State Crimes, Secrecy, Lies & Whistleblowers

ꕤ Article SOURCE https://consortiumnews.com/2015/12/02/global-angst-over-us-secrecy-fetish/ Global Angst over US Secrecy Fetish December 2, 2015 With the reach of U.S. surveillance now global – and with the U.S. military deployed all over the world – anger at President Obama’s unprecedented crackdown on whistleblowers who disclose the U.S. government’s abuses and crimes has gone international, as this Norwegian opinion piece by Victor Wallis shows. By Victor Wallis The more extreme the crimes of state, the more the state seeks to shroud them in secrecy. The greater the secrecy and the accompanying lies, the more vital becomes the role of whistleblowers – and the more vindictive becomes the state in its pursuit of them. Whistleblowers are people who start out as loyal servants of the state. Their illusions about the state’s supposed moral agenda – and the wholeheartedness of their own patriotic commitment – make them all the more shocked when they discover evidence of the state’s wrongdoing. Given the extreme concentration of weaponry (as well as surveillance capabilities) in the hands of the state, and given the disposition of the state to apply such resources even against nonviolent mass movements, the type of defection practiced by whistleblowers – an option available to military and intelligence operatives at all levels – is crucial to any eventual triumph of popular forces over the ruling class. Whistleblowers thus not only embarrass the government, disrupt its policies, and (assuming adequate diffusion) educate the citizenry; they also are harbingers of a broader crumbling of the capitalist state and the order it defends. Acting largely in isolation and at great risk to themselves, they embody the conviction – or at least the hope – that basic decency has a more universal grounding than does any possible scheme of oppression. Whistleblowing’s principal near-term function is educational. It demonstrates the undemocratic character of the regime whose secrets it lets out; it is thus an essential redient of investigative journalism. The documents it brings to light reach the public through those who practice such journalism, whom the government then threatens with prosecution unless they disclose their sources. The novelty of Wikileaks is that it provided a new form of protection for the anonymity of sources. This, together with the facility of electronic transmission, has made the potential for disclosure greater than ever before. It accounts for the extraordinary fact that the U.S. government has been pursuing draconian charges against someone who not merely is only the recipient rather than the “leaker” of sensitive information, but someone who is not even a citizen or resident of the United States – Julian Assange. Disclosure is particularly embarrassing when it documents the fact that government officials have lied. The Director of Central Intelligence lied under oath to the U.S. Congress – a felony for which he was never prosecuted – when he denied that the National Security Agency monitors the communications of the entire U.S. population. This lie was the culminating event in Edward Snowden’s decision to blow the whistle. As we all know, of course, it is Snowden who was then criminalized by the government. This parallels the experience of John Kiriakou, who publicly confirmed, on the basis of his first-hand knowledge, that the CIA practiced torture by waterboarding. Kiriakou then became the only government official to be prosecuted and imprisoned in connection with CIA and military practices of torture. The debate over whistleblowers reached tens of millions of viewers when the presidential candidates of the Democratic Party were asked (on Oct. 13) their views about Snowden. Hillary Clinton falsely asserted that he could have used established channels to transmit his disclosures of excessive surveillance, presumably at no risk to himself. This claim is refuted by the experience of previous whistleblowers who had taken just that approach. One of them, Thomas Drake, retold his story two days later, at a news conference ignored by most of the corporate media (video), which was organized on behalf of yet another whistleblower, Jeffrey Sterling, who recently began a 42-month prison term on a conviction of “espionage.” What Sterling had done was report to the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence about a counterproductive CIA attempt (in 2000) to feed misleading technological data to Iranian scientists. What he was prosecuted for was his subsequent conversations with New York Times journalist James Risen, although no evidence was available as to the content of those conversations, since Risen refused to testify. Sterling’s story is recounted in a letter from his wife, seeking presidential clemency from Obama. Sterling had been fired from the CIA in 2002 after filing a complaint against the agency for racial discrimination (an episode on which Risen wrote a news story). After Risen’s book State of War (2006) came out, the FBI raided Sterling’s home, but it was not until more than four years later – under President Obama – that he was arrested (2011). The latest whistleblower, who documents the “normalization of assassination” via drone warfare, is wisely seeking to remain anonymous. The U.S. government will surely take all possible steps to track him down. The work of whistleblowers, as well