After the disastrous and
altogether premature decision to award Obama the peace prize in 2010 the Nobel
committee owes us one. Who better than the above three brave people who’ve
chosen to sacrifice their normal lives, not to mention the loss or possible
loss of their freedom, and subject themselves to the potential of abuse and
maniacal harassment, all for the sake of unveiling to the people of the world
the web of secrecy, hypocrisy and deceit that surrounds the US and, as we’ve
seen lately, the UK governments.
As a poignant indicator of how
debased the US government has become in the eyes of the world, Eric Holder,
America’s chief law enforcement officer, in his plea to Russia to have Snowden
returned for prosecution, felt it necessary to assure Putin that Snowden would
neither be tortured or abused and given a fair trial. After the government’s
disgraceful treatment of Manning, his assurances beggar belief.
Thirty-five years in prison for embarrassing
the US government. In spite of the constant hype, there’s not been a single
incident in which actual harm was done to an individual in government by
Manning’s leaks. He did, however, release diplomatic cables which provided
information which helped to solidify the opposition to Abedine Ben-Ali of
Tunisia and led to his ouster, amongst other important revelations. He also opened
the world to US duplicity and hypocrisy. The American servicemen who recorded themselves
murdering 14 innocent people including women, children and two Reuters
journalists from their helicopter, seemingly just for fun, served no time,
Manning who exposed their bloodlust, gets 35 years.
Manning couldn’t have known the
degree of vengeance Obama would take out on him, including treatment tantamount
to torture according to the UN, but Snowden certainly had that in mind before
he outed the PRISM mass spying program. He reportedly knew about PRISM and
agonized over blowing the whistle for five years before he took the plunge. He
was under no illusions and knew that he would be hounded to the ends of the
earth by the wounded-tiger US government. In an act of arrogance, hubris,
chutzpah and bullying unparalleled in the modern world, a plane carrying Evo
Morales, president of Bolivia, was forced to land in Austria because several European
countries denied the plane the right to fly over their territory at the behest
of the US because it was suspected that it might be carrying Snowden. Treated
like a common criminal or drug mule, Morales, leader of a sovereign country,
was forced to cool his heels for 12 hours while the plane was inspected for
traces of Snowden.
If the shoes were on the other
feet and a similar incident happened to Obama, it would be considered an act of
war. But America is the exceptional and indispensable country and is so
inherently good and righteous with intentions so pure and goals of ‘freedom’
and ‘democracy’ so important to the world that it gets to play by its own
rules. It can do no wrong. Paraphrasing Nixon when asked if a plan of his was
constitutional, responded, if the president of the US does it, it must be
legal, constitutional, wholesome and important. By extension, it’s okay for the
US to kill ‘suspected’ terrorists; that is, people who were never convicted of
a crime or given a chance to defend themselves, because the US can’t take a
chance on people who ‘might’ cause it harm. And if innocents become collateral
damage, that’s the price to pay for (our) freedom and security.
In Manning’s defense at the
sentencing phase of his (for now, considering he/she still has all his man
parts, I’m going to call him/her a he) trial, he groveled a bit. I don’t blame
him at all for trying to minimize his time behind bars. After spending only a
few days in jail (on a marijuana cultivation charge) I became a model of
contrition: No your honor, I’ll never do that again. Yes your honor, I’ve
learned my lesson. At any rate what he said was he had no intention of harming
the US government and it was foolish to think a small person like himself could
change the world. Yet he undoubtedly, unquestionably, did change the world. An
ordinary person of such little physical stature, only 5’2”- 157cm, has become a
moral giant. After the execrable treatment he received at the hands of the US
military in the three years prior to his trial, essentially toughening up his
moral resolve, the 11 or so years he’ll wind up serving, assuming time off for
good behavior, will be a piece of cake: relatively speaking, that is, not even
an hour behind bars is easy to do.
