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OpEdNews Op Eds    H4'ed 8/22/20

Giving Thanks to the Whistleblowers

By       (Page 1 of 3 pages)   2 comments, In Series: Assange
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Those of us who care about the criminal excesses of the Orwellian dystopia that we find ourselves thumb-driven under by predatory algorithms that ferret out our alpha waves for "security" and commercial purposes, might want to remember that if not for legitimate whistleblowers we would know next to nothing about what the Bastards are up to. It's a far more depressing world for the knowing, but like climate change, we're no better off for the ignorance. So, here's to Julian Assange, Edward Snowden, and Chelsea Manning -- all of whom have given up their freedom in order to reveal the criminality and deceit of the Masters of Endless War and pocket Marshall plans (Rebuilds 'R Us). Here's to our Three Amigos in this festive season of convenient whistleblowing.

First, thanks to Julian Assange, who told us years ago that the Bastards just wanted him to be put on a plane to Sweden so that he could be put on another plane to America -- against his will. He rightfully sought asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London to avoid such extradition that would have made him a circus clown before a politically-motivated 'national security' trial in America that would have seen him jailed for life. The MSM took his wiki goodies and made money selling papers with them, but bailed on him when the government told them to attack his character. Now, out of self-interest, the MSM will be forced to begrudgingly defend Assange's journalism credentials should he be forwarded, like a soccer ball, to America's fascist foot.

It looks grim for Julian. He will be tried, if brought to America, under the Espionage Act, a version of which has been shored up under each of the Five Eyes super-surveillance partners. His best chance at avoiding being putsched before a show trial is for lawyers to show that Spanish security company, UC Global, hired by Ecuador to provide security for its London embassy, actually spied on Assangeand his visitors with mikes and cams, and handed their work over to the CIA. This would (or should) demonstrate that Assange can't receive a fair trial in America (again, the reason he took refuge in the embassy), and provide lawyers with the ammo they need to knock back the extradition.

Now would be a good time to catch up on the issues surrounding his case, and, really, the best way to do that is by reading the collection of supporting voices -- from computer technicians to philosophers -- put out by OR Books, an independent publisher, In Defense of Julian Assange. Next, write to him. You might actually be able to get a message to him, in this festive season, if you go online and send him a letter -- either through L-Mail, which takes your e-message and snail-mails it to him, or, more conveniently, you can use Email A Prisoner (don't forget to use a VPN). He's said he wants messages short and sweet. Maybe send him a joke or limerick. I sent him a poem.

And there's Edward Snowden to salute. Others have made zoodles of dollars explaining the importance of his 2013 revelations, including Glenn Greenwald, who won a well-deserved Pulitzer for his details of Snowden's global surveillance revelations and his subsequent escape to Russia. Then Snowden put out Permanent Record, his memoir full of insider details of the deep state (his words) that he worked for as a kind of demi-god of data -- before its criminality (his words) made him unable to go on lying and collecting for the government. He revealed, with diagrams, how the US government spies on everyone connected to a communications system -- Internet and mobile services. Importantly, he shows how contractors (see chapter, Homo Contractus) are the ball carriers of the deep state.

Unfortunately, but predictably (his words), the US government sued his publisher to take his book profits away -- and they won. Snowden, nowlarfing as a much-sought-after six-figure online speaker, has suggested that the public buy a copy and hand it off, when finished, to a friend. Great idea (remember the days of file-sharing)! A short cut to obtaining a free copy of his memoir is to visit the wondrous Internet Archive where several borrowable copies are there for downloading. "I wanted to help, but I didn't know how," he writes of his decison to whistleblow. "I'd had enough of feeling helpless, of being just an a**hole in flannel lying around on a shabby couch eating Cool Ranch Doritos and drinking Diet Coke while the world went up in flames."

Thanks again to Assange and Wikileaks, for risking further criminal abuse, by helping Snowden escape from Hong Kong. And remember that the audacious Obama would have nailed Snowden had he been on the Bolivian president's airplane when it was forced down. This gangster cut-him-off move might have led to a hot WWIII had the plane been Putin's, instead of Evo Morales.

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John Kendall Hawkins is an American ex-pat freelance journalist and poet currently residing in Oceania.

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