as their personal safety, is obviously an issue that cuts across national borders. Support for U.S. whistleblowers will need to be as global as the reach of the policies and the weapons that they expose. Victor Wallis is managing editor of the journal Socialism and Democracy. [This is the original text of a column (written on Oct. 20) posted on the Norwegian website radikalportal.no.] https://consortiumnews.com/2015/12/02/global-angst-over-us-secrecy-fetish/ ---------------------- ꕤ ---------------------- COMMENT A Canadian archive: http://www.cjfe.org/snowden contains published Snowden documents. Archive also contains US government published documents, as an aid to understanding the leaked documents. It's an archive of approximately 400 documents, which figure presumably also includes the accompanying USG documents, intended as explanatory information. That would be 400 released documents or less, out of an estimated 50,000 documents that were reportedly turned over by whistleblower Snowden. Sitting on almost 50,000 'freed' documents that ought to be in the public domain, seems more like minding an archive of protected (and closed to the public) information  than whistleblower publishing. The 'leaked' information middleman dole-out approach doesn't appeal to me at all. RT News Despite calls from Congress to fire Director of National Intelligence James Clapper for lying under oath, United States President Barack Obama says that the spy chief should have just been a little more careful with his words. Clapper, the 72-year-old retired Air Force lieutenant general in charge of the nation's intelligence departments, caused a commotion last year when he was caught lying during sworn testimony delivered to the Senate. ... Clapper claimed that the National Security Agency does “not wittingly” collect and store data on American people. When former contractor Edward Snowden proved him wrong through leaked NSA documents weeks later, though, Clapper was forced to take back his words. CONTINUED https://www.rt.com/usa/obama-dni-clapper-lie-485/ While on the subject of surveillance etc, I thought this commenter had a point: The Age Paradoxically, if governments weren't illegally monitoring law-abiding citizens then there'd probably be no serious market for encryption - why bother hiding when nobody's looking (at your personal data?) Other than those committing cyber crimes perhaps, who would therefore stand out like the proverbial canine testicles. 'mutt' December 02, 2015, 6:25AM TheAge - here ꕤ

Sweden - Round-Up

* SWEDEN * Stand by Wikileaks ‏@Liberty4Assange 20m Sweden 1. No bail 2. Indefinite pre-charge detention 3. Secret trials 4. No juries 5. 3/4 judges untrained pol appointments 6. Easy US extradition #Assange Source:  Twitter Worthwhile nothing the above quirks of the Swedish justice system. Eye on Sweden POLITICS GOLD - #Sweden -- Migration minister calls Feminists 'a dark force' http://bit.ly/1slygRm  -- they've been saying that in #gaming #Sweden Democrats need another Logo ... flower-power thing looks weak and non-political to me >> "SD ... has never been a Nazi party" ... they are pro-nationalist, anti-immigration + Eurosceptic .. & sound conservative Tobias Billström = sore loser ... Sweden Democrats hardly 'forces of darkness' -- looks like globalism has outlawed nationalism - #svpol #UK #Sweden & #Poland >>> send #Germany to INVADE #UKRAINE >> 20 policemen as part of EU's 2-yr law enforcement mission! >> No, it's not a joke! source: http://en.itar-tass.com/world/749949  -- Unbelievable! These countries the EU Axis of Evil?  OMG! Crown Princess Sweden Victoria visits Latvia Andris Berzins .. & #Latvia Pres/ sees Sweden as good cooperation partner in export! LOL OMG! Pres points out: Sweden is the largest foreign investor in Latvia! Hello? Wouldn't wanna lose all that lovely MONEY! >> #Sweden MO in politics is PIMP OUT THE PRINCESS!!! >> It gets better ... #Sweden is "main player in the country's financial and banking sector" !!! PMSL Politics is so cool. Looks like Latvia = Central Asia trade / Sweden = Africa trade / So maybe Latvia wants a piece of the African action? http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/markets_and_companies/?doc=96469 ------------------------------------------------------ Sweden hasn't much of a justice system, although it is perceived as the 'bleeding heart' social justice superhero of Europe -- but that's all wrapped up in massive immigration.  Immigration intake is connected to government serving domestic and global corporate interests and, as such, being a party to meddling around the world. It has nothing at all to do with 'brotherly love'.  Sweden's obviously invested heavily in Latvia.  Investment means control.  Looks like Latvia's banking system is Swedish controlled.  But I'm no expert, so it's worthwhile checking if being a 'main player' in banking controls banking. While Russia's being smeared and fear of Russia is being fanned by some USA mouthpiece from some NGO (otherwise known as a 'political expert' or some such thing), there's a big show of ties and 'prosperity' to be had -- and even the honour of Swedish royalty in Latvia!  