"We say in this nation
that we are looking for people with honesty, integrity, drive and dedication, and then when we find such people, we take them
out and whip them." anonymous
Ignoring Whistleblowers
A government whistleblower, disclosing classified secrets, risks
criminal charges. Defining restricted material usually includes a broad scope of information that casts officials or agencies
in a compromising embarrassment. The idea that public servants may be engaged in violating laws is no excuse for blowing the
whistle on such abuses if it involves "National Security". This protect the state attitude at all cost
argument, is the very definition of institutional cover-up. In war, truth is the first casualty, so said Aeschylus.
So throwing the book at Bradley Manning comes as no surprise. Why should anyone
be concerned about the intentional dissemination of raw evidence about war crimes, committed in the name of the War of Terror?
Most would fail to be moved by the motivations of a stoic prisoner, who uploaded secured computer files to WikiLeaks. Many would cheer his interminable incarceration for disclosing military
records.
A cogent reaction from another renowned whistleblower, Daniel Ellsberg of the Pentagon Papers fame, carries the weight of a brave man from another era.
"It's important
to remember through all this that Manning has already pled guilty to ten charges of violating military regulations (few of
which, if any would be civilian crimes) and faces twenty years in jail. Yet the prosecutors are still going ahead with the
absurd charge of "aiding the enemy," a capital offense, of which the prosecutors are asking for life in prison.
Nixon could have brought that charge against me too. I was revealing wrongdoing
by our government in a public way, and that information could have been read by our enemies in Vietnam. Of course, I never
had that intent and Manning didn't either. We both leaked information to provoke a domestic debate about military force and
government secrecy. And to say we did so to aid the enemy is absurd."
In any political trial, the spirit of the law is sacrificed for the expediency of protecting
a debased regime. Balance in prosecution is a concept unknown to a government consumed with punishing any perceived enemy
of the state.
Attorney Floyd Abrams and Professor Yochai
Benkler provide a thoughtful perspective and legal opinion in The New York Times editorial - Death to Whistle-Blowers?
"Under the prosecution's theory, because Private Manning knew the materials would be published and
that Al Qaeda could read them once published, he indirectly communicated with the enemy. But in this theory, whether publication
is by WikiLeaks or The Times is entirely beside the point. Defendants are guilty of "aiding the enemy" for leaking
to a publishing medium simply because that publication can be read by anyone with an Internet connection.
Private Manning's guilty plea gives the prosecution an opportunity to rethink
its strategy. The extreme charges remaining in this case create a severe threat to future whistle-blowers, even when their
revelations are crystal-clear instances of whistle-blowing. We cannot allow our concerns about terrorism to turn us into a
country where communicating with the press can be prosecuted as a capital offense."
No such mercy from the imperial empire, Manning must suffer the supreme wrath
for his transgressions. His admissions acknowledge expected official sanctions, but the sentiment of Daniel Ellsberg reflects
the standpoint of many Manning supporters.
"...For the third straight year, Manning has been nominated
for the Noble Peace Prize by, among others, Tunisian parliamentarians. Given the role the WikiLeaks cables played in the Arab
Spring, and their role in speeding up the end of the Iraq War, I can think of no one more deserving who is deserving of the
peace prize.
He's also deserving of the Congressional
Medal of Honor. This medal, awarded by Congress-and not the executive branch-is given to military personnel, who during wartime,
do what they should do for their country and their comrades, at the greatest risk to themselves."
Another target of recrimination, seen in the Sibel Edmonds dismissal is a classic example of punishing the whistleblower. Edmonds took a job as a translator at the FBI shortly
after 9-11. Her story, stated in the YouTube interview, The Government Is Raping You: Sibel Edmonds, is compelling.
"Edmonds found at the FBI translation unit
almost entirely two types of people. The first group was corrupt sociopaths, foreign spies, cheats and schemers indifferent
to or working against U.S. national security. The second group was fearful bureaucrats unwilling to make waves. The ordinary
competent person with good intentions who risks their job to "say something if you see something" is the rarest
commodity. Hence the elite category that Edmonds found herself almost alone in: whistleblowers."
