Whistleblowers, Leakers and the Obama Administration
http://thekojonnamdishow.org/shows/2012-04-23/whistleblowers-leakers-and-obama-administration
President Obama once sang the praises of whistleblowers within the U.S. government. But over last three years, the Obama administration has launched criminal prosecutions against people behind government leaks at an unprecedented rate. We examine what's behind the increase, and the blurry line between "leaking" and "whistleblowing."
Guests
Charlie Savage
Washington Correspondent, New York Times
Comments
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Unquestioning loyalty to secrecy is both dangerous and unrealistic.
The administration's argument in cases of whistleblower disclosures exists in a contrived bubble that has a single consideration: loyalty to the government's imposed secrecy agreement. Life, however, is much more complicated. Before any government employee takes an oath to protect information from disclosure, they first take an oath to defend the US Constitution and typically are bound by other obligations, legal and internal (moral codes) that influence the decision making of whistleblowers. The administration insists that employees have no right to make such a decision, but failing to disclose whistleblowing is a decision itself because in staying silent employees are deciding to ignore all other obligations.
I felt that as an American citizen, as a responsible citizen, I could no longer cooperate in concealing this information from the American public. I did this clearly at my own jeopardy and I am prepared to answer to all the consequences of this decision.
— Daniel Ellsberg on why he released the Pentagon Papers to the press
Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government. And paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people and sending them off to distant lands to die of foreign fevers and foreign shot and shell.
—Justice Black in the Pentagon Papers case before the Supreme Court