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Wikileaks Warning Issued to Students at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs

The School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) at Columbia University has acknowledged that it sent an email to its students with a warning that students refrain from making comments about the leaked diplomatic cables on social media sites like Facebook or via Twitter and from posting links to the documents if they ever hope to work for the State Department in the future. The email from an unnamed individual at the school’s Office of Career Services reportedly relayed a recommendation made by a school alumnus in a telephone call to the school. According to the email, the alumnus works for the State Department at the present time.

Following is a copy of the email:

From: Office of Career Services
Date: Tue, Nov 30, 2010 at 3:26 PM
Subject: Wikileaks – Advice from an alum
To: “Office of Career Services (OCS)”

Hi students,

We received a call today from a SIPA alumnus who is working at the State Department. He asked us to pass along the following information to anyone who will be applying for jobs in the federal government, since all would require a background investigation and in some instances a security clearance.

The documents released during the past few months through Wikileaks are still considered classified documents. He recommends that you DO NOT post links to these documents nor make comments on social media sites such as Facebook or through Twitter. Engaging in these activities would call into question your ability to deal with confidential information, which is part of most positions with the federal government.

Regards,
Office of Career Services

Philip J. Crowley, a State Department spokeman, however, has denied any federal involvement in relaying any such message about Wikileaks to anyone outside the State Department. Crowley reportedly said: “This is not true. We have instructed State Department employees not to access the WikiLeaks site and download posted documents using an unclassified network since these documents are still classified. We condemn what Mr. Assange is doing, but have given no advice to anyone beyond the State Department to my knowledge.”

When questioned why Columbia would have sent the message to its students, Crowley replied: “If an employee of the State Department sent such an email, it does not represent a formal policy position.”

The Lede (The New York Times)

Huffington Post

The Arabist

Updated to add the following link to a Huffington Post article dated 12/6/2010:
Columbia University Walks Back Anti-WikiLeaks Advice

(My thanks go to eniobob for that link.)

– Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger

108 thoughts on “Wikileaks Warning Issued to Students at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs”

  2. Regarding Columbia’s “new” point of view, it’s hard to put that cat back in the bag… They were forced to step back from their statement, so they did. But the students were put on notice, IMO…

    (Swarthmore mom, I had planned to see “Inside Job” a few nights ago, but was tied up at work and missed it… I’m hoping to get to it soon…)

  4. The “Lemmings” ad didn’t embed… (I can’t seem to consistently get YouTube videos to post.)

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYP1Tjgt1Ao&fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0]

  6. The following ad is at the end of Coleen Rowley’s piece at

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/coleen-rowley/take-off-the-blindfold-do_b_792100.html

    She closes with the following:

    The ad was so stark that it flopped. But if no one takes their blindfold off and stops this insanity, we will all simply fall over the cliff.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYP1Tjgt1Ao&feature=player_embedded

    (Regarding Columbia’s “new” point of view, it’s hard to put that cat back in the bag… They were forced to step back from their statement, so they did. But the students were put on notice, IMO…)

  8. Frank: I have been promoting the movie “Inside Job” for weeks on this blog. I don’t know if anyone else has seen it. It is the Columbia Business School that is frequently mentioned in the movie. Glenn Hubbard, Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors under Bush is the Dean.

  9. This story is indicative of the too close connection between academia and the govt. The film, “Inside Job” spends time exposing this link in the economic field where “experts” are called to tell the public how great everything the govt. is doing is, while at the same time making handfuls of money off that same govt.– all without disclosing the ties or payments.

    It also shows the govt. self selecting for authoritarians; people who don’t question, let alone, refuse to go along with unjust authority. I think Chris Hedges addresses this self selection well in his articles and books. Here, it is in action.

  12. Thank you anon nurse, as if anythings outrageous it’s SIPA stifling that freedom of expression and free speech as are not universities supposed to be the bastions of free speech and free thinking??? I always thought they were, as in my day they were.

  13. http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thecutline/20101206/ts_yblog_thecutline/some-news-outlets-stop-dubbing-wikileaks-a-whistleblower

    From the article:

    NBC News spokeswoman Lauren Kapp also told The Cutline that the network was retiring “whistle-blower” in its WikiLeaks reports, even though it called WikiLeaks a “whistle-blower” on last Monday’s “Nightly News With Brian Williams.” Reuters, which has used “whistleblower” since the State Department leak, no longer uses it either. “Our style guidelines ask that reporters not describe WikiLeaks as a whistle-blower,” Reuters spokeswoman Erin Kurtz said.

    The term “whistle-blower” is usually used to describe someone within, say, a corporation or government agency who risks a career to speak out against corruption or fraud. It may just seem like a semantic issue, but how the media describe WikiLeaks can affect public perceptions. A whistle-blower is probably viewed positively, as an individual speaking out against wrongdoing.

    end excerpt

  16. We were discussing the proverbial “abyss” a bit ago on another, related thread … Coleen Rowley happened to mention it in her column today, as well.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/coleen-rowley/take-off-the-blindfold-do_b_792100.html

    begin excerpt

    Unfortunately, the US corporate PR machine is again triumphing. The naked emperor shoots the little boy trying to yell the truth. About 70% of Americans, misled by their politicians, now declare that ignorance is bliss and they want to see Assange assassinated and WikiLeaks taken out. Only a tiny fraction of critical-thinker-Americans recognize that what they don’t know can hurt them.

    The last time an administration got 70% of the country to believe a false proposition (that Iraq was behind 9-11), we launched an unending war that has already killed over a million and, in so doing, we shot ourselves in the foot. So unless Americans are willing to take their heads out of the sand, that’s about to happen again. We find ourselves in such an Orwellian tragedy, that if we don’t laugh, we’ll cry.

    Americans continue like the lemmings in that Apple ad that flopped during the 1985 Superbowl. They are being led blindfolded up to the edge of an abyss and then are, one by one, falling off.

    end excerpt

  20. “The email from an unnamed individual at the school’s Office of Career Services reportedly relayed a recommendation made by a school alumnus in a telephone call to the school.”

    Perhaps an energetic student will uncover the names of the unnamed school official and the alumnus. One would think both individuals would want credit for the sage advice they offered the students.

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