Whistleblowers beware: Don't blow on war party
America loves whistleblowers. Jefferson Smith ousting the mendacious political boss Jim Taylor and his lackey, Senator Joseph Paine, by publically revealing their corruption in 'Mr. Smith Goes To Washington', comes to mind. Jimmy Stewart's Smith is a perfect model for the idealistic whistleblower whom America rallies around against evil to improve society.
But there are no Hollywood endings for the courageous whistleblowers who ...reveal the murderous secrets of the war party. They destroy anyone who dares interfere with their endless crimes against humanity for power and fame and wealth. During the Iraq war, they couldn't prosecute former ambassador Joe Wilson for his op-ed revealing the false evidence used to launch the war. He was too important. But they nailed him by outing his CIA operative wife, ending her career.
John Kiriakou, a CIA counterintelligence officer, didn't fare as well. He was the first US government official to confirm in December 2007, that waterboarding torture was used to interrogate Al Qaeda prisoners. Instead of a hero medal, Kiriakou, got 2 years in jail, pleading guilty to a minor charge to avoid 30 years if he wanted to channel Jefferson Smith.
Chelsea Manning, who also pleaded guilty for revealing US war crimes in Iraq, fared much worse. Tortured with a year of solitary confinement till world public opinion obtained better conditions, Manning is now serving 35 years in prison for honoring the Constitution when his superiors weren't.
When the antiwar whistleblower is a foreigner, Uncle Sam enlists his lackeys, just like Big Boss Jim Taylor in 'Mr. Smith', to destroy him. Aussie Julien Assange had to pay for his Wikileaks revelations of American warmongering, but he was outside our jurisdiction. So they arranged for our Swedish puppets to slap him with a false sexual assault charge so they could get the Swedes to fork him over to America when he came calling to answer the phony charges. Assange avoided capture by securing asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he's been a fugitive from our Western lackeys for five long years.
JFK's papa, mogul Joe, hated 'Mr. Smith' when it came out in 1939, because it revealed the venal underbelly of American democracy. Seventy-six years later its warnings about the reality that refutes our democratic principles is more relevant than ever. Back then we weren't rampaging around the world, smashing countries we don't like, destroying millions of lives in the process.
Today there are no Jimmy Stewarts and Jefferson Smiths to save the day. There are just simple heroes like Wilson and Kiriakou and Manning and Assange whose lives are destroyed for daring to expose criminal torture and war. They represent the best of America.
Chelsea Manning, who also pleaded guilty for revealing US war crimes in Iraq, fared much worse. Tortured with a year of solitary confinement till world public opinion obtained better conditions, Manning is now serving 35 years in prison for honoring the Constitution when his superiors weren't.
When the antiwar whistleblower is a foreigner, Uncle Sam enlists his lackeys, just like Big Boss Jim Taylor in 'Mr. Smith', to destroy him. Aussie Julien Assange had to pay for his Wikileaks revelations of American warmongering, but he was outside our jurisdiction. So they arranged for our Swedish puppets to slap him with a false sexual assault charge so they could get the Swedes to fork him over to America when he came calling to answer the phony charges. Assange avoided capture by securing asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he's been a fugitive from our Western lackeys for five long years.
JFK's papa, mogul Joe, hated 'Mr. Smith' when it came out in 1939, because it revealed the venal underbelly of American democracy. Seventy-six years later its warnings about the reality that refutes our democratic principles is more relevant than ever. Back then we weren't rampaging around the world, smashing countries we don't like, destroying millions of lives in the process.
Today there are no Jimmy Stewarts and Jefferson Smiths to save the day. There are just simple heroes like Wilson and Kiriakou and Manning and Assange whose lives are destroyed for daring to expose criminal torture and war. They represent the best of America.
posted by Walt Zlotow at 8:50 PM
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