Going Dark

Dear Mr. President,

An article in this morning’s paper reports that the investigation into recent leaks about your Kill Lists, drone wars, cyber-wars and other nefarious activities (this morning Al Jazeera revealed you signed a secret order, a Presidential Finding, earlier this year authorizing the CIA and other agencies to aid rebels in Syria) has silenced routine leaks provided as background and fact-checking in news reports. The major media has already been sanitized, pasteurized and homogenized, and this latest suppression of information is chilling. “Some government officials and press advocates say Americans are learning less about their government’s actions.” Without an informed populace there can be no democracy. One by one the vestiges—or illusion—of democracy in America are disappearing. Legislation was approved last week by the Senate Intelligence Committee (a misnomer if there ever was one) that not only further restricts and criminalizes the leaking of information, but strips pensions from those caught doing so. It had strong bipartisan support (Republicrats one and all except for Ron Wyden of Oregon, the only vote against). All in the name of national security, the ugly offspring of the War on Terror. It is the last step in our descent into Darkness; opaqueness and secrecy is what dictatorships and tyrants thrive on. One by one the whistle-blowers are being silenced—Thomas Drake, Jeffrey Sterling, John Kiriakou, Shamai Leibowitz, and all the others who exposed abuse of power and corruption of petty tyrants and incompetent bureaucrats in government. Bradley Manning is, perhaps, the poster boy of whistle blowers. He did more for democracy than any American president in history. His actions, combined with WikiLeaks, exposed war crimes by the U.S. military and backroom deals by governments that resulted in grassroots movements for democracy, brought down dictators and gave the American people a window into the true state of things in order to make informed decisions. And for this he has had his Constitutional rights denied, has been incarcerated for two years without a trial, held 11 months under brutal and inhumane conditions, and now the government is withholding evidence critical to his defense. And you, the Nobel Peace Prize winner, have condoned all of this. Your Nobel Peace Prize should be stripped from you, Mr. President, for you are not for peace or democracy; you are a war monger, a war criminal, and the enemy of freedom and democracy.