Friday, August 5, 2011

Look Forward Not Backward Unless...

For a president who vowed to look forward and not backward when it came to investigating torture and warrantless wiretapping, it is rank hypocrisy to resuscitate such stale Bush-era cases against disclosures that served the public interest and did not harm national security.

The Espionage Act was meant to help the government go after spies, not whistle-blowers. Using it to silence public servants who reveal government malfeasance is chilling at best and tyrannical at worst.
~ from A Surprising War on Leaks Under Obama by Thomas Drake and Jesselyn Radack ~
Both Drake and Radack were accused of leaking government information back in the early years of the PREVIOUS decade. Neither was alleged to "have harmed national security." Yet, while the Obama administration steadfastly refuses to charge ANY high level officials from the Bush administration for any number of illegal acts, Drake was brought up on charges, most of which were dropped a few days before the trial began!

Drake's situation, in particular, underscores a nasty truth about the federal government under Barack Obama. If you seek to expose malfeasance or lies (think Bradley Manning), they will come after you with everything they've got. If, on the other hand, you are among the people responsible for malfeasance or lies, you have nothing to worry about.

1 comment:

  1. Like KV said, "The last thing I ever wanted was to be alive when the three most powerful people on the whole planet would be named Bush, Dick and Colon." - you could then add those timely lyrics from The Who - "Meet the new boss / same as the old boss".

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