Now I ask you to read that last sentence with as open and credulous a spirit as you can muster, and tell me if you think the Agency that controls the TSA, INS, FEMA, Secure Cities, and is headed by someone who displays the worst personal and professional characteristics of an unresponsive and publicly unaccountable bureaucrat, is being egregiously disingenuous.

A senior Homeland Security official who spoke to The Huffington Post on Friday on condition of anonymity said the testimony of agency officials last week remains “accurate” and the manual “is a starting point, not the endgame” in maintaining situational awareness of natural and man-made threats. The official denied Electronic Privacy Information Center’s charge that the government is monitoring dissent. The manual’s instruction that analysts should identify “media reports that reflect adversely on DHS and response activities” was not aimed at silencing criticism but at spotting and addressing problems, she added.

via Homeland Security Manual Lists Government Key Words For Monitoring Social Media, News.