Manning, who was jailed for seven years for leaking classified documents to Wikileaks, was arrested in March 2019 for refusing to testify before a grand jury about Assange, placed in solitary confinement for almost a month, sentenced to remain in jail either until she agrees to testify or until the grand jury's 18-month term expires, and fined $1,000 for every day she remains in custody, a chilling--and financially crippling--example of the government's heavy-handed efforts to weaponize fines and jail terms as a means of forcing dissidents to fall in line.
This is how the police state deals with those who challenge its chokehold on power.
Make no mistake: the government is waging war on journalists and whistleblowers for disclosing information relating to government misconduct that is within the public's right to know.
Yet while this targeted campaign--aided, abetted and advanced by the Deep State's international alliances--is unfolding during President Trump's watch, it began with the Obama administration's decision to revive the antiquated, hundred-year-old Espionage Act, which was intended to punish government spies, and instead use it to prosecute government whistleblowers.
Unfortunately, the Trump administration has not merely continued the Obama administration's attack on whistleblowers. It has injected this war on truth-tellers and truth-seekers with steroids and let it loose on the First Amendment.
Here's the thing: we desperately need more scrutiny and transparency, not less, in order to shed light on government actions and make the obscure, least-transparent reaches of government accessible and accountable.
Of course, transparency is futile without a populace that is informed, engaged and prepared to hold the government accountable to abiding by the rule of law.
For this reason, it is vital that citizens have the right to criticize the government without fear.
That's where the First Amendment comes in. The First Amendment gives the citizenry the right to speak freely, protest peacefully, expose government wrongdoing, and criticize the government without fear of arrest, isolation or any of the other punishments that have been meted out to whistleblowers such as Edwards Snowden, Assange and Manning.
The challenge is holding the government accountable to obeying the law.
The government's ongoing war on whistleblowers and journalists is not merely a legalistic exercise over whether these individuals are part of a protected class under the Constitution. It's a struggle that speaks to the very real question of how long "we the people" will remain a protected class under the Constitution.
Partisan politics have no place in this debate: Americans of all stripes would do well to remember that those who question the motives of government provide a necessary counterpoint to those who would blindly follow where politicians choose to lead.
We don't have to agree with every criticism of the government, but we must defend the rights of all individuals to speak freely without fear of punishment or threat of banishment.
What the First Amendment protects--and a healthy constitutional republic requires--are citizens who routinely exercise their right to speak truth to power.
As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People, the right to speak out against government wrongdoing is the quintessential freedom.
Be warned: this quintessential freedom won't be much good to anyone if the government makes good on its promise to make an example of Assange as a warning to other journalists intent on helping whistleblowers disclose government corruption.
As George Orwell recognized, "In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act."
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
2
1
1
