The dissidents

David Brooks

ALMOST everyone talks about how they believed in the official rhetoric of their country, in the mission of the United States as the global guardian of democracy, as the beacon of liberating hope, as an example for humanity.

Almost everyone remembers that is why they joined the ranks of intelligence agencies, the military, the State Department or the FBI. And remember when, with that noble dedication, they exposed and revealed something which seemed to them an abuse, corruption or violation of the ideals so much reiterated by the country’s representatives and leaders, and were expelled from their worlds, some of them condemned as traitors.

Seven of them have been or are accused by the government of Barack Obama under the Espionage Act, and others for disclosing other "official secrets" via the media, more than twice as many cases than during all previous presidencies combined. The government claims that all these cases are strictly legal, not political matters, and denies that the defendants are whistleblowers or dissidents. It affirms that they are simply criminals who violated not only the law, but public trust; in effect, traitors.

Two of them have made world news headlines: Private Bradley Manning, whose court martial is to determine his criminal conviction on several charges, including five under the Espionage Act; the other, Edward Snowden, who has just been granted political asylum in Russia, and has so far succeeded in evading U.S. authorities and charges under that same legislation.

The other five complainants include Thomas Drake, a senior analyst at the NSA (National Security Agency), who expressed concerns to his superiors in relation to violations of Americans’ privacy on the part of the agency, and later talked to a reporter about abuse and mismanagement practices in NSA. Despite the fact that the criminal case against him, in accordance with the Espionage Act, was dismissed, he remains on the blacklist, like all whistleblowers working in intelligence or defense, and with it the end of his career. The former member of the Air Force and CIA analyst now works at an Apple store. John Kiriakou, a former CIA agent, was sentenced to two and half years in prison for giving journalists, including one from The New York Times, the names of two former colleagues who had employed torture tactics in interrogations. Stephen Jin-Woo Kim, a State Department contractor, faced charges of leaking information to journalist James Rosen of Fox News (who later, it was revealed, was being spied on by the FBI). Shamai Leibowitz, a former FBI translator, leaked to a blogger promoting peace between Israel and Palestine, transcripts of wiretaps of the Israeli Embassy in Washington related to efforts to influence U.S. public opinion. Jeffrey Sterling, a former CIA agent, pleaded not guilty to leaking information concerning U.S. plans to sabotage Iran’s nuclear plant to James Risen at The New York Times. Risen has refused to identify his source, and the Obama administration has succeeded in having a court order him to do so or face imprisonment.

Other whistleblowers over recent decades have faced serious consequences, above all the end of their careers, even in cases where legal charges against them were dismissed. The most famous of them, Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971, affirms that the persecution of those who dare to reveal official secrets to public opinion is worse under Obama than in the Richard Nixon period.

Although authorities insist that they are only enforcing the law, critics suspect that it is more about suppressing freedom of speech and the press, and above all dissent within official ranks.

Many remember that this Espionage Act was initially utilized as a political weapon against dissidents when it was enacted in 1917, the year the United States entered World War I. It was used against socialists, anarchists and pacifists opposed to the war, including Eugene Debs, the leader and socialist presidential candidate (who spent five years in prison); anarcho-syndicalist leaders of the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World); as well as to deport Emma Goldman and hundreds of other foreigners who criticized the war policy at that time.

Maybe for some in government what most concerns them is that expressions such as the one below are multiplying, the result of secrets revealed:

"I have served the post-911 Military Industrial complex for 10 years, first as a soldier in Baghdad, and now as a defense contractor.

I have always believed that if every foot soldier threw down his rifle war would end. I hereby throw mine down. At the time of my enlistment, I believed in the cause. I was ignorant, naïve, and misled. The narrative, professed by the state, and echoed by the mainstream press, has proven false and criminal. We have become what I thought we were fighting against.

Recent revelations by fearless journalists of war crimes including counterinsurgency "dirty" wars, drone terrorism, the suspension of due process, torture, mass surveillance, and widespread regulatory capture have shed light on the true nature of the current US Government. I encourage you to read more about these topics at the links I have provided below.

Some will say that I am being irresponsible, impractical, and irrational. Others will insist that I am crazy. I have come to believe that the true insanity is doing nothing. As long as we sit in comfort, turning a blind eye to the injustices of the world, nothing will change. It is even worse to play an active part, protesting all along that I am not the true criminal.

I was only a foot soldier, and am now a low level clerk. However, I have always believed that if every foot soldier threw down his rifle war would end. I hereby throw mine down." This is the letter of resignation of Brandon Toy, a project manager for armored combat vehicles, a division of General Dynamics, a major Pentagon contractor.

"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety," Benjamin Franklin. (La Jornada)