"Obama, having promised a government of transparency, has brought six prosecutions for leaks so far"

[girl gone mad]

Daniel Ellsberg posting on Reddit today:

"Prior to Obama, only two other prosecutions for leaks had been held, for a total of three. Obama, having promised a government of transparency, has brought six prosecutions for leaks so far - twice as many as all previous presidents together - and he is pursuing Julian Assange in a grand jury, which would make 7. The Espionage Act was not intended to cover leaks and forty years ago, if my case had gone to the supreme court, they would probably have found it unconstitutional in this application under the first amendment. That would would still be the right conclusion, but this supreme court can't be relied on to reach it. Actually, Judge Catherine Forest in the NDAA case has shown that the courage and judgement to find the NDAA unconstitutional on first amendment grounds and I am confident that if one of these leak cases came before her, she would judge that the previsions of the Espionage Used in these cases - 18 U.S.C. 793 paragraphs (d) and (e) - are unconstitutional violations of the first amendment. If that happened, as it should, in one of the ongoing whistleblower cases, such as Bradley Mannings', John Kiriakou, Jeffory Sterling or Steven Kim, then the current congress might well pass an official secrets act of the British type which would criminalize all such leaks of classified information. There are pending proposals in congress to do that already. In answer to your question, those proposals deserve urgent and widespread public opposition. "

[xchrom]

1. Du rec. Nt

[ProSense]

2. There have been some

big rewards for whistleblowers too.

Whistleblower facing foreclosure wins $18 million
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002426685

Jailed Banker Who Helped Crack UBS Gets $104 Million Payout
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021319401

[stevenleser]

11. And entire websites created to make information more transparent. The OP obviously couldnt be

bothered to post a balanced accounting of the situation

http://www.transparency.gov/

[SidDithers]

27. Facts are good...

thanks for posting

Sid

[OnyxCollie]

3. Nuh uh!

President Obama is the bestest President ever! He loves his wife and his kids and his dog and he's trying to do his best but the mean old Republicans won't let him. All these bad things you're saying are gonna get us President Romney. If that's what you want, go over to Freeperville and post this stuff, hater. They'll love you, with all your hate. Don't you understand this is an election year and your bashing our bestest President will have to wait until sometime after never. Until then, put a fist in it, 'cause this is Democratic Underground and we don't want you perfectionist types posting your RW talking points and campaigning for Rmoney.


I'm sorry. It appears I've been affected by the groupthink that permeates every forum on this board.

[xiamiam]

6. dont forget it is in violation of theTOS

I was thinking about that one this am..In 1978, I visited family in Czechoslovakia. Every province or town required an interview with me..in my late 20's and travelling with my elderly father. They noted every item I brought with me and returned with and was directed to leave nothing. One of the things that still haunts me, when socializing with my same age cousins in their apartments..I was learning Slovak, they didn't speak English..but we would laugh and tease..one could not laugh too loud, joke too much, make too much noise, not pay attention..to those who would report them...for anything. And those people were everywhere. At least one of my relatives was a communist, some were not..some lived in the country, villages. There was a dark cloud which you could almost touch because the freedom of thought police were everywhere. There were moments of joy, don't get me wrong, but coming from here and going to a less than cosmopolitan area 75 miles from the soviet border, was different from anything I had ever experienced. When I left, I had a down comforter handmade by my fathers elderly sister for me. She had the down inspected before constructing and I had the proper documentation. The soldiers at the airport took it. It was the only time I looked at my father and knew he couldn't help.

I know its different there now but I can't tell you how happy I was to return home to be the free spirited all american gal that I was. That's over three decades ago, and every time I see that line here..on a website designed to promote democracy and democratic principles, I think of my experiences at that time.

[Luminous Animal]

7. Thank you for this post.

[xiamiam]

15. your welcome..I surprised myself my sharing such a personal story and going on a tangent

but that line is a trigger for me as well as many of those in onyxcollies post that i replied to..which may be the only similarity..triggers which make me wonder who is behind the keyboards and why I am still here posting

[blue neen]

17. ...and there is the difference...

..that we are all free to leave this forum at any time if we aren't enjoying it anymore.

[xiamiam]

19. sometimes we do, many incredible folks are no longer here for various reasons

it is, for the most part, my memory of them, their intelligence and fierce loyalty to democracy and the many things I've learned from them that holds a flicker of hope that the seeds they planted are growing within those who care to grow

[Luminous Animal]

20. I stick around for a few people but I definitely self-censor...not because I am afraid of having

any post hidden or even being kicked off the board but because the responses are apt to be so tedious... attack the messenger ... attack the source ... rolly eyes ... rolling on the floor laughing ... PUMA ... FUD ... Anything to avoid the topic at hand. DUers used to proudly proclaim that the board had the most intelligent discourse on the internet. There was SOME truth to that but we are now expected to park our brains (and our conscious) at the door.

[Sekhmets Daughter]

4. Ellsberg was a day late and a dollar

short ...he knew what was going on in 1965 and he had the papers in 1969...why wait until 1971 to give them to the newspapers? Or to reveal the entire Vietnam War was a terrible waste of human life....My brother died in Nam in 1969....Perhaps had Ellsberg revealed what he knew in 1965 (he was serving in Vietnam with the State Dept.) My brother and several thousand other young men would still be alive..not to mention the countless Vietnamese civilians who lost their lives....

[girl gone mad]

5. Why don't you go ask him?

[Sekhmets Daughter]

26. Why give him an

opportunity for more self-aggrandizement?

[Luminous Animal]

21. I am so sorry that you lost your brother and I sincerely wish that you would

read how Ellsberg transformed from a "good soldier" to a dissident and how he tried for a year and more to reveal the Pentagon Papers through official channels before resorting to breaking the law.

