Contractors can be fired for blogging, too
Christine Axsmith, a computer engineer employed by BAE Systems and assigned to test their client's (the CIA) software, was fired for stating her opinion about a current news event in her authorized and supported blog on the client's internal system.
"The day of the last post, Axsmith [aka CC in her blog] said, after reading a newspaper report that the CIA would join the rest of the U.S. government in according Geneva Conventions rights to prisoners, she posted her views on the subject.
"It started, she said, something like this: 'Waterboarding is Torture and Torture is Wrong.' And it continued, she added, with something like this: 'CC had the sad occasion to read interrogation transcripts in an assignment that should not be made public…'
"She said BAE officials told her that the blog implied a specific knowledge of interrogations and that it worried 'the seventh floor' at CIA, where the offices of the director and his management team are."
If you're employed and want to remain employed by your current employer, keep your opinions to yourself—anywhere where you can be identified.
"The day of the last post, Axsmith [aka CC in her blog] said, after reading a newspaper report that the CIA would join the rest of the U.S. government in according Geneva Conventions rights to prisoners, she posted her views on the subject.
"It started, she said, something like this: 'Waterboarding is Torture and Torture is Wrong.' And it continued, she added, with something like this: 'CC had the sad occasion to read interrogation transcripts in an assignment that should not be made public…'
"She said BAE officials told her that the blog implied a specific knowledge of interrogations and that it worried 'the seventh floor' at CIA, where the offices of the director and his management team are."
If you're employed and want to remain employed by your current employer, keep your opinions to yourself—anywhere where you can be identified.
