Assange, Manning and Snowden, Standing with the Conscience of Truthtellers

Snowden, Assange and Manning Statues in Berlin

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A Building Bridges & Housing Notebook Special, 7 - 10 pm

Assange, Manning and Snowden, Standing with the Conscience of Truthtellers

First and foremost, all of these truth tellers exposed or published documents exposing government misdeeds and crimes. All of the disclosures were of information that was valuable to the public debate of United States war tactics, intelligence gathering and privacy concerns, with no documentable damage to national security interests. For example, Chelsea Manning exposed American involvement in torture centers in Iraq, an unauthorized war in Yemen, and the so-called "collateral murder" of thousands of Iraqi citizens. Manning brought the "Collateral Murder" video and other documents to Wikileaks after going to people above her in the chain of command who refused to act. In fact, none of these truth tellers had another way to get this information out, which should afford them protections from prosecution.

And, the incredible value that should be ascribed to the Snowden leaks is clearly present in the Manning disclosures, which exposed the brutal and illegal nature of America's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Manning's disclosures opened up an entirely new public debate on the nature of modern war and diplomacy. 

Manning, Assange, and Snowden all did their civic duty by disclosing information on government overreaching. They all exhibited great moral courage in doing so. And they all deserve far more than unfair imprisonment and exile for the service they have done for the American people and for people all around the world. 

After being forcibly removed from the Ecuadorian Embassy, Julian Assange is now in a high security prison in London where he faces extradition to the United States and imprisonment for the rest of his life.  The charges Assange faces are a major threat to press freedom. The charge against Assange for ‘conspiring’ with a source is the most dangerous we can think of with respect to the First Amendment.  

Two years after being released from prison where she had served seven years for exposing U.S. war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan, Chelsea Manning was jailed once again for refusing to answer questions before a grand jury investigating WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange.  “I will not comply with this, or any other grand jury,” Manning declared in a written statement. “Imprisoning me for my refusal to answer questions only subjects me to additional punishment for my repeatedly-stated ethical objections to the grand jury system.” 

Noted whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg praised Manning. “Chelsea Manning is in jail again, this time for resisting a grand jury system whose secrecy and lack of witness rights makes it prone to frequent abuse,” Ellsberg said. “She is also resisting its current abuse, as it is used to attack freedom of the press by pursuing criminal charges for publication of the very war crimes and corruption she courageously revealed to WikiLeaks nine years ago.”

When Edward Snowden shared US intelligence documents with journalists in June 2013, he revealed the shocking extent of global mass surveillance. He showed how governments were secretly scooping up huge chunks of our personal communications, including private emails, phone locations, web histories and so much more. All without our consent.

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