THE KILLER & THE WHISTLEBLOWER

THE KILLER & THE WHISTLEBLOWER
A Fairytale
IT’S BLATANTLY OBVIOUS now that false premise for going to war and secretive monitor of citizens here and abroad are to remain legally sanctioned but revealing secretive monitoring is deemed aiding the enemy, a treason offense. dick cheney, george bush and Cabinet perpetrated the manufactured excuse for war on Iraq yet remain indemnified whereas Julian Assange is falsely charged for Wikileaks dissemination and Bradley Manning is charged and maltreated for supplying that information while Edward Snowden is labeled guilty of espionage – which can mean anything – but surprisingly innocent of aiding the enemy, the original accusation – which again could mean anything.
So george and dick waltz free with perks and pensions while Assange remains in hiding in plain sight, Manning remains under lock and key though in slightly better conditions than the former torture dungeon at sea, and Snowden becomes a political pawn tenaciously strung between Obama and Putin while the Western world and the rest of the world in general watch with prejudicial concern. The US screwed up with Bradley Manning and the world sentiment reflects this, so goes the rationale behind Putin’s acceptance of Snowden’s asylum.
The international détente is thus established once again, a warmer Cold War and yet one that can escalate in intensity perhaps depending upon Bradley Manning’s actual sentence via military court. Modus operandi has morphed into modus vivendi. All Manning did was provide the paperwork for Wikileaks to publish, thus the trumped up charges reflect only Cold War tactics which Putin is all too happy to embrace on his terms. All of this revolves around the dissemination of information in the Age of Information. The irony is clear.
What is not clear is what shall happen in the bush-cheney affair. We mustn’t forget the rest of the gang: Rice, Ashcroft, Rumsfeld, Gonzalez, and Yoo, which latter coined the rationale for Guantanamo as being lawless “outer space” in terms of US involvement in illegal confinement and torture. What is to become of these ones who committed crimes against humanity in the millions, no different than any dictator of the past? Nothing? It was more or less expected that Obama would render some retribution for bush-cheney violations but it soon became clear that no such thing was about to transpire, never will via Obama. That leaves the matter up to a world court in the manner of Nuremberg. The US of course will not take the stand as defendant so that by default has to remain in limbo. Spain indicted American spooks for torture with no viable way of following through, a token gesture at best.
The information has come to us nonetheless that bush dubya has purchased one million acres in Paraguay as a getaway hideout but cheney defiantly tells the world to bug off, “so what?” if he tortured people. Power and money thus far can get away with this but the small fry whistleblowers can’t.
This is the state of affairs to date. Obama is a token pawn as it turns out with guileful designs of his own available only through the graces of fealty to the power structure. He wouldn’t be there a day longer if he didn’t; he would in fact be fish or worm fodder if he rocked the ship of state. As columnists say, the US has dug a pit it can’t climb out of and that’s why Putin takes advantage of the situation to drag it out for political points. And why wouldn’t he? It was handed to him by the leading protagonist, Edward Snowden who already has a good job lined up in Russia. Not that Putin has any warm feeling toward whistleblowing, he’s just not averse to utilizing a good thing when it floats his way.
This whole thing has been blown out of proportion. Obviously none of us would care to be in those hot seats but the far reaching issue comes to the postulation that these men may be considered heroes one day. Martyred heroes, to be sure, but heroes nonetheless. Remember Daniel Ellsberg. That of course would mean that unless bowdlerized the current and past administrations will look ignominious and well they should. The US Constitution has been usurped and superseded in all these matters; the Geneva Accords have been overridden; the International Bill of Rights has been laid to rest as has the US version. The striking factor though is that of how few are protesting this. While the radical factions criticize the exoneration of George Zimmerman the Neighborhood Watch guy the real criminals go free from indictment and public opinion which could theoretically lead to indictment. This is all upside down and backwards in terms of both justice and common good. Bogus racism and patriotic zeal trump what is right.
Right is a relative word, to be sure, though most people have a concept of right that corresponds to their inner sense of balance of social order and being in tune with moral conduct. Shooting somebody who is attacking you with apparent intention of ending your life is construed as correct behavior, sometimes even in the courtroom. Disseminating information freely is construed as a First Amendment guarantee, actually termed a “Right”. Torturing people is generally considered wrong both legally and culturally. Bringing charges against whistleblowing contradicts the legality of so doing. All this comes down to right and wrong and thus far wrong is on the winning side.
