Before Snowden: The Whistleblowers Who Tried to Lift the Veil

[Jackpine Radical]

By David Welna, National Public Radio
23 July 14

Binney says he and two other NSA colleagues who also quit tried sounding the alarm with congressional committees. But because they did not have documents to prove their charges, nobody believed them. Snowden, he says, did not repeat that mistake.

"He recognized right away, it was very clear to me, that if he wanted anybody to believe him, he'd have to take a lot of documentation with him — which is what he did," Binney says.

And that's why, he says, Snowden has had such an impact. Others have tried to work within the system. For example, computer expert Thomas Drake thought blowing the whistle on what he considered unconstitutional NSA programs would shake things up there. Instead, what got shaken up was his own life. "The only person who was investigated, prosecuted, charged in secret, then was indicted, then ended up facing trial and 35 years in prison was myself," he says.

Drake had taken his case both to the NSA and to Congress. After concluding his complaints were going nowhere, he showed unclassified information from the NSA to a newspaper reporter. For that he was charged with violating the Espionage Act. The FBI raided his home, too — four months after Binney's.

http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/24930-before-snowden-the-whistleblowers-who-tried-to-lift-the-veil

[uponit7771]

1. Using this argument every man of color has legitimate reason to run and hide from police guilty or..

...not?

Seems like the benefit of the doubt is given to one person and not many who face same unjust system no?

tia

[zeemike]

2. I find that analogy hard to follow.

What does running from the cops have to do with reporting the violation of the constitution?

[uponit7771]

3. Because this OP is a justification of Snowden .... running from the authorities...

... because the whistle blowing protection in the US is the suck