The final step in the U.S. government's continuing foray to the "dark side" has been Obama's signing off on the proposed targeted assassination of an American citizen - who had been linked to support for Islamic terrorism - without any judicial due process.
Imperial Presidencies
Another major similarity between the Ellsberg era and today is that the United States is again witnessing the accrual of excessive "War Presidency" powers by the Executive Branch to the detriment and weakening of the legislative and judicial branches, not to mention significant damage to the legitimate function of the Fourth Estate, the press.
Crude attempts to avoid accountability (as well as the constitutional checks and balances) by shredding documents and other evidence to prevent judicial accountability even seem to have succeeded. For instance, CIA officials learned the lessons of the Abu Ghraib photographic evidence by brazenly destroying 92 videotapes of terrorism suspects being interrogated with waterboarding and other brutal methods.
While no legal action has as yet been taken against the CIA officials involved, government whistleblowers and even journalists who helped expose Bush-era wrongdoing may not be so lucky. The Obama Administration is said to be threatening to not only prosecute government whistleblowers but to jail a New York Times reporter for not giving up his sources for stories that revealed Bush's illegal warrantless monitoring.
No wonder many news executives privately admit that in the current environment, they would never have the guts to publish something like the "Pentagon Papers" even though the Supreme Court upheld their prior brave actions in a landmark decision bolstering freedom of the press.
The current crippling of the U.S. domestic press makes it impossible for a singular Ellsberg-type insider to rely on the press as a last resort to get important information to the public. (Ellsberg had first taken his documents to members of Congress responsible for Executive Branch oversight, but they didn't act.)
Given the fracturing and weakening of the U.S. press - its transformation into the FCM - a government "whistleblower" is more often like a tree falling in the forest with no one to hear it. (Witness the BP disaster in the Gulf and the prior unheeded warnings of whistleblowers who warned of safety problems and potential spills.)
No 'Right Way'
Having been one of the very few government officials publicly identified in a positive way for "whistleblowing," Coleen Rowley has often been asked if there's a "right way" to do it and also "what should and can a loyal and patriotic government employee who has sworn to uphold the Constitution do after witnessing such fraud, waste, abuse, illegality, or a serious public safety issue?"
The hard truth is that there are no good answers. There is no effective whistleblower protection in attempting to disclose within the chain of command and/or to warn one's Inspector General. (Even some of the IGs who stood up and tried to investigate have been retaliated against or stifled.)
There is little protection through the Office of Special Counsel. (Indeed Bush's former Director of the Office of Special Counsel himself has faced accusations of ethical breaches.)
In 2006, the Supreme Court ruled that there is no protection under the First Amendment for government employees making disclosures even if they are privy to and blow the whistle on outright illegal activity. [Garcetti v Ceballos--more here.]
The government insider who witnesses fraud, waste, abuse, illegality or a risk of serious public safety faces certain retaliation or firing if he attempts to disclose internally. Moreover, his/her warnings will undoubtedly be swept under the rug.
It's easy therefore to argue that less-compromised international press outlets and Web sites, like Wikileaks.org, may offer a better hope for getting out the truth. As Wikileaks.org's founder Julian Assange has said about the possibility of more news sites releasing sensitive information: "Courage is contagious."
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