Sunday, May 22, 2011

Dear Mr. President,

I laid off for an entire month; it doesn’t matter if I write or not. Even kept silent about the assassination of bin Laden–shooting an unarmed man in the face is not a “Justice is done” moment in my book, but an act of Old Testament revenge. Nor did I express my disgust at the celebrating, fist-pumping Americans chanting USA! USA!–as though his death were some kind of Superbowl victory–and the pictures of you glad-handing the troops afterward as though you’d done something to be proud of. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad bin Laden won't be planning more attacks or inciting jihadists to kill, but justice was not done and his death won’t change a thing and you know it. What has me riled up however, is an article in this week’s New Yorker about the Injustice Department’s persecution of another government whistle-blowers, Thomas Drake, who tried to expose corruption, fraud and waste in the NSA and has been indicted on trumped-up charges of espionage and aiding the enemy. Shades of Bradley Manning! Once again you side with the scaremongers and alarmists against the very people you said were so important to democracy–government whistle-blower. Mr. Drake is a poster boy for the kind of whistle-blower you hailed in 2008 and abandoned after the election. Both Drake and Manning are heroes of democracy while you preside over the most draconian crackdown of government leaks in our history. And a double standard to boot. John Deutch, Alberto Gonzales, Sandy Berger, all charged with the same crime as Drake but not prosecuted. The Bushies who broke laws let off, the telecom companies who broke the law got immunity. Once again the little guys, those without friends in high places pay the price. But what’s scary is the reach of the NSA. I think few people realize its scope and capabilities: 5,000 acres; 3 times the size of the CIA; 1/3 of the US’s entire budget for intelligence gathering; the capability to intercept and download the electronic communications equivalent to the entire contents of the Library of Congress every 6 hours. Whew! That’s some agency. And unfettered. They are the people who pursued warrantless wiretaps, our own version of the KGB. And when someone blows the whistle on them, they’re targeted for retribution and charged with being traitors. This is the stuff of Mubarak and Assad, of Saleh and Qaddafi, of oppressive and undemocratic regimes everywhere. Mr. President, it’s your job to inform yourself of the truth and stop the injustice.