Livestreamed Thursday from Toronto: former NSA whistleblower Thomas Drake

Secret NSA/CSEC Surveillance versus Democracy:
What's at Stake for the US & Canada

Thomas Drake   Former senior NSA official turned whistleblower

Thursday Dec. 5, 12:30PM EST

Room 728, 140 St George Street, Faculty of Information, University of Toronto

Livestreaming at http://www.youtube.com/user/iSchoolUofT 

Twitter: #TomDrakeUofT

—
Bio:
From Sept 11, 2001 Thomas Drake served as a senior official at the National Security Agency where he witnessed massive waste, contract fraud and government wrongdoing as well as widespread violations of the 4th Amendment rights of U.S. citizens. While at NSA, he became a material witness and whistleblower for two 9/11 congressional investigations and with a Department of Defense Inspector General audit. Claiming that Drake had disclosed classified information regarding the domestic warrantless surveillance program, the NSA through the Department of Justice charged him with 10 felony charges (including 5 under the Espionage Act carrying 35 year sentences). After years of harassment all these charges were dropped.  The judge hearing his case characterized the government’s treatment of him as "unconscionable”.

While at the NSA Drake was also visiting professor of strategic leadership and information strategy at the National Defense University with the Industrial College of the Armed Forces. He was at Booz | Allen | Hamilton as a management, strategy and technology consultant and software quality engineer from 1991-1998. From 1992 to 1997, Drake also served as an all-source Intelligence Officer in the US Navy Reserve at the National Military Joint Intelligence Center (NMJIC), Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) on the ELINT desk, Terrorism Desk, and the Middle East/North Africa Desk. In 1989, he served as an all-source imagery analyst with US intelligence (CIA).  Prior to 1989, he served in the US Air Force on active duty as an airborne Cryptologic Linguist covering East Germany.
A recipient of several awards for whistleblowing, Drake now writes, speaks and teaches on whistleblowing, the 1st and 4th Amendment, civil liberties, secrecy, surveillance and abusive government power. 

Links:

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Andrews_Drake 
NSA Whistleblower Thomas Drake Statement Before EU Parliament Committee (Video) http://www.whistleblower.org/blog/44-2013/2981-nsa-whistleblower-thomas-drake-statement-before-eu-parliament-committee 

Facing change: a perspective on Canadian Government Publications...

This GODORT Occasional paper just published by Smugler of the Robarts library (U of T) might be of interest: http://wikis.ala.org/godort/images/1/19/OP9-smugler.pdf

Curb federal instant messaging to preserve government record

Possibly of interest:  http://ca.news.yahoo.com/ban-federal-instant-messaging-preserve-message-trail-watchdog-155404174.html

Readings for December 2 class

Readings for the December 2 class (themes: preservation & privacy) have now been posted.
Preservation

Canadian Government Information Private LOCKSS Network

OCUL Trusted Digital Repository. Browse some of the links to get a sense of the work involved in becoming a trusted digital repository.

Privacy & Surveillance

BC Civil Liberties Association. 2013.  More than 30 organizations uniting to protect Canadians' privacy rights. Read one or more of the articles linked under "more information" and be prepared to discuss.

Electronic Frontier Foundation. 2013. Human rights groups to the UN: reject mass surveillance. Attempt by the "5-eyes" nations (Canada is one) to dilute anti-surveillance language fails.

Geist, M. 2013. The privacy threats in Bill C-13, Part One: partial immunity for personal information disclosures without a warrant

Freedom of Information uncovers Canadian government support for corporate espionage

The Guardian used Freedom of Information requests to uncover this:

Lukacs, M. and Groves, T. (2013). Canadian spies met with energy firms, documents reveal. The Guardian, October 9, 2013.

Historical debates of Canadian Parliament are now online!

As just announced by the Library of Parliament and Canada, the historical debates of the Canadian parliament are now available online.

France releases open data plan to G8

Available here.