Untwisting Reality

Silence the Truth

• By Poetry X
• 15 February, 2019
• No Comments

Where else could a red-blooded American boy lie, kill, cheat, steal, rape and pillage with the sanction and bidding of the All-highest.

George Hunter White, Narcotics Bureau, on drug experiments for the CIA

Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed: everything else is public relations.

George Orwell

One thing is clear, the United States government is willing to do whatever it takes to keep information hidden from the public, at the extend of taking down whistleblowers [ABC News Jun 19-2013].
We should be certain, that even the Obama administration was extremely prominent in going after whistle blowers, activists, journalists and dissidents. One example is the UBS Whistleblower Bradley Birkenfeld who revealed the irregularities of the company what he worked for. Instead of being rewarded for his courage, he was put in prison, not even to mention the cases of Chelsea Manning (formerly Bradley Manning) and Edward Snowden. In the case of Manning, regardless of what we think of her, she had a patriotic intention and the army rules (US Army Subject Schedule No. 27-1 and Section 499 of the Army Field Manual) required her to report any human right violations. Manning was put in solitary confinement without bringing her to trial. In addition, one of the main characteristics of the Bush administration was the conspiracy to discredit any dissenting voices. Even the CIA got involved in this practice. For example, they went after Juan Cole, the Middle East expert and professor at the University of Michigan [New York Times Jun 15-2011]. Then during Obama Fox News reporter James Rosen and New York Times reporter Jim Risen were threatened with jail simply for doing their investigation work. In the case of James Rosen, along with him also his source would be also prosecuted – former State Department contractor Stephen Kim faced a likely sentence of 13 months in prison for “leaking” classified information to James Rosen. Just take into account that our government has no problem in commanding other ally government to do our dirty job. Top British security officials went into the Guardian’s newspaper office and threatened its top editor forcing him to destroy the hard drives in that office. So, there you have it, the US and the English governments are fully in bed intimidating the largest media organizations to protect their interest [Democracy Now Sep 6-2013].
As bad as that was, that case has been one of the minor aggressions against people reporting the truth. Thomas Drake was accused of leaking information about waste and mismanagement at the NSA (National Security Agency). He faced 35 years in prison for espionage, strangely enough there were no charges of spying, but rather of holding on to classified documents without knowledge those documents were classified; Drake’s prosecution was widely criticized. At the end, this case was in Drake’s favor which was considered a major defeat for the Obama administration since they were no able to put this whistleblower in prison as long as they wished [Washington Post Jul 2-2010]. He was sentenced to one year of probation [Democracy Now Jul 18-2011]. Drake was targeted for warrantless wiretapping whistleblowing, and a similar fate suffered the torture whistleblower John Kiriakou, who was given a 30 month sentence for revealing the illegal torture procedures of the CIA. We must note that Obama has gone only after the whistleblowers, but the actual criminals kept working, being protected by the government [Democracy Now Jan 30-2013].

Nowadays, Julian Assange is suffering inhuman conditions in the Ecuadorian embassy in London to avoid the witch hunt for daring to spread the truth about US crimes. In addition, Edward Snowden revealed major violations against the US population privacy and the US government started a major campaign of black mailing and threatening against any country that would give him asylum. The NSA has been clearly violating the 4th, 5th and 8th amendments, on top of violating the section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act (FAA). We also have extremely ridiculous cases like the one of journalist Barrett Brown who could be sentenced to 105 years in prison just for posting a link. We must note that Brown has been actively involved in activism hacking and his personal property was confiscated [Democracy Now Jul 11-2013].
This US crackdown against its own citizens targets also government personnel. In fact the US has implemented the Insider Threat Program, where employees are trained to denounce any coworker who seems to be in disagreement with US foreign policy in one or other way. The basis to denounce employees is pretty unspecified – either stressed or to cheery personnel is suspicious. [Huffington Post Aug 7-2013 / McClatchy DC Jun 20-2013]. We may think old COINTELPRO (counter intelligence program) died in 1971, but evidence shows is alive and kicking these days with the FBI sending infiltrators and provocateurs into any kind of collective effort to generate change.

It seems, the US government is entitled to murder any US citizen, if that person is depicted as some kind of threat to the establishment’s interests. The case of reporter Michael Hastings is extremely suspicious for his aggressive reporting. He had previously contacted WikiLeaks prior his death [Telegraph UK Jun 19-2013]. Although we should point out that the status quo does not always resort to killing as its first choice. Sometimes they push their targets to madness in order to make them stop – remember the FBI engaged in persuading Martin Luther King Jr. to commit suicide [Judiciary Report Oct 25-2007]. That is the case of Aaron Swartz, show after major pressure with the US putting him on trial, he opted for taking his life away.