War on whistleblowers

War on whistleblowers
Image: Edward Snowden

Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden are whistleblowers, not criminals.

That is the message conveyed loud and clear ahead of The War on Whistleblowers and their Publishers: Manning, Snowden and Assange seminar at the Sydney Opera House this Monday, September 16.

Manning’s leak of thousands of US military and diplomatic cables in 2010 and Snowden’s exposure of covert mass surveillance programs this year represent the two largest cases of top-secret government information ever leaked to the public.

“Whistleblowing is the root to major political transformation,” said Professor of Politics at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Robert Manne. “We haven’t seen that, but I think it’s been the most important radical political activity of recent times.”

Manning became the first whistleblower to ever be convicted of violations of the Espionage Act and was jailed for 35 years. Snowden sought political asylum in Russia and was charged by the US with espionage.

The National Security Agency’s (NSA) worldwide amassment of information has raised fears that governments are gaining unnecessary powers without appropriate oversight, leading to public paranoia.

“The kind of surveillance exposed by Edward Snowden is astonishing,” said Mr Manne. “The danger is twofold: one is that citizens become paranoid and anxious. It creates a sense of being watched – which is why George Orwell’s 1984 is beginning to sell again.

“The second is that it’s premised on the idea that you can trust government and that the information would only be used for legitimate purposes. Who knows when you begin to collect so much information where it will end?”

The US Government claimed the NSA’s secretive Tempora, PRISM and XKeyscore Internet surveillance programs were warranted in combating terrorism. Mr Manne said this justification could be extended in the future and lead to a complete breakdown of civil liberties.

“At the moment terrorism is the chief justification,” he said. “It’s almost certain that other justifications will come along so it’s a critical moment in the politics of modern democracies not to allow this sort of thing to happen – either without knowledge or without an incredible amount of oversight.”

WikiLeaks Editor Julian Assange warned that the NSA was able to map out the entire public structure of the nation from its surveillance programs.

“They [the NSA] can automatically lay out the entire community structure of the nation using algorhythm,” he said. “They have all sorts of information about who called who, what they said, who had a financial transaction with whom and how much it was – that is too much power in the hands of a completely secretive and unaccountable group.

“We all know that power corrupts and we all know that secrecy corrupts and we all know that with a powerful and secret organisation you’re inevitably going to see unjust plans flourish.”

US investigative journalist, Alexa O’Brien reported on issues including the WikiLeaks release of diplomatic cables, Guantánamo Bay and the war on terror. She became a victim of US Government efforts to silence whistleblowers and their publishers after falsely attempting to link her to Islamic and cyber terrorism.

The Obama administration consequently enacted a lawsuit against Ms O’Brien, which allowed for her indefinite detention without trial as a supposed ‘terrorist sympathiser’.

“Reporting on the protests in Bahrain in 2011 and Guantánamo Bay precipitated private security contractors and the US Government to attempt to falsely link me to radical Islamic and cyber terrorism,” said Ms O’Brien.

“I had a real and credible fear that my treatment would be exacerbated with the indefinite detention clause of the National Defence Authorization Act, which allows for the indefinite detention of anyone, anywhere by the US military on mere suspicion of supporting terrorism.”

James Clapper, US Director of National Intelligence, warned of WikiLeaks’ “chilling effect” on the “information-sharing environment”. But Ms O’Brien believes that government efforts to counter whistleblowing is having a chilling effect on democracy.

“The ‘chilling effect’ invoked by Clapper typically connotes the immeasurable harm to First Amendment rights and democratic governance caused by prohibitions on speech, association, and publication,” she said.

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