Whistleblowing was protected in the US as early as 1777 and was reinstated many times thereafter as a protected function of the individual protesting against unfair or illegal practices. Nonetheless whistleblowers can be and are prosecuted for the very same information they disseminate supposedly under protection of law. Similar to concealed weapon licensing, a legal premise, those who utilize this legal right are often indicted for doing so. That sends a message of schizophrenic imbroglio to the public worldwide. We can blow the whistle and we can shoot the marauder but we might go to trial or worse for doing so. That, friends and neighbors, falls into the category of that delicious German word, zugzwang, primarily a chess player’s term for making a move that though mandatory is undesirable and may end in endgame, all moves in other words being bad. Then again, in retrospect the US has always been somewhat ambivalent about its laws, the slavery issue, the Indian issue being the prime examples but there are endless ones beyond those. It renders the country unto a state of helpless hopelessly confused ethics susceptible to the ethos of the contemporary administration in charge.
Warnings were given early on in the forming of the federal government as to this potential of bad government due to malversation, namely governing by the worst people. It would be hard to argue that this is not true now. But since it is the way it is now one can only come to terms with the fact that the country is no longer an ethical entity but a false front for what it proclaims but is not, that is, democratic freedom which is negated in actual terms.
There is apathy at large as to this premise due to the retaliatory nature of governing bodies both nationally and locally. It’s Gestapo-like in its tentacle reach with technology abetting, weaponry and immurement facilities abounding. Scanning the surface and the leaked information available from secret sources, it appears much as a totalitarian buildup upon the country and its suzerainty ‘round the globe. The masses seem akin to those of Europe who fell under the dictate of Nazi takeover, failing to recognize the danger before it was too late. Whether this is true now is a matter for each one to determine according to personal evaluation. Thus far it appears to be a point of philosophical or social reflection only with no tangible inclination to react other than opine.
Thus the government feels free to accuse and abuse with the only caveat being the rhetoric used to do so, namely terms of justification. Apparently the authoritarian parties still feel they have to use words attuned to euphemistic correctitude and cannot come out blatantly with terms that commentators may use. Such as: If it’s killing, it’s murder or self-defense, not collateral damage or state-sanctioned execution, not liquidation or pacifying the enemy. But no, the false front is retained and political jargon remains the mainstay of proclamations. This would indicate the hypocrisy of government propaganda since as Lao Tzu is said to have composed, “As honest words may not sound fine, fine words may not be honest ones”. So this government pursues retaliation against those who dare to expose its acts. But now the whole world knows about those acts so what’s the difference? It didn’t change the course of action or guarantee any enemy victory. All it did was expose the US concern with secrecy and snooping on a wider scale than anyone imagined. Spying was always popular in wartime and now it’s popular in peacetime, Cold War time, terrorism time, anytime. Truly this remarkably resembles Orwell’s Nineteen-Eighty-Four storyline.
So we do find the Paul Revere, Ben Franklin ethic still existent but minus the zeal of common goal, instead radical demonstration by a very few, as if the Declaration of Independence and the Revolutionary War were waged by three people while the rest stood around twiddling their thumbs. That is pretty much how the situation is seen now, three radicals against the entirety of the US government and the placidity of the apathetic public. There were of course German citizens who saw what was coming in the late 1930s and got out or were subsumed.
The ultra-radical group Anonymous that works through computer technology and is thereby amorphous attacks like terrorists do as a moral thorn in the foot to the burgeoning totalitarian society but a mere bemusement to the general public that hasn’t much conceptual notion of anything wrong other than the economy and the laws subduing drinking and smoking. The public may complain but they don’t react. Anonymous does; they will shut down a computer network system to make a point. Wouldn’t the US government like to get its hands on those guys? Assange, Manning and Snowden would appear to be living in luxury in comparison to any such bust and ramifications. Hell hath no fury like a government scorned.
With the looming financial breakdown the scenario does not bode well for any other resolution than bankruptcy and further evisceration of infrastructure, banking, education, employment, transportation as the fragile threads that still hold it all together continue to fray. The rich are still doing alright, the political, the upper echelons of the culture, though the middle class suffers more reductions regularly. The poor are squeezed as compared to former times of relative solvency if tempered by penury, lately parsimony. The outer class survives as it always has, by wits and wiles, whether the marginal, the homeless or the criminal element. The ultra-rich, the elite are well-heeled enough to weather any storm and have their wine cellars stocked far in advance. One need not fear being labeled a doomsayer to relate these facts for the syllogistic equation resolves itself. This E ineluctably equals MC2 as the Economy equals Mass times the speed of dissolution squared. Energy itself propels the deconstruction under way.
