SIPA Shushing Students over CableGate: Update

I was out of town this weekend, blissfully disconnected from phone and Internet. I came back to find out that since I blogged about Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs warning students not to discuss Wikileaks online if they ever want to work for the State Department, the story has, well, exploded.

The Huffington Post got in touch with State Department spokesperson Philip J. Crowley, who said the SIPA alum who e-mailed the Office of Career Services was acting of his own volition:

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….

If an employee of the State Department sent such an email, it does not represent a formal policy position.

So it looks like the blame for OCS’s ridiculous “advice” falls squarely on the shoulders of SIPA, then. Excellent.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *