According to the U.S. Government and countless politicians and political commentators, Jullian Assage is a terrorist mastermind who needs to be jailed or executed and his website Wikileaks needs to be shut down because he and his associates are a terrorist cell. Aside from answering the hyperbolic calls to do our patriotic duty and burn the leakers of this sensitive-but-not-new-or-explosive information at the stake, Good Real Americans might want to consider averting their eyes each time the offending website is mentioned, unless a G-Man has given the all clear.

Above the Law reports the Career Development department at Boston University’s School of Law circulated an email to students and alumni, warning them not to read anything from the Wikileaks website if they want a job with the federal government. Part of the email reads:

“Two big factors in hiring for many federal government positions are determining if the applicants have good judgment and if they know how to deal with confidential/classified information. The documents released by Wikileaks remain classified; thus, reading them, passing them on, commenting on them may be seen as a violation of Executive Order 13526, Classified National Security Information.”

It goes on to warn students that part of background checks the Fed does digs into social media habits: “so DO NOT post links to the documents or make comments on any social media sites.” Boston U isn’t the only school to have warned its students – Raw Story reports that Democracy Now obtained a similar letter sent by Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. In addition to potential federal employees, the White House’s Office of Management and Budget sent a reminder to all federal agencies saying “each federal employee and contractor is obligated to protect classified information.”

In other words, if you want to work for or with the government, you should probably give up your rights as a citizen to read, comment, disseminate or even think about information the government doesn’t want you to know. One has to wonder how long it might take for more bellicose voices to begin demanding EO 13526 apply to all citizens with swift penalties attached to visiting the site. But hey that’s just a sign democracy is doing just fine in America, right?

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