Whistle-blowers and The State: Part 1

Somewhere along my journey for truth, I've come across the stories of various whistle-blowers of this past decade. I believe my first introduction to these courageous individuals started with Sibel Edmonds, a former FBI agent who was hired post-9/11 for her middle-eastern language skills. I don't remember exactly how I came across her, although I believe it was some news articles that redirected back to her website, Sibel Edmonds's Boiling Frogs Post.

It was through subsequent visits to the BFP website that I became acquainted with her saga when she would talk about it in snippets as she gave context to various world events. Then she finally laid it all bare in her recently self-published memoir, Classified Woman. The book is so titled because Sibel is the most classified woman in U.S. history. She uncovered serious security breaches and even evidence of espionage within the FBI, not to mention egregious wastes of money and just plain ineptitude at all levels. When she tried to go through the "proper channels" to report some of the most flagrant breaches of law that she felt were jeopardizing national security, she was shut down every step of the way.

Just think of what Edward Snowden has already been through. To those paying attention, it should be fairly obvious that the attempted retaliation against him has been as swift as it has been furious. Attorney General Eric Holder wrote a letter to his Russian counterpart asserting that, should Snowden return to the U.S., he won't face the death penalty nor will he be tortured. How comforting that must sound to Snowden in light of the treatment Chelsea Manning received. Edmonds and many other whistle-blowers have been treated with similar disdain and with the assumption from the State that they are the criminals, and guilty until proven innocent at that.

But back to the Edmonds case. When Edmonds was going through her ordeal in 2004 and beyond (the case dragged on for quite some time) she was slapped with the esoteric "State Secrets Privilege" which was so arcane at the time John Ashcroft used it on her that it only received 7 hits on a Google search. Sibel was fired from the FBI for trying to blow the whistle and then, when she took her case to Congress, as was the next chain in the predetermined channel for whistle-blowers, members of Congress were retroactively gagged from speaking about her case. Almost her entire personal history was deemed "classified" including the languages she spoke and her prior work history. Such were the lengths that the State went to to try and silence Edmonds and to use their might to bully and intimidate her into shutting her mouth when they should have been praising and promoting her for bringing to light grievous violations that could have tightened national security. But that's not how things work in government, despite what we are led to believe.

Thomas Drake is another heroic whistle-blower who came way before Edward Snowden in his attempt to blow the whistle on unconstitutional NSA programs and massive waste within the agency circa 2005. He became a material witness for a case in which other retired NSA employees had filed a complaint about egregious waste and fraud in connection with the NSA's rejection of the cost-effective and privacy-sensitive "ThinThread" program in favor of the bloated, ineffective, and unconstitutional "Trailblazer" program. Once again, using the predetermined "proper channels" for whistle-blowing, he experienced much of the same backlash from his agency as Ms. Edmonds once did. Facing down intimidation, marginalization, and isolation, his case concluded with actual trumped up charges being filed against him, including 5 charges of violating the "Espionage Act". He beat most of the serious charges against him at great personal expense after the DOJ's case fell apart (because there was no actual evidence against him) but he did have to plead guilty to one misdemeanor charge of "exceeding authorized use of a computer".

I find it very telling to listen to interviews with these truth-tellers. While it certainly is fascinating and shocking to hear their tales of going against the goliath of the State, what often gets missed in the mix is what they were actually trying to blow the whistle on in the first place. This is why, according to journalist Glenn Greenwald who broke the Snowden story (and who has also been retaliated against by the State), Edward Snowden has turned down numerous interview opportunities because he wants to keep the focus on the NSA and not on him and his tale.

The allegations that all these people have made via their own individual but eerily similar experiences are, in a word, EXPLOSIVE. Edmonds was trying to blow the whistle on espionage activities and evidence of narco-trafficking within the government amongst many other things. Thomas Drake claims that the "ThinThread" program that protected privacy and was extremely cost effective but which was shelved by the NSA could have prevented 9/11. As it stands, Drake also makes accusations that the NSA and its former director, Michael Hayden, were hoarding information that could have prevented 9/11 and that Hayden and the NSA have completely deflected any blame that was levied at them for their role in 9/11. Drake also believes that the 9/11 inquiries were not much more than a whitewash and that if the US government truly wanted to get to the bottom of what happened that day and why, then they should do a lot more digging around the NSA than they've done previously. Coming from an NSA insider, aren't these pretty incriminating allegations? Shouldn't the media be all over this? Shouldn't some of these heavy accusations be investigated by someone? No, the State decided to shoot the messenger instead.

Sibel Edmonds offers similar allegations in regards to 9/11 in which two other FBI officers received credible intelligence four months prior to the attack from a decade long informant about Osama bin laden planning an attack on the USA in multiple cities using airplanes. Despite the FBI agents' reporting of this information to their superior, this information was never acted on. There were other missed opportunities in relation to 9/11 due to inefficiencies, incompetence, and devious behavior within the translation department that Ms. Edmonds covers extensively in this damning open letter to the Chairman of the 9/11 Commission. Short of reading her book, her letter outlines in much detail some of the criminal behavior Edmonds uncovered and witnessed first hand while working for the FBI.

Both Edmonds and Drake tried to do the right thing by going through the "proper channels" laid out for them in their handbooks. Both were shut down every step of the way, told to look the other direction when they saw wrongdoing, they were threatened, intimidated, put through drawn out and costly trials, and ultimately lost their jobs for trying to speak the truth. Yet they each kept fighting at great personal expense to expose the government's criminality and wrongdoing. They should be lauded as heroes and shining examples of upholding their oaths but instead they've been demonized by the government, ignored by the media, and are almost completely unheard of by an uninformed and apathetic public.

I'm going to explore more about the plight of the whistle-blower and try to connect some dots with all of this in subsequent blog posts. There is much more territory to cover than what can reasonably be addressed in one post. Next, we'll talk about Russell Tice, yet another NSA whistleblower (why so many, hmmm?) and highlight some of his recent allegations and start putting all this into a bigger context.

In the meantime, I strongly encourage you to listen, if you can, to the interview Thomas Drake gave to Peter Collins this past April detailing his saga. I'm not the only one who noticed the apparent weariness, pain, and agitation that permeates his voice as he recounts his tale. It might be only available to subscribers (so subscribe!) but if nothing else then listen to the 2:30 preview clip. Even that's worth it. Also, here is the link with a summary of Drake's story.

Here is the link to an in depth interview Sibel had with Alex Jones of Infowars. Don't worry, Alex was very respectful and let her speak almost the entire time with minimal interruption. Please look into both of these individuals' epic battles, you'll be shocked and disgusted at their treatment at the hands of the State and at some of the incredible info they have to share from their experiences inside the belly of the beast.

Stay tuned for Part 2 coming soon...