by Stephan Lendman June 14 2010
More than ever under Obama, we live in a secret
society, in which whistleblowers and journalists ar
targeted for doing their job – why Helen Thomas,
unfairly pilloried by the pro-Israeli chorus, last July
said his administration was “controlling the press,
during a White House Robert Gibbs briefing, then
afterward added:
“It’s shocking. It’s really shocking….What the
hell do they think we are, puppets? They’re
supposed to stay out of our business. They
are our public servants. We pay them.”
On April 16, journalist John Cole wrote:
“The message is clear – you torture people
and then destroy the evidence, and you get
off without so much as a sternly worded
letter. If you are a whistle blower outlining
criminal behavior by the government, you
get prosecuted.”
In fact, it’s worse. Under Bush, torture was official
policy. It remains so under Obama who absolved
CIA torturers, despite unequivocal evidence
of their guilt. But leaking it risks criminal
prosecution for revealing state secrets
and endangering national security.
On June 7, New York Times writer Elisabeth
Bumiller headlined,“Army Leak Suspect Is
Turned In, by Ex-Hacker,” explaining that
US Army intelligence analyst Specialist
Bradley Manning told Adrian Lamo that he
leaked the following materials to WikiLeaks:
– “260,000 classified United States diplomatic
cables and video of a (US) airstrike in
Afghanistan that killed 97 civilians last year
,” and an “explosive (39 minute) video of an
American helicopter attack in Baghdad that
left 12 people dead, including two employees
of the Reuters news agency.” Manning called
it “collateral murder,” a crime he felt
obliged to expose.
Lamo told the military, saying “I outed Brad
Manning as an alleged leaker out of duty.
I would never (and have never) outed an
Ordinary Decent Criminal. There’s a
difference.” He didn’t explain or how any
criminal can be decent.
On June 7, the military command in Iraq
arrested Manning, saying in Pentagon
boilerplate:
“The Department of Defense takes
the management of classified
information very seriously because
it affects our national security, the
lives of our soldiers, and our
operations abroad.”
So far, Manning is uncharged and is being
held in Kuwait pending further action.
On June 6 in wired.com, Kevin Poulsen
and Kim Zetter broke the story in
their article headlined, “US Intelligence
Analyst Arrested in WikiLeaks
Video Probe,” explaining:
The Army’s Criminal Investigation Division
arrested Manning after Lamo outed him.
The State Department said
it wasn’t aware of the arrest.The
FBI had no comment, then later the
Defense Department confirmed his
arrest for allegedly leaking classified
information. According to army
spokesman Gary Tallman:
“If you have a security clearance
and wittingly or unwittingly
provide classified information to
anyone who doesn’t have security
clearance or a need to know, you
have violated security regulations
and potentially the law.”
Manning said:
“Everywhere there’s a US post, there’s
a diplomatic scandal that will be
revealed. It’s open diplomacy. World-wide
anarchy in CSV format. It’s
Climategate with a global scope, and
breathtaking depth. It’s beautiful
and horrifying. (The documents
describe) almost criminal political back
dealings. (They belong) in the public
domain, and not on some server
stored in a dark corner in Washington
, DC. (Our government is involved
in) incredible things, awful things.”
He exposed cold-blooded murder of
innocent civilians and reporters, the
perpetrators laughing on video like it
was a game – the public unaware
that Pentagon rules-of-engagement
(ROEs) target Iraqi and Afghan
civilians as well as alleged
combatants.
On June 11, New York Times writer Scott
Shane headlined, “Obama Takes a Hard
Line Against Leaks to Press,” saying:
“In 17 months in office, President Obama
has already outdone every previous president
in pursuing leak prosecutions,” citing actions
against Thomas A. Drake (discussed below),
and Times columnist James Risen, subpoenaed
(by Bush and Obama) to disclose his sources
for his book, “State of War: The Secret History
of the CIA and the Bush Administration.”
Lucy Dalglish, executive director for Reporters
Committee for Freedom, explained:
“The message they are sending to everyone
is ‘You leak to the media, we will get you.’
