Silent State: The Campaign Against Whistleblowers in Washington

[marmar]

from TomDispatch:



Silent State
The Campaign Against Whistleblowers in Washington

By Peter Van Buren


On January 23rd, the Obama administration charged former CIA officer John Kiriakou under the Espionage Act for disclosing classified information to journalists about the waterboarding of al-Qaeda suspects. His is just the latest prosecution in an unprecedented assault on government whistleblowers and leakers of every sort.

Kiriakou’s plight will clearly be but one more battle in a broader war to ensure that government actions and sunshine policies don’t go together. By now, there can be little doubt that government retaliation against whistleblowers is not an isolated event, nor even an agency-by-agency practice. The number of cases in play suggests an organized strategy to deprive Americans of knowledge of the more disreputable things that their government does. How it plays out in court and elsewhere will significantly affect our democracy.

Punish the Whistleblowers

The Obama administration has already charged more people -- six -- under the Espionage Act for alleged mishandling of classified information than all past presidencies combined. (Prior to Obama, there were only three such cases in American history.)

Kiriakou, in particular, is accused of giving information about the CIA's torture programs to reporters two years ago. Like the other five whistleblowers, he has been charged under the draconian World War I-era Espionage Act. ...................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175500/tomgram%3A_peter_van_buren%2C_in_washington%2C_fear_the_silence%2C_not_the_noise/#more (story follows a brief intro)

[sad sally]

1. The Bush/Cheney crimes have been swept under the white house carpets;

the banks and quasi-banks with all the slight of hands shit they've pulled on America get a little spank on their bloated pocketbooks; the telecon companies that spied on Americans got immunity. Seems the only people this administration has gone after to punish are whistleblowers.