This characterization of morally challenged federal employees is a direct consequence
of a system that protects the cover-ups, while punishing disclosure of conflicting evidence of outright corruption. The silent
culture of concealment or the worse incentive system of collusion runs the governing bureaucracies.
The presstitutes in the establishment media enable the warmongering protection racket
as a condition of employment. Their lack of investigative reporting is only superseded by their ominous distortion of real
patriotic loyalty. Whistleblowers function as detectives doing the job that reporters abdicate. Woefully, so few citizens
of conscience are willing to jeopardize their individual circumstance for the courage of genuine national security.
"Unfortunately,
most of Edmonds' contributing editors at BoilingFrogs are decidedly left of center, and their anti-globalist, anti-war, anti-police-state arguments and analyses tend to range
from the "progressive" to the Marxoid. However, when she went public and came under attack, it wasn't Sean Hannity
and Rush Limbaugh who came to her defense; it was the anti-Bush Left that rallied to her aid. In fact, the faux conservatives
at FOX, National Review, and the radio talk show universe alternately ignored and attacked her; they were busy cheerleading
George W. Bush's unconstitutional wars abroad and his unconstitutional police-state measures at home. Sympathetic coverage
for Edmonds from alternative media on the Right has been woefully lacking, with a few exceptions.
In April
2011, Sibel Edmonds submitted her manuscript for Classified Woman to the FBI for review, as required by terms of
her employment agreement. Under that agreement, the FBI has 30 days to approve and/or require deletions and revisions. After
waiting over 340 days with no response from the bureau, Edmonds took the path that few others have taken; she published anyway.
However, with every publisher afraid to touch it, she was forced to publish it on her own. She knows that any day now the
Obama administration, which has prosecuted more whistleblowers than all previous administrations combined, may come after
her."
Forget about the false left-right
paradigm. The "War of Terror" being waged by the imperium empire is designed to crush whistleblowers, and keep the brain dead in a zombie trance.
Just consider the impact on the Afghanistan campaign if the FBI acted upon the evidence unclosed by Sibel Edmonds that cuts
to the heart of the 911 myth assumptions.
The military-industrial-security-intelligence
complex closes ranks to protect their "Splendid Little Wars". The whistleblowers that expose the lies out of the War Party establishment are only a minor distraction, as long as
the public sleeps in their self-induced coma. The Army Times item, Hagel to order review of drone medal precedence, is one such interlude, while the control and command structure continues to aim their weapons at imaginary threats.
Who would doubt that the Bradley Mannings and Sibel Edmonds, squealers of
state secrets, would be prime quarries for the hunt to eliminate enemies of the state? The only good government snitch
is a Gitmo captive. So goes the claims of the governance prosecutors.
How many people have actually examined
the information in the Manning WikiLeak disclosures or read the Edmonds account of 911-treason complicity? Oh no, the discomfort
of confronting the fake reality of the official story of make believe is too disturbing for most people.
Loyalty of country is a very dangerous attitude, when your government sponsors
state terrorism as a normal activity. The fear to face up to the horrors of administration deceit is the prime activity of
the flag waving drones that cheer for more carnage.
When Edmonds
describes the traitors within the national security structure, the fearful bureaucrats facilitate the ongoing treachery that
passes for nationalism. When Manning exposes the documents that prove a genocide policy is in effect, the penalty demanded
by the bellicose command is his execution.
An honorable
whistleblower is a citizen hero. Disobeying dishonest laws is true patriotism. In the end, A Different Philosophy of Civil Disobedience, is needed. Complacency is the countrywide disease of choice. Real patriots oppose jingoistic orders. Stand down . . .
an act of dissent (loosely speaking); an open disclosure about significant
wrongdoing made by a concerned citizen totally or predominantly motivated by notions of public interest, who has perceived
the wrongdoing in a particular role and initiates the disclosure of her or his own free will, to a person or agency capable
of investigating the complaint and facilitating the correction of wrongdoing (this strict definition was developed by William
De Maria)
