It is surprising that more high-school dropout CIA/NSA contractors making $200K a year haven’t come forward like Edward Snowden – but perhaps the money and the Hawaiian paradise are intended to salve itchy consciences. Though elected officials and, shamefully, the press routinely call whistle-blowers “self-styled” or “narcissistic,” and their motives, stability, and loyalties questioned – rarely are the ethical issues surrounding the disclosures taken at face value. 

It is instructive to recall a time when the United States actually admired whistle-blowers. I found this account, which was all the more interesting to me because it takes place literally in our own backyard. It might be worth re-telling the story for readers of your paper:

http://fairwhistleblower.ca/content/whistle-blowers-1777

Highlights:

“In the winter of 1777, months after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American warship Warren was anchored outside of Providence, R.I. On board, 10 revolutionary sailors and marines met in secret — not to plot against the king’s armies, but to discuss their concerns about the commander of the Continental Navy, Commodore Esek Hopkins. They knew the risks: Hopkins came from a powerful family; his brother was a former governor of Rhode Island and a signer of the declaration.

“Hopkins had participated in the torture of captured British sailors; he ‘treated prisoners in the most inhuman and barbarous manner,’ his subordinates wrote in a petition.”

“One whistle-blower, a Marine captain named John Grannis, was selected to present the petition to the Continental Congress, which voted on March 26, 1777, to suspend Hopkins from his post.”

Fortunately, many in the fragile, new nation realized that “misconduct” and cover-ups could easily undermine a budding democracy. The first whistle-blower protections were passed almost immediately following attempts to quash an investigation. Here it is, in language that holds up even today:

“Resolved, That it is the duty of all persons in the service of the United States, as well as all other the inhabitants thereof, to give the earliest information to Congress or other proper authority of any misconduct, frauds, or misdemeanors committed by any officers or persons in the service of these stats, which may come to their knowledge.”

Two years ago “national security” hampered Congressman Ron Wyden’s ability to debate a government program called PRISM in Congress, this week identified as the domestic spy program that puts electronic “back doors” in sites like Facebook, GMail, and DropBox for government “monitoring.” This week, following a whistleblower’s disclosures, politicians scrambled to offer apologies to their constituents for keeping them in the dark, or lying, just as the new security state had kept them in the dark.

In 2010 Dana Priest and William Arkin from the Washington Post produced a series of articles called “Top Secret America” (http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/) which detailed the scope of the security state built after the “Patriot” Act. 1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private companies now run “national security” programs. A million people hold security clearances.

And this vast apparatus is just getting bigger. Next September, a $2 billion NSA data center, the largest in the world, opens in Bluffdale, Utah to begin collecting data. The million square foot facility is expected to use 5% of the state’s energy – to spy on you and me.

In 1990, after East Germany ceased to exist, former citizens discovered that their government had been spying on a third of them. Well, American spymasters beat that. Last year NSA whistleblower William Binney revealed that his former employer was collecting information on, and communications from, virtually every American citizen, including phone conversations and emails. This week Edward Snowdon, a whistleblower from Booz Allen Hamilton, a defense contractor, disclosed details of the PRISM program and the extent of domestic spying.

Americans rightly distrust spy agencies. From the FBI’s inception in 1908, it has spied on – not just criminals – but socialists, anti-war, animal, and human rights activists, conservationists, community organizers, American Indians, Jews, Muslims, farm workers, Martin Luther King, and most of the civil rights movement. In the 1970’s we learned the extent of domestic spying via COINTELPRO and similar programs.

In consequence laws regulating domestic surveillance were passed under presidents Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush Sr. and Clinton. Yes, Reagan.

The CIA and NSA were created in 1942 and 1949, respectively. The National Security Act of 1947 specifically barred intelligence agencies from operating domestically – all the more remarkable because the US was still at war.

In the past Americans never willingly surrendered their privacy rights. But then came the military-industrial complex Eisenhower warned of – and, recently, a Supreme Court that has neutered the Constitution. An attack no more shocking than Pearl Harbor somehow convinced some Americans to trade the Bill of Rights for a spurious guarantee of “safety.”

Since passage of the “Patriot Act,” we now have “Fusion centers” which “coordinate” police departments and spy agencies without much accountability, often exceeding their mandates. The NYPD, for example, in conjunction with the CIA, has a Tel Aviv office. Through “Fusion” programs police departments receive funds to buy drones, tanks, military weaponry, and surveillance gear. In Boston we have seen spy gear used against Occupy Wall Street protesters and other citizen groups. License plate readers routinely track your whereabouts. We have unexplained flights over Quincy.

Last December Julia Angwin reported in the Wall Street Journal that Attorney General Holder, without debate or consent of Congress, had expanded the National Counterterrorism Center’s ability to store data on citizens, even those not suspected of a crime. A former White House staffer called this expansion of “Total Information Awareness,” which had already been attempted and rejected during the Bush administration, “breathtaking in scope.”

The rationale for this loss of rights is “safety.” But compare the 3,000 people who died in 2001 with the more than a quarter of a million people killed with guns since 9/11. The Second Amendment seems to be the only left one standing.

Big Brother? Detentions without trial? Extraordinary renditions? Assassinations? Offshore gulags? Corporate Personhood? This is not the same country I was born in.

If this is how you want to live, friends, then you deserve the loss of every right you’ve surrendered. But if you lament the loss of what we once had, then make this your top political priority –

Repeal the Patriot Act. Fire the Attorney General. And prosecute the people who have been lying to us.