Whistleblowers

Bradley Manning, Julian Assange and Edward Snowden are three whistleblowers persecuted by the Federal government for daylighting dark activities.  All of them are treated as traitors with tremendous character assassination going on after the fact.   

Manning is described as a “fragile and unstable being.” using the logic that since he is transgender, he must be at risk for suicide thus being placed on the suicide watch at Quantico Marine brig with no clothes at night nor toilet paper left in his cell.  Bradley’s crimes included releasing the so-called Collateral Murder video.

3 years ago today, on April 5, 2010 Wikileaks released this leaked video footage from a U.S. Apache attack helicopter, which shows Reuters journalist Namir Noor-Eldeen, driver Saeed Chmagh, and about a dozen other people standing around together as the Apache blows them all to pieces with 30mm cannons, in a public square in Eastern Baghdad in 2007.

After the helicopter murders this group, a minivan arrives on the scene and some people attempt to transport some of the wounded to a hospital. These rescuers are fired upon as well, along with the children they had in the vehicle.

The official statement on this incident initially listed all adults as insurgents and claimed the US military did not know how the deaths occurred. They refused to release the video to Reuters, for an investigation of the murders. But fortunately for us, and unfortunately for them, Private Bradley Manning released the video to the folks at Wikileaks, who decrypted it and shared it under the name "Collateral Murder".

Assange ran Wikileaks which posted many of the files released by Bradley.  Shortly after posting those files, Assuange became an international fugitive for an alleged rape that took three different prosecutors to finally proceed.

Sweden’s Public Prosecutor’s Office was embarrassed in August this year when it leaked to the media that it was seeking to arrest Assange for rape, then on the same day withdrew the arrest warrant because in its own words there was “no evidence”. The damage to Assange’s reputation is incalculable. More than three quarters of internet references to his name refer to rape. Now, three months on and three prosecutors later, the Swedes seem to be clear on their basis to proceed.  

Snowden released files proving the NSA had lied to Congress and was illegally spying on US citizens along with virtually everybody else.  He is currently on the run from US “justice”.  This cartoon from the Economist illustrates the situation well.

The surprising thing to me is that so many people express surprise at being spied on by the NSA.  The lack of support for whistleblowers calling out the Feds for their illegal lying reprehensible actions has been dismaying and to be expected based on other’s experiences.

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility is an organization dedicated to calling out the Federal government’s aggressive lack of support of environmental laws.  They list dozens of tales of whistleblowers having their careers and lives derailed when daylighting abusive pollution practices.

Personal attacks on whistleblowers has been a standard practice for, well, forever.  Here is an example from the previous Presidential administration. Teresa Chambers, former chief of the US Parks Police had her career tarnished and derailed when she called out the Bush II administration for lack of funding for park police.  After seven years, one month, and six days, Chief Chambers has had all administrative charges dismissed by the Merit Systems Protection Board, which has ordered that she be reinstated as the Chief of the United States Park Police

I am grateful to these whistleblowers for having the courage to risk their lives, careers, and mental health to call out illegal actions by the Federal government.  I don’t even begin to imagine having that kind of courage to do the right thing according to their beliefs knowing the consequences of letting their particular genie out of the bottle.  Supporting the Sunlight Foundation is about as far out as I want to go on that particular limb.   I can barely keep my life together as it is.  It is easy for me to imagine why Aaron Swartz committed suicide when facing the full might of overwhelming Federal persecution.  Kudos to those with the courage to do the right thing—no matter what.