Today I’m going to share with you my desktop background image. Not because I think you’ll want it for yourself, but because it reminds me of the complete stupidity of government.

The Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive is responsible for all of the government’s counterintelligence activities, such as preventing classified information from falling into the hands of terrorists, catching spies in government agencies, and so on. The office is currently headed by Ambassador Eric J. Boswell.

Among many other useful and useless things the office does, one of the things it does is to release a new desktop background image each month which government employees can display on their computers as a constant reminder of the importance of counterintelligence to their respective missions. Some of them are actually quite good, even without the counterintelligence message.

This month, the caption for the image reads, “Observing and reporting unusual behavior can help you tell the difference between someone having a bad day and someone having bad intentions.” The image shows a man apparently having a bad day, along with a woman apparently having bad intentions.

I find it particularly ironic, because anyone who does observe and report unusual behavior is likely to have something else happen entirely.

Consider the story of Russell Tice. While working at the Defense Intelligence Agency, he noticed one of his coworkers exhibiting some unusual behavior which, as he put it, might be indicative of espionage activities. And being a good bureaucrat, he reported it. What happened next is typical: he was transferred, then ultimately fired.

If counterintelligence efforts are going to make any difference, they must find a way to end retaliation against those who observe and report; otherwise, people who notice unusual activity are going to be too afraid of losing their jobs, or worse, to report it, and our national security will suffer for it.

And that bittersweet irony is why I am using this background image.