As far as I can tell there is absolutely no
difference (between Bush and Obama),
and (he) seems to be paying more
attention to it. This is going to get nasty.”
Attorney General Eric Holder approved the
subpoena, his Justice Department spokesman
, Matthew Miller, saying: “As a general matter,
we have consistently said that leaks of classified
information are something we take extremely seriously.”
Risen’s lawyer, Joel Kurtzberg, explained that the
subpoena relates to his report about covert CIA
measures to subvert Iran’s alleged nuclear
weapons program. “We will be fighting to quash”
it, he said. “Jim is the highest calibre of reporter
and adhered to the highest standards of his
profession. And he intends to honor the promise
of confidentiality he made to (his) source or
sources.”
Risen’s publisher, Simon and Schuster, is handling
the matter, but a Times statement said:
“Our view, however, is that confidential sources
are vital in getting information to the public,
and a subpoena issued more than four years
after the book was published hardly seems to
be important enough to outweigh the protection
an author needs to have.”
First brought in 2006 by Bush Attorney General
Michael Mukasey, the grand jury session expired
without resolution. Holder will impanel a new
one. Risen faces possible prosecution and jail time
for honoring his confidentiality commitment, what no
reporter should ever violate.
WikiLeaks – What It Is, How It Operates
Calling itself “the intelligence agency of the people,”
WikiLeaks says it’s “a multi-jurisdictional public service
designed to protect whistleblower, journalist and
activists who have sensitive materials to
communicate to the public” that has a right to know.
Only when they’re told “the true plans and behavior
of their governments” can they decide whether or
not they deserve support, or as
Jack Kennedy said on April 27, 1961:
“The very word secrecy is repugnant in a free
and open society; and we are as a people inherently
and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret
oaths and to secret proceedings. We decided long ago
that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted
concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers,
which are cited to justify it.”
WikiLeaks believes that “Principled leaking has changed
the course of history for the better; it can alter the course
of history in the present; it can lead us to a better future.”
It can expose abuses of power by “rel(ying) upon the power
of overt fact to enable and empower citizens to bring feared
and corrupt governments and corporations to
justice,” and help make nominal democracies real ones.
Secrecy and Targeting Whistleblowers and Journalists
Under Obama
More than ever under Obama, we live in a secret society,
in which whistleblowers and journalists are targeted for
doing their job – why Helen Thomas, unfairly pilloried
by the pro-Israeli chorus, last July said his administration
was “controlling the press,” during a White House Robert
Gibbs briefing, then afterward added:
“It’s shocking. It’s really shocking….What the hell do
they think we are, puppets? They’re supposed to stay
out of our business. They are our public servants.
We pay them.”
In a July 1, 2009 interview with CNSNews.com, she said
even Nixon didn’t exert press control like Obama, saying
: “Nixon didn’t try to do that. They couldn’t control (the media).
They didn’t try….I’m not saying there has never been managed
news before, but this is carried to (a) fare-thee-well for town
halls the press conferences. It’s blatant. They don’t give a
damn if you know it or not. They ought to be hanging their
heads in shame.”
In February 2009, the Free Flow of Information Act was
introduced in the House and Senate. In March, the lower
body passed it overwhelmingly, after which it stalled in
Senate Committee.
At the time, the Obama administration weakened it in
opposition to strong congressional support – on the
pretext of national security considerations over the
public’s right to know, to let prosecutors judicially force
reporters and whistleblowers to reveal their sources.
Though the bill never passed, the administration uses
it to prevent exposure of information it wants suppressed,
more aggressively than any of his predecessors, another
measure of a man promising change.
Thomas Drake was an Obama administration target,
a former National Security Agency (NSA) “senior executive
,” indicted on April 15, 2010, on multiple charges of “willful
retention of classified information, obstruction of justice and
making false statements,” according to Assistant Attorney
General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division.
