This Really Is Big Brother: The Leak Nobody's Noticed

"Obama in November approved 'minimum standards' giving departments and agencies considerable leeway in developing their insider threat programs, leading to a potential hodgepodge of interpretations. He instructed them to not only root out leakers but people who might be prone to 'violent acts against the government or the nation' and 'potential espionage.'

"The Pentagon established its own sweeping definition of an insider threat as an employee with a clearance who 'wittingly or unwittingly' harms 'national security interests' through 'unauthorized disclosure, data modification, espionage, terrorism, or kinetic actions resulting in loss or degradation of resources or capabilities.'

"An argument can be made that the rape of military personnel represents an insider threat. Nobody has a model of what this insider threat stuff is supposed to look like," said the senior Pentagon official, explaining that inside the Defense Department "there are a lot of chiefs with their own agendas but no leadership."

The Department of Education, meanwhile, informs employees that co-workers going through 'certain life experiences . . . might turn a trusted user into an insider threat.' Those experiences, the department says in a computer training manual, include 'stress, divorce, financial problems' or 'frustrations with co-workers or the organization.'

"An online tutorial titled 'Treason 101' teaches Department of Agriculture and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration employees to recognize the psychological profile of spies.

"A Defense Security Service online pamphlet lists a wide range of 'reportable' suspicious behaviors, including working outside of normal duty hours. While conceding that not every behavior 'represents a spy in our midst,' the pamphlet adds that 'every situation needs to be examined to determine whether our nation's secrets are at risk.'

"The Defense Department, traditionally a leading source of media leaks, is still setting up its program, but it has taken numerous steps. They include creating a unit that reviews news reports every day for leaks of classified defense information and implementing new training courses to teach employees how to recognize security risks, including 'high-risk' and 'disruptive' behaviors among co-workers, according to Defense Department documents reviewed by McClatchy.

"'It's about people's profiles, their approach to work, how they interact with management. Are they cheery? Are they looking at Salon.com or The Onion during their lunch break? This is about 'The Stepford Wives,' said a second senior Pentagon official, referring to online publications and a 1975 movie about robotically docile housewives. The official said he wanted to remain anonymous to avoid being punished for criticizing the program.

"The emphasis on certain behaviors reminded Greenstein of her employee orientation with the CIA, when she was told to be suspicious of unhappy co-workers.

"'If someone was having a bad day, the message was watch out for them,' she said.

"Some federal agencies also are using the effort to protect a broader range of information. The Army orders its personnel to report unauthorized disclosures of unclassified information, including details concerning military facilities, activities and personnel.

"The Peace Corps, which is in the midst of implementing its program, 'takes very seriously the obligation to protect sensitive information,' said an email from a Peace Corps official who insisted on anonymity but gave no reason for doing so.

"Granting wide discretion is dangerous, some experts and officials warned, when federal agencies are already prone to overreach in their efforts to control information flow.

"The Bush administration allegedly tried to silence two former government climate change experts from speaking publicly on the dangers of global warming. More recently, the FDA justified the monitoring of the personal email of its scientists and doctors as a way to detect leaks of unclassified information."