[Sekhmets Daughter]

25. I've read about it

It ranks right up there with McNamara's great enlightenment. He was not an 18-year-old when he served in Vietnam...he was 34 and should have been able to see what was going on...long before 1969.

His revelations did little to end the war which dragged on and on for another 4 years....

[leftstreet]

8. DURec

You are a very, very bad girl

Glad you're still here

[nc4bo]

9. I have no doubt that there is much work to do...

if it's not too late.

I think we'd have a better chance making changes with POB than an (R).

[KoKo]

12. Of course....no one here is advocating not to vote for President Obama...but, his record

stands. And, there are those of us voting Democrats who feel that he has let us down in not supporting transparency he promised and not going after the Banksters here in the USA that helped bring down the world economy for their past deeds.

Indefinite Detention, Increased spying on American Citizens and this attack on whistle blowers.

I am a Democrat and if our party should be held accountable by its voters. That's Democracy.

[KoKo]

10. The record is there...yet so few ask WHY....WHY is this?

What could be President Obama's reasoning on this? WHY so few prosecutions for the Banksters that brought down Global Banking and now WE THE PEOPLE are supposed to clean up their MESS!

And, on Transparency in Government.....what about that?

I'm voting for him...but it isn't the CHANGE we thought we would have after Bush 2 Years.

And the questions keep coming and we keep voting for that CHANGE.

I know there are stalwart DU'ers who will tell us that the "CHANGE" Obama promised was the "CHANGE" he's delivering.

I know there are a majority here who would say we got what we voted for. I think the problem is that they think we were too innocent in thinking that the "CHANGE" would be something that was different. I think that's the problem.....we misinterpreted it all in his speeches...and didn't realize where he was coming from...and we shouldn't complain now...because we knew what we were voting for.

I think that's a reasonable counterpoint. I think to push that in faces is reasonable. Obviously we didn't listen carefully and that, truly is, a mistake that was made.

[Comrade_McKenzie]

13. I wake up, do my work, get online, and then go to bed...

And avoid confrontations at all costs.

I've never been charged with anything.

[Honeycombe8]

14. Good. Illegal leaks should be prosecuted fully. Why are there more prosecutions?

Easy. The rise of the internets. Information is much more easily leaked these day and accessed by many more easily.

It is probably also the case that the govt agencies handling these things have gotten better since 9/11, and also because of technological advances.

BTW...Obama doesn't "prosecute" anyone. He's the President. Not the Attorney General.

[xiamiam]

16. Why? Panetta..imo..nt

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

24. Who is Panetta's and Holder's boss?

[msanthrope]

18. Bradley Manning would have been immune from prosecution had he been a whistleblower.

If he had simply taken the steps required under the Military Whistleblowers Protection Act of 1986, he would have been just fine. He couldn't have been prosecuted.

Instead, he chose to give information to a commercial operation.

Too bad.

[progressivebydesign]

22. Like fucking CLOCKWORK on DU.. every election.... Send in the clowns...

Yes.. I know that many of us Duers are SOOO Freakin' impressed by the holier than thou liberal purists who think that no one, short of Dennis Kucinich is pure enough and liberal enough for you.

Yes... even tho your utopian vision of a "progressively pure candidate" would garner around 254k votes, total... is of no consequence to you, because you simply need to show the rest of us how urbane and well-read you are, and how much cooler than the rest of us average Democrats are, because we support the President.

And every fucking election, and I've been here since 2000, this happens. The people who live in their little thought-experiment world, start posting this shit. We get it. You're all soooo unbelievably in the know. You have friends that break bank windows, when they're not studying for exams at Evergreen College in Olympia, and driving mom's lexus. Sorry that those of us who want some fucking jobs back from China and India, and our mother's not to die penniless from medical bills, are too busy trying to get the President re-elected. Maybe you can try this stuff in your thesis... and let the grown ups help re-elect the President.

I'm just so fucking sick of this shit.. every fucking election.

[SidDithers]

28. Well said...

Sid

[OnyxCollie]

31. It's funny to watch you get mad.

Do it again.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

23. But...Transparency in Government made a swell slogan. Politics and expediency as usual.

[villager]

29. It's one of the great betrayals of the original Obama candidacy. I have little hope a re-elected

...Obama would change course. Alas.

[struggle4progress]

30. Administration Took Accidental Path to Setting Record for Leak Cases (NYT June 2012)

By SCOTT SHANE and CHARLIE SAVAGE
Published: June 19, 2012

... the crackdown has nothing to do with any directive from the president ...

Instead, it was unplanned, resulting from several leftover investigations from the Bush administration, a proliferation of e-mail and computer audit trails that increasingly can pinpoint reporters’ sources, bipartisan support in Congress for a tougher approach, and a push by the director of national intelligence in 2009 that sharpened the system for tracking disclosures ...

Like most presidents, Mr. Obama has been infuriated by some leaks, but aides say he never ordered investigations. Current and former officials said Mr. Obama and Mr. Holder, who are social friends, have avoided discussing investigations and prosecutions to avoid any appearance of improper White House influence ...

The scattered bureaucratic background of the six cases appears to support the notion that they were not the result of a top-down policy. Two were handled by the Justice Department’s criminal division, while two others were developed by the national security division. A case involving a former C.I.A. officer, John Kiriakou, started with an unrelated inquiry at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and ended up as a leak case by accident. And the case against Pfc. Bradley Manning, an Army intelligence analyst accused of delivering huge archives of classified documents to WikiLeaks, was a military prosecution that would most likely have been brought under any administration ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/20/us/politics/accidental-path-to-record-leak-cases-under-obama.html?pagewanted=all