Blowing the Whistle: Former US Official Reveals Risks Faced by Internal Critics

[Lodestar]

US President Barack Obama has said that Edward Snowden should have used official channels instead of taking NSA spying public. Now, a former high-ranking US government official has revealed how the Pentagon retaliates against internal critics.

(excerpt)

The row stems from the fact that Crane disputes the version of events still put forward today by President Barack Obama and Democratic Party presidential candidate Hillary Clinton when discussing Edward Snowden, the most prominent whistleblower of our times. Snowden didn't have to go underground and he didn't have to take his story public -- that's the message the US government constantly repeats. The system works, the error was made by Snowden: That has been Obama's subtext.

In reference to Snowden, Obama says there "were other avenues available for somebody whose conscience was stirred and thought that they needed to question government actions." Hillary Clinton has also expressed a similar sentiment during the primary campaign. Snowden "could have been a whistleblower" within the government apparatus, she said. "He could have gotten all of the protections of being a whistleblower. He could have raised all the issues that he has raised. And I think there would have been a positive response to that."

At his home in Virginia, Crane casts his gaze across the Potomac towards the Pentagon. He knows that the truth is rather different and that things aren't quite as simple as Obama and Clinton seek to portray them. How could Snowden have taken advantage of the internal avenues available? He wasn't a government official. He was the employee of a private company that worked for the NSA. As such, it was unclear whether Snowden enjoyed the same legal protections as whistleblowers within the government. And even if he were, Crane has doubts today that he would have been treated appropriately.

Crane sighs and struggles to find the right words to explain his doubts. "I witnessed a dramatic example of what can happen to a whistleblower if he behaves as stipulated and turns to the official channels," he says. Yet everything had seemed so well thought out when the government in the 1970s provided a contact point for whistleblowers within the military apparatus and the NSA.

cont'd
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/ex-us-official-reveals-risks-faced-by-internal-govt-critics-a-1093360.html

[laserhaas]

1. As a whistle blower...myself...speaking from a decade plus

Of experience....armed with confessions

I believe Snowden ran into the same walls.. .obstructive. ..as Ive seen ...prevalent ...throughout

Soon...Im going to try a different way...and expect to be jailed ..for so doing

The beasts are just too dam big ...to get her done

Ant regular ways