LOL In view of that, when the Russians assert that their embassy in Latvia's been slandered on Latvian state TV, I'm inclined to believe them: RT (Trans) >> "Reports of #Russian Channel: slander of the Russian Embassy on state television #Latvia" ... !! >aired by Latvian State TV residents Latgale say Rus/ Emb/ in Riga recruiting Russian-speakers in #Latvia 2 fight #Novorossiya >> Sounds like crap. Residents of Latgale? It's a region in Latvia. Latvia's up to something sneaky??? #Latvia .. meanwhile, Paul Goble, US expert agenda pusher .. issuing warnings re #Russia & Baltic ... not sure where from. LOL. >> He's fanning fear of a Russian uprising in Latvia, likening it to #Ukraine scenario! LOL ... Americans are evil geniuses. So that's a wrap-up of some of the things that caught my attention regarding Sweden. It's obviously not the entire picture, because I'm only one person and can't keep up with everything that's happening.  And, once again, bear in mind my knowledge base is limited. It's just my current take on things as I encounter them. Further: Bērziņš became chairman of the Privatization Fund of the Bank of Latvia.  He also became president of Latvijas Unibanka (a joint-stock company; 1993–2004).   Bērziņš became a successful businessman and his estate exceeded 1 000 000 lats (by the mid 2000s). He also owned 30 various land properties. Bērziņš worked as an advisor to the president of the SEB Latvian branch and was a board member of several joint-stock companies ... [Wikipedia] SEB (Latvian branch) = Stockholms Enskilda Bank - ie Swedish bank!! SEB is connected to the Wallenberg family.   Family motto: "Esse non Videri" >>>>> (Latin for "To be, not to be seen")  So the Latvian President since 2011 has very close ties to Sweden, Swedish banking and no doubt also to corporate Sweden.  And he sounds rather well off.  So I'm going to guess that this is a corporate man who most likely puts corporate foreign interests to the forefront. While this is pre-election related news, it's worthwhile noting: RT: Bildt was one of the people behind the Eastern partnership - the initiative governing the EU's relations with post-soviet states. Some argue, this policy is partly to blame for the current chaos in Ukraine, would you agree?   Bryan MacDonald: It definitely played a large part, but it wouldn’t exclusively have led to this of course. There are other factors such as Ukrainian internal politics, movements and of course interference of the US, NATO and non-government bodies such as George Soros and Pierre Omidyar. But certainly the Eastern Partnership is one of the bulwarks, and of course Carl Bildt was one of the main supporters of it. A partnership that has completely transformed the EU from a core group of 15 relatively rich West European countries to a group of 27 where most of the group are poor. [Source -  http://on.rt.com/xdx4cp] "I think Bildt in Europe was mainly famous for his behavior in the Balkans and Ukraine this year, and his general support of what we call “eurocratic” politics, which is where the elite within Europe, every country almost, with a few exceptions of course, seem to care more about the European project then the actual people who live in Europe at the moment." [Brian MacDonald - RT News] It's not the 'European project' they care about per se -- it's the corporate and geopolitical pay-offs that really matter. ------------------------------------------------ Wallenberg Family Includes SAAB Group - Aerospace / Defence http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Companies_related_to_the_Wallenberg_family ... family bank, SEB, which was set up in the mid-19th century, Investor took advantage of the Swedish downturn in the 1920s and 30s to swap corporate loans for shares. Its shareholdings in companies such as AstraZeneca, Electrolux and Scania date from these venture capital roots. The Wallenbergs have been called the Rockefellers, Gettys and Rothschilds of Sweden. The royal family of Swedish business. Think of almost any large Swedish industrial company - Ericsson, ABB, Saab - and there is a Wallenberg behind it.  http://www.theguardian.com/business/2006/jun/16/privateequity "Wallenbergs controls half of Swedish economy" "In the Mid-18th century, when the first patriarch changed the family name from Warburg to Wallenberg ...  the family became remarkable was when André Oscar Wallenberg started Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken (SEB)" "In 1850’s, private operation in Sweden’s financial industry was not allowed, but the wave of industrialization provided a board space for the development of its financial industry. André convinced the parliament to set up Stockholm Private Bank, which is the predecessor of SEB —— the third biggest bank of Sweden currently. In the early stage of Sweden’s industrialization, the bank provided important financial support for those enterprises in need. SEB is the typical symbol of the Wallenberg family in Swedish commercial history. ... because of the financial and industrial support from SEB, Sweden becomes one of the wealthy countries in Europe." Globalisation: ".. family business beyond ..boundaries of nations ..co-operating w/ banking industry in Germany, UK & France." >>When church was dominant power, they produced priests / when church lost dominance, turned family members into diplomats. >> Nearly 10 diplomats within the family.  Most prestigious is Knut, who served as the foreign minister of Sweden. >> #China connection stemming back to 1987 ... high level Chinese officials >> 'friendship' http://www.gdzhenrong.com/siteen/qyhd/178.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/10916991/Who-are-Swedens-powerful-Wallenberg-family.html