Silencing whistleblowers

Although Oliver Stone’s new movie, Snowdon, hasn’t yet appeared in our local movieplex, it is certainly stirring up controversy.

I am sure you have heard of Edward Snowdon. As a former contract worker for the NSA, the CIA, and other intelligence organizations, he copied thousands of top secret documents onto his laptop and then escaped to Hong Kong.

It was in Hong Kong that Mr. Snowdon met with Glenn Greenwald, editor of The Guardian, and provided Mr. Greenwald with pages of shocking revelations: that our NSA was not only spying on our enemies, but also our allies, and on U.S. citizens—often recording phone calls; or data-mining smartphones. None of this was legal or above-board, and Snowdon blew the whistle. Then all hell broke loose.

Adding fresh fuel to the controversy is that the Washington Post has turned against Edward Snowdon, recommending that he not receive a presidential pardon.

Did the Washington Post forget that they received a Pulitzer Prize for publishing many of Snowdon’s revelations? No, they stabbed a source in the back.

Despite pleas from Oliver Stone, and others, President Obama refuses to grant Snowdon a pardon; so Mr. Snowdon will probably remain in Moscow indefinitely.

Snowdon once stated: “I took an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution, but then I discovered that others above me were violating it consistently.”
This is still unfortunately the case.

Wikileaks

Similar to Edward Snowdon is the Australian-born Julian Assange, who is currently holed up at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

Using his website, Wikileaks, Assange has released thousands of controversial documents, and plans to release more. They’re all there: thousands of documents, including the damning emails within the Democratic National Committee (DNC).

What these documents reveal is that powerful people routinely break the law, lie and manipulate others in order to further their own personal or political agenda.

Especially odious are the revelations that political access via Hillary Clinton’s State Department was often granted if a hefty contribution to The Clinton Foundation was made. It’s called “pay for play”—in other words, bribery.

It doesn’t get any juicier than this; and the media are drooling as they await the latest revelations from Mr. Assange—which he plans to release before the presidential election.

Despite being a virtual prisoner at the Ecuadorian embassy, Assange continues to appear in the media via Skype, and to answer questions from the press. Still, many consider him a traitor and want him dead. I am not one of them.

To me, Julian Assange has performed a great service by leaking the dastardly goings-on at the DNC, the Clinton Foundation, the U.S. State Department, and other official organizations. In my view, when the peoples’ business is being conducted, there is no place for bribery, lying, or other illegal activities.

A very good movie

If you ever watched “The Insider,” a 1999 movie which starred Russell Crowe and Al Pacino, you saw what can happen to a whistleblower who dares to expose the truth.

Russell Crowe plays Jeffrey Wigand, a scientist and vice president of Brown & Williamson Tobacco Company in New York. Al Pacino plays Lowell Bergman, an intrepid investigative journalist for CBS’s “60 Minutes.”

When Wigand decided to blow the whistle about the addictive chemicals added to tobacco in cigarettes, he walked into a firestorm of threats and intimidation. However, with the staunch support of CBS’s Lowell Bergman, Wigand found courage and went on national TV to reveal the truth about addictive, poisonous additives to cigarettes.

This resulted in a multi-billion dollar legal settlement, and Wigand was exonerated.

However, most stories of whistleblowers do not have happy endings; and those who come forward with potentially “dangerous” information are either “suicided” or, if they live, their lives become an eternal nightmare. Their bank accounts are seized and they can’t get a decent job.

Although this kind of nasty stuff goes on in corporate America, it also extends into every aspect of U.S. intelligence and military, whose employees are required to sign either an oath of secrecy, or a non-disclosure agreement. If they go public with what they know, they’re finished. They cannot sue or otherwise seek redress in a court of law. That’s the agreement to which they signed their names, and to which they swore solemn oaths.

These agreements are lousy and unfair, but they have sharp teeth. And many good people with important information to reveal have been intimidated into silence.

Two other whistleblowers come to mind: Kay Griggs and Ted Gunderson, and both can be seen in compelling YouTube videos.

Gunderson was with the FBI for 27 years, and ran the Los Angeles FBI division. Upon retirement from the bureau, he became a private investigator.

Because Gunderson was a seasoned professional, he discovered that many important people in the U.S. government were pedophiles and/or satanists. He uncovered a vast network of these nefarious individuals and went public. He named names and let the chips fall.

However, as it often happens with those who disclose too much, Gunderson was poisoned to death—arsenic powder was found in his car.

Kay Griggs (who I believe is still alive and well) was married to Colonel George Griggs of the U.S. Marine Corps.

They had not been long married when Kay discovered that her husband like to get drunk, which he did almost every night.

While he was loaded, Colonel Griggs would tell his wife about what really goes on in the military: that there is a shocking amount of perverse sexual behavior among many of the officers, and that promotion was usually reserved for those who “played ball.”

Colonel Griggs talked about a Navy Seal team assassinating former CIA director William Colby. According to Mrs. Griggs, the Seals didn’t know the identity of the “target,” only that he had to be “taken out” in a “wet operation.” This, according to Mrs. Griggs, was only the tip of the iceberg.

In several hours of video testimony Kay Griggs truly spills the beans, and there is one shocking revelation after another. She’s fearless; I love this woman.

Thank goodness for YouTube. On this wonderful channel, you can see and hear Kay Griggs, Ted Gunderson, Edward Snowdon, and Julian Assange. That is, if you want to learn what’s really going on in our country and the world.

Because, if you trust CNN, FoxNews, or MSNBC, you’re being duped.