Rule of thumb: Leaks from people who like drones are good, leaks from people who don’t like drones are bad.
The fall of the United States in Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index seems attributable mostly to the war on whistleblowers. “The whistleblower is the enemy,” the report states, singling out the harsh treatment of Barrett Brown, Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden.
Politicians go out of their way to denounce whistleblowers and “leakers” whose revelations of classified data, they claim, have harmed national security.
But it’s always worth pointing out that the outrage is selective.
Take the revelations this week, reported by the Associated Press (2/10/14), that the United States is considering a drone attack to kill a US citizen purportedly working with Al-Qaeda. The report was based on information provided by at least four unnamed government officials. At the request of the government, the AP withheld the location of the American who is targeted, but a subsequent New York Times report (2/10/14) asserted that the American is living in Pakistan.
So we have what is certainly a sensitive government operation to kill a US citizen in a foreign country being splashed across the national media, based on what is surely considered extremely sensitive information provided by government officials.
So where are Rep. Peter King (R.-N.Y.) and Rep. Mike Rogers (R.-Mich.), politicians who have assailed the likes of Edward Snowden for revealing sensitive secrets? There is little condemnation of this story to be found, and no calls to round up the leakers.
So why not?
Perhaps because on the surface, this story would seem to be an official leak–one where the government divulges information in order to put its policies in a more flattering light. In these accounts, the White House is carefully weighing the pros and cons of a possible assassination, reconciling it with Barack Obama’s speech about the new limits he aims to put on the US drone program. Or perhaps it’s a leak from within intended to portray the White House as being too cautious. In either case, it doesn’t seem to be generating the usual complaints about reckless leakers handing over sensitive intelligence to the media.
As for critics like Rogers–he’s speaking out on the issue, but it’s not those who divulge secrets that he’s mad at; it’s the White House for not acting fast enough to strike. Assassinating US citizens involves too much “red tape,” the Times story notes as his objection.
What is the difference between an “official leak” and a government statement — is it just a matter of who tells it? Why any self-respecting journalist would trust “unnamed sources” or claim such sources is baffling to me. I would not trust any sort of “leak” no matter who tells it. Journalism is best served from named sources the public can verify.
This is the madness of our so-called press at its worst.
Nice article, but sad to see it set up with publicity by the dismal pseudo-NGO Reporters Without Borders. Maybe RWB has done some kind of token criticism of the US, but they have been documented as being funded by the US gov’t over the years as well as other dubious sources like right-wing Miami Cuban organizations. They basically act as biased propagandists against countries outside of the predominantly NATO imperial clique of global capital. RWB are not “fair” at all and I don’t think “FAIR” should be referencing their warped metrics about what the press should be.
“We are war with…… . We have always been at war with….. .”
“”Politicians go out of their way to denounce whistleblowers and “leakers” whose revelations of classified data, they claim, have harmed national security. “”
But they have always done that,
Wikipedia – the pentagon Paper.
For his disclosure of the Pentagon Papers, Ellsberg was initially charged with conspiracy, espionage and theft of government property, but the charges were later dropped after prosecutors investigating the Watergate Scandal soon discovered that the Nixon administration had ordered the so-called White House Plumbers to engage in unlawful efforts to discredit Ellsberg.
That was no over 40 years ago, and we supposedly had a whistle blowers bill, but what they don’t tell you, is you have to report to the agency whom your blowing the whistle on. The congresses have managed to strip out any ‘outside interference’ so essentially your calling the C.E.O. or Cabinet Member and telling them your blowing the whistle and what are they going to do about it?
Well the leak and the leakers are two different things.The leak can be good in one sense AND a massive loss to national security.Even at the same time.Remember the the Rosenberg trial?They gave nuke secrets to the Soviets.Would it surprise anyone today to know that a lot of Americans backed what they did?Their thinking was why should only the Americans be allowed this weapon?We see the same sort in iran/Israel argument.Exact same mind set.But lets put it in a weird context.Six republican Senators steal armloads of top secret data off the presidents desk and give it to the Heritage foundation press arm.On their way out two go to the presidents quarters and steal all his personal papers.They give them to Rush Limbaugh.Once it hits the airwaves we find out the president should be in jail, and all kinds of horrible things.ARE THEY HEROS?Or on the other hand we find out our president is a saint but the dump of information leads to the death of a lot of under cover operatives, and is responsible(theft of nukes in top secret transport guarded about as well as our mission in Benghazi) for a terrorist group attack that kills a million and radiates NYC for the next 150 years?ARE THEY HERO’S?Is this an end justifies the means type of thing?Where is the law?How does it apply to those that are above it?Obama has gone after more “whistleblowers” than the last three presidents together.Now I don’t know if he was right or wrong on that.Neither do you.Because he has the top secret data and we dont.So lets be honest….we dont know what the hell we are talking about.But lets all agree that we would treat those fictitious six senators as criminals.Traitors.Until they can prove their reasoning in open court.As Mr snowden should.I get the feeling here that our justice system is looked at as worthless on this sight.Blind,deaf dumb and stupid.Oh I forgot corrupt.So that is the lefts view?We are doomed