The Mindset of a Whistleblower and Snowden’s Long Flight

[xchrom]

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/07/01-2

As a State Department whistleblower, I think a lot about Edward Snowden. I can’t help myself. My friendships with other whistleblowers like Tom Drake, Jesslyn Radack, Daniel Ellsberg, and John Kiriakou lead me to believe that, however different we may be as individuals, our acts have given us much in common. I suspect that includes Snowden, though I’ve never had the slightest contact with him. Still, as he took his long flight from Hong Kong into the unknown, I couldn’t help feeling that he was thinking some of my thoughts, or I his. Here are five things that I imagine were on his mind (they would have been on mine) as that plane took off.


I Am Afraid

Whistleblowers act on conscience because they encounter something so horrifying, unconstitutional, wasteful, fraudulent, or mismanaged that they are overcome by the need to speak out. There is always a calculus of pain and gain (for others, if not oneself), but first thoughts are about what you’ve uncovered, the information you feel compelled to bring into the light, rather than your own circumstances.

In my case, I was ignorant of what would happen once I blew the whistle. I didn’t expect the Department of State to attack me. National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Tom Drake was similarly unprepared. He initially believed that, when the FBI first came to interview him, they were on his side, eager to learn more about the criminal acts he had uncovered at the NSA. Snowden was different in this. He had the example of Bradley Manning and others to learn from. He clearly never doubted that the full weight of the U.S. government would fall on him.

He knew what to fear. He knew the Obama administration was determined to make any whistleblower pay, likely via yet another prosecution under the Espionage Act (with the potential for the death penalty). He also knew what his government had done since 9/11 without compunction: it had tortured and abused people to crush them; it had forced those it considered enemies into years of indefinite imprisonment, creating isolation cells for suspected terrorists and even a pre-trial whistleblower. It had murdered Americans without due process, and then, of course, there were the extraordinary renditions in which U.S. agents kidnapped perceived enemies and delivered them into the archipelago of post-9/11 horrors.

Peter van Buren
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_van_Buren


He was born in New York City.
Peter Van Buren served with the Foreign Service for over 23 years. He received a Meritorious Honor Award for assistance to Americans following the Hanshin earthquake in Kobe, a Superior Honor Award for helping an American rape victim in Japan, and another award for work in the tsunami relief efforts in Thailand. Previous assignments include Taiwan, Japan, Korea, the UK and Hong Kong. He volunteered for Iraq service and was assigned to ePRT duty 2009-10. His tour extended past the withdrawal of the last combat troops.
Van Buren worked extensively with the military while overseeing evacuation planning in Japan and Korea. This experience included multiple field exercises, plus civil-military work in Seoul, Tokyo, Hawaii, and Sydney with allies from the UK, Australia, and elsewhere. The Marine Corps selected Van Buren to travel to Camp Lejeune in 2006 to participate in a field exercise that included simulated Iraqi conditions. Van Buren spent a year on the Hill in the Department of State’s Congressional Liaison Office.
He was critical of Provincial Reconstruction Teams in Iraq.[1] After his book publication, his security clearance was taken away, and he was assigned menial work.[2][3][4]
He writes for The Nation,[5] and Mother Jones.[6] Van Buren speaks Japanese, Chinese Mandarin, and some Korean. He lives in Virginia with his spouse, two daughters, and a docile Rottweiler. [7]

[think]

1. K&R /nt

[MannyGoldstein]

2. Our country has strayed from the rule of law

Awful.

[G_j]

3. K&R

[madokie]

4. The only whistle I see that he blew

was his own.
As it stands now this was a blown out of proportion non issue as far as I'm concerned. I've known about this program for years and the fact is the present President ensured it is following the law. The law that was passed originally during Carters term and been upgraded several times since with a majority of congress critters in support, both rethuglicons and Democrat alike
Sorry but I don't live under a rock

[Douglas Carpenter]

5. knr

[Savannahmann]

6. Interesting read

Thanks for posting.