Some might think that repairs are planned but there is no significant indication of this. Highways are patched, not repaired or replaced. Cities and small towns alike are decaying and abandoned. The most viable occupation is military service and adjunct services such as armament industries and mercenary deployment. Medical careers are vibrant simply because they are essential to warfare. All else is contingent upon the state of war. Rush Limbaugh’s War. The same war legislators support. Forthcoming elections in all probability will not add or change anything but only prolong the status quo with addendum of the rolling overload to energy systems, inflation and recession. Signs of recovery are bogus and but inspirational sermons from the valley dug deeper by the decade. Corporate media merely proclaims what Washington DC relays. Naturally the pretense is kept up for appearances while the dissolve continues to nibble away at the conventional in lieu of the new paradigm so-called, the reduction in morality and ethical behavior as it becomes legalized and former values are criminalized.
Quite a diametric inversion is this in which street thugs are sainted patrons and protectors of neighborhoods demonized, homosexual marriage lauded and women’s rights increasingly decommissioned. Bill of Attainder and Ex Post Facto laws are reinstated against constitutional prohibition and major portions of the Bill of Rights are overturned via the courts. The US Constitution left room for alterations and every possibility is explored and tampered with. Nothing is sacred anymore.
Still, there are the stalwart multitudes, the rabble that continue on as if nothing has changed. The homunculi gather in catechism as ever singing praises to that which they consider beneficial to them, the crumbs from the rich man’s plate as it were while decrying the relief to those poorer than they, paying homage to those richer that provide the menial labor jobs. Conmen con, gigolos feign, humanists assume cavalier stance, religionists proselytize, life goes on. The killers and the whistleblowers stand aloof from all, theirs being the realm of mythic Gods. Jack the giant-killer has arisen like David and Goliath to battle the Gargantuan Leviathan Cerberus horned beast oppressing the land but the townsfolk know it not. They cannot see beyond the boarded up windows on Main Street.
As above, so below but the declension is such that the Nordic Gods do battle while the masses do penance. And the battle? Nothing more than information-sharing versus information secrecy. Why secrecy? To conceal that which protects power and money. It is not for the masses that this information is exposed; it is for the institutions that have interest in this information and the catalysts for it being kept furtive. Revolutions are no longer won by strength of arms but by information sharing. That is the cause of authoritarian rage at whistleblowers. That is why the military cares not about collateral damage, pillage, desecration or rape but only insubordination. They, those power and money mongers want and expect from the public that which they have no intention of bestowing themselves, that is, good will, fairness, kindness, compassion, empathy, human rights.
This has been the way of it for the duration of known history as all history books will attest, men’s forced ascendance over other men, women and children, their cities, their bounty. Taking by force and intimidation has been the norm, still is. The only salient difference is the now advantage of communications and transportation. This has developed into a dynamic beyond all former possibilities. Like spies of the World Wars and the Cold War, Korea and Vietnam, the internet and accoutrements spy on all and sundry. Messing with that spy system is tantamount to messing with the Roman Empire. Unless a mass movement is mounted the powers will do anything legal or illegal – it hardly matters – to make an example of such audacity. They already suffered embarrassment at the World Trade Center and Pentagon for allowing such audacity to be perpetrated. Leaking any information about their secret surveillance is absolutely forbidden. Naturally it is maintained that the surveillance system has countered further attacks but this seems doubtful. The Boston Marathon bombing should disprove that. The martial law implemented immediately subsequent should put to rest any adherence to people’s rights. All that is needed is an emergency to cancel all rights for everyone and administer home lockdown. It is as if a foreign invading army has come to town just like in the developing world of millennia ago.
What to do? Nothing much but keep on chipping away at the materialistic superstructure that supports this takeover, hope for an enlightened leadership, and work underground like a Resistance de Francais to undermine the methodology that attacks freedoms. Beyond the silly yet serious games young people (and some adults) play with texting and sexting, the internet is there for all to use progressively. Terrorists dare not use these techniques as they well know now. They can hardly use the telephone or mail service anymore. But we can use it all and in that promulgates the salvation of mankind, namely communications though we know now that we’re being watched. That’s why it is important to support Julian Assange, Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden regardless their shortcomings and the inference of anti-American activities. Anti-American activities can now mean anything the government doesn’t want us to know about. They’ll not cease and desist any too easily as court martial trials and branding of espionage indicates. But they can’t entirely stop communications simply because they have to use the very same services the rest of us do and worldwide at that.
These are the absolutes of this process of overcoming oppression within while those powers pretend to battle incursion from without by suppression within. All other interpretations are lies. This is found everywhere from small town jurisprudence to federal oversight. Prevarication means straying from or straddling the truth. Concocting reasons for warfare, Orwellian euphemism, and surreptitious unlawful surveillance is prevarication. In other words lies. Exposing lies by government is now considered treason. That is full circle inversion of the stated principles of America. Let us not quibble about interpretations. Lies are lies are lies.
When will Americans wake up to the realization of what has become of freedom? When it is finally gone with no vestiges remaining. That time may not be far away. 