Have You Heard of John Kiriakou?

As someone who considers himself reasonably informed of the machinations of the criminal oligarchy running the United States of America these days, I am consistently surprised by how uninformed I still am in many ways.  The case of ex-CIA agent John Kiriakou and the government’s witch hunt over his case is a perfect example.

One of the most disturbing yet encouraging things happening in America (and the world) today is the emergence of sophisticated and courageous whistleblowers and the subsequent attempts of the oligarchy to attack them and ruin their lives.  Over a year ago, I wrote a piece about the soon to emerge whistleblowing theme titled The Whistleblower Trend has Begun: Next up Backstabbing.

The sad little criminals in power are understandably terrified of this trend and are using their old playbook methods to go after them, but they do not understand the hopelessness of these tactics.  Social media, the internet and technology in general just make it too easy to leak stuff and expose criminality to hundreds of millions and soon to be billions of people in minutes.  This trend cannot be stopped and is why TPTB and their minions will be swept away into the dustbin of history.

The propaganda line that really gets my blood boiling is when minions in the media and the whores in Washington D.C. use the line “national security” as a reason to crack down on freedom of speech.  This is obviously a ploy to play on the emotions and ignorance of the sheeple population that doesn’t understand “national security” simply means the security of the 0.01% oligarchy to remain in power and rob and pillage the rest of humanity.

Anyway, please take the time to read the story in the Huffington Post of John Kiriakou and support him and other whistleblowers like Thomas Drake (ex-NSA) in any way you can.

Key quotes:
John Kiriakou is a 14-year CIA veteran who, until his indictment, was best known for publicly rejecting the Bush administration’s Orwellian doublespeak about “enhanced interrogation.” In a 2007 ABC News interview, Kiriakou became the first person directly involved in the handling of terror suspects to call waterboarding at the CIA’s hands what it was — torture.

Fitzgerald’s use of the Espionage Act is in keeping with the Department of Justice’s crackdown on leaks to reporters. And the Obama administration has now used the Espionage Act six times to prosecute disclosures to journalists — more than all previous presidential administrations combined.

Adler, who writes about the expansion of executive power, said that in both the Libby and Kiriakou cases, Fitzgerald fell short of his obligation to prosecute abuses of power. “It’s bizarre to me that those who were involved in waterboarding have been granted immunity, and now Kiriakou’s going to be prosecuted for leaking information that exposed illegal actions,” Adler said.

“Even if torture works, it cannot be tolerated — not in one case or a thousand or a million,” he wrote. “If their efficacy becomes the measure of abhorrent acts, all sorts of unspeakable crimes somehow become acceptable. … There are things we should not do, even in the name of national security.”

Kirakou’s supporters, including many open-government advocates, said he’s being punished for his whistleblowing. The CIA — through Fitzgerald and the Department of Justice — is trying to chill critical speech, they said.

Full article here.

In Liberty,
Michael Krieger

Follow me on Twitter.