The 10-count indictment alleges he gave Baltimore Sun
reporter Sibohan Gorman classified NSA documents about
the agency. In fact, she wrote about waste and mismanagement
in its “Trailblazer” project (a program analyzing data on
computer networks), and illegal spying activities,
saying on May 18, 2006 in her article headlined,
“NSA Killed System That Sifted Phone Data Legally” that:
“Once President Bush gave the go-ahead for the NSA
to secretly gather and analyze domestic phone records
– an authorization that carried no stipulations about identity
protection – agency officials regarded the encryption as an
unnecessary step and rejected it.”
Her stories, however, focused mainly on the Trailblazer
$1.2 billion initiative that one insider called “the biggest
boondoggle going on now in the intelligence community,
” what the public had every right to know.
Drake’s leaks exposed illegal NSA spying, its enormous
amount of waste and fraud, and the formation of a
public/private national security/surveillance state,
incentivizing profiteers to hype fear for
their own bottom-line self-interest.
As a candidate, Obama promised transparency,
accountability, and reform of extremist Bush policies
As president, he usurped unchecked surveillance
powers including warrantless wiretapping, accessing
personal records, monitoring financial transactions,
and tracking emails, Internet and cell phone use to gather
secret evidence for prosecutions. He also claims Justice
Department immunity from illegal spying suits, an
interpretation no member of Congress or administration
ever made, not even Bush or his Republican allies.
As a result, his national security state targets activists
political dissidents, anti-war protestors, Muslims, Latino
immigrants, lawyers who defend them, whistleblowers,
journalists who expose federal crimes, corruption, and
excesses who won’t disclose their sources, and WikiLeaks
, cited in a 2008 Pentagon report as a major US security
threat, important to shut down by deterring, discouraging
or prosecuting its sources. More on that below.
At a time of extreme government secrecy, lawlessness
and betrayal of the public trust, exposes and public debate
more than ever are vital – whistleblowers, WikiLeaks, and
courageous reporters essential to an open
society, one endangered without them.
WikiLeaks March 15, 2010 Release: “US Intelligence
planned to destroy WikiLeaks”
The group’s founder, Julian Assange, described a
32-page February 2008 counterintelligence
investigation “to fatally marginalize the organization
.” However, after two years, without
success, at least so far.
It called WikiLeaks “a potential force protection,
counterintelligence, operational security (OPSEC)
and information security (INFOSEC) threat
to the US Army, (jeopardizing) DoD personnel,
equipment, facilities, or installations. Such information
(could help) foreign intelligence and
security services (FISS), foreign military forces,
foreign insurgents, and foreign terrorist groups
(by providing them) information (they could
use to attack) US force(s), both within the United
States and abroad” – typical Pentagon boilerplate
to hype threats and deter whistleblowers
from exposing government crimes and excesses
what the public has every right to know.
In response, WikiLeaks said protecting the identity
of leakers takes high priority. It operates “to expose
unethical practices, illegal behavior, and wrongdoing
within corrupt (government agencies and) corporations
(as well as) oppressive regimes” abroad, some in
collusion with Washington.
The goal – expose wrongdoing, demand accountability
and support democratic principles in a free and open
society – what governments are supposed to do, but
when they don’t organizations like WikiLeaks exhibit
the highest form of patriotism, to be lauded, not spied
on, pilloried, or destroyed.
Among its many accusations, DOD claimed
WikiLeaks:
– has possible DOD moles giving it sensitive or
classified information;
– uses its site to post fabricated and manipulated
information;
– has 2,000 pages of leaked army documents
with information about US and coalition forces in
Iraq and Afghanistan, including on the kinds and
numbers of equipment assigned to
US Central Command;
– Julian Assange wrote and co-authored articles
, based on leaked information, “to facilitate action
by the US Congress to force the withdrawal of
US troops by cutting off funding for the war(s);”
– leaked information “could aid enemy forces in
planning terrorist attacks, (choose) the most
effective type and emplacement of improvised
explosive devices (IEDs)” and use other ways
to target US military units, convoys, and bases;
– data published is misinterpreted, manipulated
misinformation, disinformation, and propaganda;
– a November 9, 2007 report said US forces “had
almost certainly violated the Chemical Weapons
Convention (CWC),” and has 2,386 low grade
chemical weapons in Iraq and Afghanistan;
– the same report charged DOD with illegal white
phosphorous use in the 2004 Fallujah attack;
– the Bush administration was accused of torture
and denying ICRC representatives access to
Guantanamo detainees;
– details were provided on DOD’s use of asymmetric
tactics, techniques, and procedures in the April
2004 Fallujah assault; and
– many other accusations and concerns were listed
, including whether foreign organizations….foreign
military services, foreign insurgents, or terrorist
groups provide funding or material support to
Wikileaks.org.”
