Submission + - Email about Wikileaks docs alarms govt employees (isis-online.org)
angkor writes: "ISIS sent out an email to its mailing list directing readers to a page covering the ISIS analysis of the leaks. As U.S. government employees have apparently been ordered not to read about the leaks in an format, receiving such email with a link to a page discussing the leaked document alarmed some. Later ISIS sent another email to apologize:
ISIS would like to apologize for any consternation that a mass e-mail sent out this morning about recently released State Department cables may have caused for federal government employees, contractors, or other readers who subscribe to our mailing list. We did not carefully think through the implications of sending out this e-mail to our mass reader list. We do hope that since the subject line of our e-mail clearly indicated that "State Dept. cables" would be discussed, anyone concerned was able to delete it or avoid reading it. We also did not link to any actual cables in the mass e-mail. Nevertheless, we understand that simply having an e-mail with this content in a government e-mail inbox is potentially problematic. We will not be sending out further mass e-mails containing cable related information. ISIS recognizes that there is an ongoing debate about the administration's policy regarding employee reading of these documents. We hope the administration works out fairly and pragmatically how it will deal with this issue so that employees are not in conflict. We believe the government should recognize that inadvertent leaks do happen, and now that the material is public, its employees may need to be informed about content. An irony of this policy is that one assumes government employees are now restricted in their reading of the New York Times, El Pais, Le Monde, Der Spiegel, the Guardian, and any other news publication which happens to cover and quote the cable content. This seems an overly broad restriction which we hope the administration will address..."
ISIS would like to apologize for any consternation that a mass e-mail sent out this morning about recently released State Department cables may have caused for federal government employees, contractors, or other readers who subscribe to our mailing list. We did not carefully think through the implications of sending out this e-mail to our mass reader list. We do hope that since the subject line of our e-mail clearly indicated that "State Dept. cables" would be discussed, anyone concerned was able to delete it or avoid reading it. We also did not link to any actual cables in the mass e-mail. Nevertheless, we understand that simply having an e-mail with this content in a government e-mail inbox is potentially problematic. We will not be sending out further mass e-mails containing cable related information. ISIS recognizes that there is an ongoing debate about the administration's policy regarding employee reading of these documents. We hope the administration works out fairly and pragmatically how it will deal with this issue so that employees are not in conflict. We believe the government should recognize that inadvertent leaks do happen, and now that the material is public, its employees may need to be informed about content. An irony of this policy is that one assumes government employees are now restricted in their reading of the New York Times, El Pais, Le Monde, Der Spiegel, the Guardian, and any other news publication which happens to cover and quote the cable content. This seems an overly broad restriction which we hope the administration will address..."