in the private sector whose unblemished progress has been so ably handled by our agile Human Resources juggernaut that has a telescopic view of employee well-being.
   We don't believe, anymore, in caste. Both, our private and public sector companies are, unlike most in the rest of the world, in the hands of experts who have honed their skills in steering the ship to Himalayan Heights.
   Our tradition and culture are also intact. In fact, they have set a benchmark for others to follow, based on our rich and varied heritage.
    Finally, we have a never-sleeping, hawk-eyed media that can match the best in the world in its reportage, like it did when India anointed its new President.
   So if you, Simon, or anyone in the world wish to know more about corruption in the world, ask us. We'll let you know what to write.

Ex-SEAL's Authentic Account Causes Security Breach

"No Easy day, the first hand account of the mission that killed Osama Bin Laden" has classified information, says Pentagon

By Francis Adams

Mark Bissonette. Picture courtesy CBS News

The Pentagon's spokesman George Little, on Tuesday said that "Sensitive and classified information is contained in the book,” by former Navy SEAL Matt Bissonette, who authored the book using the pseudonym Mark Owen.  

   This is the first time the Pentagon has officially reacted on the revelations in the book that, on Tuesday, w

+as No. 1 on Amazon's best seller list. According to CBS News, the book published by Dutton, a unit of Penguin Group (USA) had an initial print run of 575,000 copies and "publication of the book was moved up from Sept. 11 to Sept. 4 amid a flurry of reports about the book last week."

  The Business Week reported that the "Pentagon General Counsel Jeh Johnson sent a letter to the author dated Aug. 30 warning that he was “in material breach and violation of the non-disclosure agreements you signed” in 2007. “Further public dissemination of your book will aggravate your breach and violation of your agreements.”

  Little told reporters that the Pentagon was still reviewing legal options available against the author before saying, “It is the height of irresponsibility not to have this kind of material checked” for classified information. The author's attorney, Robert Luskin, however, told Business Week that the 2007 agreement “invites but by no means requires” pre-publication review.

  Bissonnette has claimed in the book that he ensured that the content in the book was safe for publication after he hired the former special operations attorney to review his manuscript. 

  Leaks of classified information are not new. In a book titled "A Critical Review of The Classified Information Procedures Act" published as way back as 1985, the author Brian Z Tamanaha writes that "The Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA) was enacted by Congress in 1980 to deal with the growing graymail problem." Graymail, according to the author, refers to a situation in which "a criminal defendant threatens to disclose classified information during the course of trial in the hope that the government would rather forego prosecution than suffer disclosure of information. So long as the threat of disclosure is real one, the defendant may enjoy immunity from prosecution."

  During those days, the author writes, sensitive concern for national security resulted in foregoing prosecution for serious crimes.

  CIPA, according to the author, while trying to combat graymail, ensured that it reconciles "two often conflicting interests: the defendant's right to fair trial and the government's need to protect national security information involved in the trial."

   The current situation, in 2012, though is different and much stringent. According to "Free Speech Aboard the Leaky Ship of State: Calibrating First Amendment Protection for Leakers of Classified Information" written by Heidi Kitrosser from the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities - School of Law and published by the Journal of National Security Law & Policy, the "The Obama Administration has initiated six prosecutions of government employees for leaking classified information. This is double the number of prosecutions brought by all previous administrations combined. The rise in prosecutions, coupled with other developments – most notably a series of disclosures from the website wikileaks – has brought a renewed focus to the first amendment status of classified information and those who disseminate it."

   Bissonette will be thrilled to read The New York Times review and analysis of his book. The paper says that "The emphasis of his “No Easy Day,” written with Kevin Maurer, is not on spilling secrets. It is on explaining a SEAL’s rigorous mind-set and showing how that toughness is created."