DOD concluded that successfully identifying,
prosecuting, and terminating the employment of
leakers “would damage and potentially destroy”
WikiLeaks’ operation and deter others from supplying
information. It also stressed “the need for strong
counterintelligence, antiterrorism, force protection
, information assurance, INFOSEC, and OPSEC
programs to train Army personnel” on ways to
prevent leaks and report “suspicious activities.”
Julian Assange is a man with a mission – total
transparency. WikiLeaks is a vital resource by
providing key information on how governments and
corporations betray the public interest. Given
America’s tradition of war crimes, corruption
and other abuses of power, no wonder DOD is
concerned, thankfully so far without success,
or according to WikiLeaks:
Its activities are “the strongest way we have of
generating the true democracy and good
governance on which all mankind’s dreams
depend,” and may have a chance to achieve
from their work and others like them – grassroots
activism, power and determination, the only way
change ever comes, never from the top down,
a lesson to internalize, remember, and
act on.
A Final Note
On June 10, Daily Beast writer Philip Shenon
headlined, “Pentagon Manhunt,” saying:
“Anxious that WikiLeaks may be on the verge
of publishing a batch of secret State Department
cables, investigators are desperately searching
for founder Julian Assange.”
In early June, he was scheduled to speak at
New York’s Personal Democracy Forum, but
was advised against it for his safety. Instead,
he appeared via Skype from Australia.
Interviewed about Assange, famed whistleblower
Daniel Ellsberg believes he could be in danger,
saying:
“I happen to have been the target of a White
House hit squad myself. On May 3, 1972, a dozen
CIA assets from the Bay of Pigs, Cuban emigres,
were brought up from Miami with orders to
‘incapacitate me totally.’ ”
Ellsberg asked if that meant to kill him, and was
told “It means to incapacitate you totally.
But you have to understand these guys never
use the word ‘kill.’ ”
Is Assange now in danger? “Absolutely. On
the same basis, I was….Obama is now
proclaiming rights of life and death, being
judge, jury, and executioner of Americans
without due process” at home or abroad,
besides non-citizens anywhere as well,
the rule of law be damned. “No president
has ever claimed that and possibly no one
since John the First.”
Ellsberg’s advice to Assange:
“Stay out of the US. Otherwise, keep doing
what he is doing. It’s pretty valuable….He is
serving our democracy and serving our rule of law
precisely by challenging the secrecy regulations
which are not laws in most cases, in this country.
He is doing very good work for our democracy,”
something Obama, like his predecessors, works
daily to subvert.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can
be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com
and listen to cutting-edge discussions with
distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio
News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network
Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays
and Sundays at noon. All programs are
archived for easy listening.
[I can say something about this article. I have
experienced similar situation before. I used
to live in South Dakota. I challenged
in 2000 about subordinates being trained
mercenary tactics. As if police are warriors
fighting in battle front. Because they are not.
Police are police. Warrior belongs to soldier.
End result? I was royally blackballed.
Police were given the go ahead to frame me.
Prosecute me, teach me a lesson.
Conviction 'would have been' to punish me
for exposing public corruption.
This is under Democrat administration
not republican administration.
What is this talk that politicians are calling
themselves 'change agents?' Politicians are
not qualified to be change agents. being that
they are 'special interest' motivated.
Change agent status belongs to whistle blowers.
You know people who have courage to do the
right thing because it is the right thing to do.]
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