14 DAY TRIAL // The word "whistleblower" has been on everyone’s lips in the past few years, but particularly in these last two months since Edward Snowden put a spotlight on the online and telecommunication spying programs run by the NSA and other intelligence agencies around the world.
Tuesday was also an important date, as a judge gave the verdict in the Bradley Manning case, the whistleblower responsible for giving thousands of documents to WikiLeaks.
On the day that Manning was found guilty for most of the charges brought to him (although not of aiding the enemy) one US politician proposed to create a new commemorative holiday – National Whistleblower Appreciation Day.
It sounds like a bad joke considering the events of yesterday, as well as how US authorities have actually been treating whistleblowers, but it’s real.
“Anything we can do to uphold whistleblowers and their protection is the right thing to keep the government responsible. If you know laws are being violated and money’s being misspent, you have a patriotic duty to report it,” Republican lawmaker Chuck Grassley said.
Coincidentally, July 30 is also the day marking the 235th anniversary of one of the earliest whistleblowing regulations implemented in the world.
And, while the initiative is commendable, it seems Grassley hasn’t been living in the same world as the rest of us, where the US government is hunting down whistleblowers rather than protecting them.
Or, perhaps, the protection should be limited to those who just scratch the surface of the law violations and overreaching the governments of the world partake in. Perhaps people like Manning and Snowden, who revealed ground-shaking information about what the US government has been doing, don’t fit in the same mold as the rest of the whistleblowers who unveil minor misdemeanors.
“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 of misdemeanors committed by any officers or persons in the service of these states, which may come to their knowledge,” said the bill resolved in 1778.
While Manning and Snowden went straight to the press rather than going to the country’s authorities, it isn’t exactly difficult to figure out why they chose this path, risking their own lives – they would have been dismissed, called crazy, and probably investigated for speaking up when all they are told to do is to lay low and abide by the rules.
Bradley Manning is facing lifetime in prison with an estimated sentence of over 130 years behind bars. He’s only 25 and he’s been imprisoned for the past three years.
Edward Snowden has just turned 30 and he has made the (perhaps) wise decision to flee the country to protect his freedom and his ability to share what he knows about the NSA spying programs.
The United States authorities are putting pressure on all countries trying to help Snowden, asking for his extradition after accusing him of espionage.
Barack Obama used to say he would protect all whistleblowers, but the promise has been wiped out from the Change.gov site. Now, Obama and his administration are threatening countries with economic sanctions if they don’t hand over Snowden or if they dare to grant him the political asylum he’s asked for.
The level of irony in this entire situation has reached a whole new value, and authorities seem to be oblivious to this or they simply do not care, which is most likely.