Obama's War on Whistleblowers: Redefining Espionage

Dear Mr. President,

Last night Daniel Ellsberg spoke about whistle blowers, secrecy and the state of democracy in America. It was not encouraging. He talked about his own experience as a whistle blower in the ‘70s and the moral imperative he felt to reveal the truth and expose the lies of his government, the same moral imperative which drove Edward Snowden and Bradley Manning to do the same. In Ellsberg’s case, he understood that Nixon planned to slowly decrease the ground war in Vietnam to reduce American casualties while stepping up the air war which would continue the horrific toll on the Vietnamese. When he shared this with Sen. Charles Goodell (R-NY), one of the strongest anti-war voices in the Senate, Goodell replied, “What’s so bad about that? Our casualties decrease, the cost of the war decreases.” “But not the Vietnamese casualties,” Ellsberg said. “I hate to tell you this Dan,” Goodell responded, “but the American people don’t care about Vietnamese casualties.” Right there’s the key to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and your drone wars—the further away they are, the less people care. It’s the old “us” vs. “them” syndrome. As long as our casualties aren’t too high, it doesn’t matter how many of “them” we kill. Bradley Manning revealed war crimes by the military because he did not distinguish between “us” and “them.” Manning, Ellsberg said, believes we are all members of the human family and every life has value. For his sin of exposing the truth he was labeled traitor and has paid a terrible price. Snowden too, revealed the truth, the lies of his government and the flagrant disregard of law and the Constitution; like Ellsberg and Manning, he is also labeled a traitor and will pay a terrible price. Both Manning and Snowden are charged with espionage which the press points out you have invoked more than all other presidents combined. Ellsberg put this in perspective by telling of a recent meeting in the Oval office where someone had the temerity to suggest that your use of the Espionage Act to charge leakers would leave a bad legacy at which point you practically leaped out of your chair and said, “Leaking classified information is espionage.” Mr. President, what was leaked were the lies and abuses of the government, the crimes against its own citizens and against humanity. You protect criminals and punish the defenders of justice and morality but you cannot redefine espionage or truth or the Constitution. They will remain long after you are gone.