White House aide fired over Twitter account

A White House national security official has been fired after it was discovered he was behind an anonymous Twitter account that criticised the Obama administration.

Jofi Joseph was non-proliferation director on the National Security Council and was involved in nuclear negotiations with Iran.

His postings on the @NatSecWonk account, which no longer is available on Twitter, often took shots at US administration policy and figures, including Secretary of State John Kerry and Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel, along with members of Congress.

One tweet said: "More people should be asking why John Kerry installed two former aides, both with ZERO foreign policy experience, into top posts at State."

Another tweet said: "That Obama only called Kerry/Hagel AFTER he made decision with his WH aides on going to Hill underscores how all foreign policy is WH-based." The tweet referred to Obama's surprise decision in late August to seek congressional authorisation for military strikes against Syria as punishment for a chemical weapons attack in August.

Joseph could not be reached for comment. No one answered the phone at a number believed to be his.

In a statement to Politico, Joseph took "complete responsibility" for the Twitter feed, saying it started as a "parody account". He apologised to those he insulted.

A White House official confirmed that Joseph no longer works for the administration, but declined to comment further on personnel matters.

He said White House staffers cannot access social media sites such as Twitter from the White House unless they have an official, authorised account. Carney and many other senior administration officials have official Twitter accounts and often send many tweets a day.

Source

Sounds like some valuable free speech was silenced