Julian Assange, head of Wikileaks
who helped disseminate Manning’s leaks, now holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy
in London for more than a year, is wanted for questioning related to a sexual harassment
charge in Sweden. As I understand it, he did the deed without using a condom,
against her wishes, in otherwise consensual sex. For that he too has been
hounded. He’s not been indicted or charged, only wanted for questioning. He
offered to be questioned in England. Somehow, though Sweden has questioned
people outside its country in the past on much more serious charges, in this
case Assange has to be in its grips for proper questioning. Assange offered to
go to Sweden if that country made a commitment not to extradite him to the US,
but they refused. Police business as usual? Hardly, the US is a vindictive
bastard that’ll go to any length to snare prey it considers insolent and
disobedient.
Glenn Greenwald, reporter for the Guardian
newspaper, has been the go-to guy for the Snowden leaks. In the latest iteration
of security insanity, the UK held his partner David Miranda for nearly 9 hours
– the legal limit without charging someone – under a terrorism statute and
confiscated his computer equipment. He was en route in the UK, heading back to
Rio where the two live, carrying hard drives and such pertaining to Edward
Snowden’s leaks. The editor of the Guardian has recently revealed that two
months earlier, the UKs version of the NSA came by to physically destroy – you
know, using hammers – hard drives, etc., containing leaked info. Unfortunately
for the security state, this isn’t 1954 anymore, and there undoubtedly are
multiple copies of that data situated around the world. Snowden has made it
clear that if anything happens to him an avalanche of leaks will hit the
cybersphere. He has a right to be concerned for his safety. At this point the
US is livid about his leaks and I wouldn’t put it past the CIA to give him the
Bin Laden treatment – murdered on the spot and then his body dumped in the
ocean - if they ever got their hands on him. Think of the friend of the Boston
bombers who died while being questioned by the Feds. Somehow after several
hours of questioning with as many as five agents in attendance, he suddenly
became so dangerous they had to kill him.
On a related topic, the CIA, in response to a
Freedom of Information request, has finally admitted it had a role in ousting
Mohammed Mosadegh, elected leader of Iran in 1953. Though it’s been common
knowledge for decades, it’s good to hear it from the source and to see in unequivocal
terms that it was his intention to nationalize Iran’s oil industry that spelled
his doom. Not any fancy talk about freedom and democracy - he was after all
Iran’s first popularly elected leader - but raw, cold and callous protection of
corporate profits. The blowback is still blowing hurricane strength as Iranian
leaders point out with regularity the CIAs role in his deposing. As for the
Shah, his US authorized replacement, a picture reflecting his evil is seared
into my memory: it showed a gathering of about 50 people with a man holding up
his toddler son who’d had his arms cut off by the Shah’s police as punishment
for the father’s transgressions.
Mosadegh was a progressive
populist leader. Iranians are a highly educated people with a very long and
proud history. Who’s to say where Iran would be today if the US hadn’t
interfered in its affairs. When people see their democratic choices cretinously
and illegally thwarted, they sometimes take up arms, bringing on revolutions.
What other avenue do they have for obtaining justice and fairness?
The blood spilled at the hands of
or as a result of US intervention for corporate control and profits is legion,
not to mention demoralizing and disgusting. If anyone wants to delve deeply
into the machinations of the CIA, I highly recommend a novel by Norman Mailer
titled Harlot’s Ghost. It’s a novel but has an extensive bibliography. It’s
also a very long book, about 1200 pages, but worth every minute of it.
Courageous people like Manning, Snowden
and Assange who’ve sacrificed their personal well-being for the sake of
exposing the duplicity and criminality of the US government deserve the highest
praise, not decades in prison. In contrast to the terrible mistake of awarding
the prize to Obama, the Nobel committee has often chosen dissidents, including
people like Aung San Sue Kyi and Liu Xiaobo who weren’t allowed to receive
their prizes because of opposition from their governments. Now it’s time for
the committee to stand up to the USA and honor true peacemakers, the
whistleblowers.
