Obama and Holder Knock Off the 1st Amendment

Dear Mr. President,

“‘We call on the Russian government to cease its campaign of pressure against individuals and groups seeking to expose corruption, and to ensure that the universal human rights and fundamental freedoms of all of its citizens, including the freedoms of speech and assembly, are protected and respected,’ said Jay Carney, the White House press secretary. The talk of human rights rang hollow to the Kremlin given the Snowden case. Mr. Putin has suggested that Washington is being hypocritical in complaining about Russian actions while seeking to prosecute a leaker who exposed American surveillance programs.” (Today’s NYT, “Obama May Cancel Moscow Trip as Tensions Build Over Leaker” p. A10) Not only Snowden, but Manning, Kirakou, Drake, Binney and others. And the hits keep coming. The federal appeals court in Richmond, VA, ruled today that reporters have no 1^st Amendment protections when it comes to confidentiality of sources in criminal cases, in this instance, the government’s case against Jeffrey Sterling, a former CIA agent charged with “revealing state secrets”—information about the U.S. cyberattack on Iran—to James Risen of the NY Times. You and Holder must be high-fivin’ it in the Oval Office for knocking off another constitutional guarantee, the 1^st Amendment, to add to your string—the 4^th, 5^th, 6^th,and 8^th Amendments. With the 1^st Amendment gone, no more leaks, no more investigative reporting and no more oversight of government by We the People. The perfect Security State. Mission Accomplished! Also in today’s NYT, (“N.S.A. Imposes Rules to Protect Secret Data Stored on Its Networks”, p. A16) there’s a photo of General Alexander, Director of National Intelligence, in full uniform, a chest full of ribbons and medals, gold stripes up his arms and gold stars on his shoulders, announcing the new 4,000 man-strong cyberteams in the Pentagon’s push for “conducting cyberoffense and –defense operations…” which will be under his command. He also announced new safeguards to prevent another Snowden fiasco. No talk of ending the illegal collection of every phone call, email and mouse click on the internet, though. “Privacy is a kind of power and a right,” Rebecca Solnit said in an open letter to Edward Snowden (http://www.tomdispatch.com/dialogs/print/?id=175726). One by one you eliminate our rights, criminalize assembly and protest, suppress dissent and, at the same time, strip us of any semblance of privacy. That, Mr. President, is called tyranny.