"Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world would do this, it would change the earth.” William Faulkner
June 26, 2013
By: Linda Case Gibbons
I think we Americans have it all wrong. Instead of electing representatives to go to Washington, we should hire Matt Lauer. He’s a toughie.
With an instinct for the jugular and a talent for "soft news,” Matt can beat up women like no one else. Paula Deen and Ann Curry are probably still crying after being in the same room with Matt.
During today’s Today Show interview with Paula Deen, Lauer chased the 66-year-old like a hunting beagle closing in for the kill. He interrupted frequently and was rude and abrasive in his questioning her about her admitted use of the "N” word.
He showed no mercy.
He couldn’t have been more hostile toward this woman if Deen had been an al Qaeda terrorist.
Lauer is exactly the kind of guy we could have used in all those Congressional Committee investigations
He’d be someone who would grill the Internal Revenue Service cowards who targeted conservatives, the National Security Agency traitors who spied on American citizens, and Eric Holder and Hillary Clinton for their lies and poor job performance.
Our elected officials didn’t hound them, but come to think of it, Matt wouldn’t either. The Obama media doesn’t do that.
But I’m being unfair in limiting my comments to the media and elected officials. Actually Karl Rove could hold his own with Lauer on this kind of thing.
On a recent "This Week,” RINO-Rove did what he does best, destructive criticism. This time he turned his full invective on U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, claiming she "did nothing” as chairman of the congressional Tea Party caucus. But that’s nothing new. Karl is always ready to trash the Tea Party and most especially Sarah Palin.
I guess someone forgot to tell him that politically they’re all on the same side.
His latest hatchet job is on NSA leaker Edward Snowden. Rove described the 30-year-old as a "self-important, self-aggrandizing twerp,” and for a moment I honestly thought Rove was looking in the mirror.
Appearing on FOX News’ On the Record with Greta van Susteren,” Rove said, "The world is a less safe place because of what Mr. Snowden unilaterally did. He deserves to be prosecuted.”
But interestingly Rove had no criticism for National Intelligence Director James R. Clapper, the man who lied under oath at a Senate hearing when he denied that the NSA collects any type of data on hundreds of millions of Americans.
Rove also whined that Snowden should have done the "right” thing and gone through proper channels as a whistleblower.
Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Committee on Intelligence said the same thing in a CNN Candy Crowley interview.
"…it goes beyond the bounds of him trying to claim that he’s a whistleblower which he is not,” Rogers said. "A whistleblower comes to the appropriate authorities with appropriate classifications so that we can investigate any possible claim. He didn’t do that.”
No, he didn’t. I wonder why.
Maybe it’s because Rogers and Rove didn’t bother to explain what happens to whistleblowers: When a whistleblower decides to step forward and disclose the truth, that person’s life is deliberately ruined by the very people who are supposed to protect them.
Unfortunately telling the truth has become unfashionable ever since President Bill Clinton chose to betray his country by lying under oath. After that who can take "telling the truth” seriously?
But some do.
Deputy Chief of Missions Gregory Hicks does. He testified about Benghazi and afterwards was summarily demoted and assigned to a desk job.
Holly Pax does. She testified about the IRS targeting conservatives and now has been released from her job as a first line manager in Washington, D.C.
Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Agent John Dodson does. He exposed Operation Fast and Furious and ended up broke, displaced and reassigned to an office job in South Carolina, unable to work as an ATF agent ever again.
And Thomas Drake does. Drake is a former intelligence official at the NSA and was prosecuted under the Espionage Act of 2010 for allegedly revealing classified information about the agency’s sweeping warrantless wire-tapping program.
The government dropped all but a misdemeanor charge, but who remembers that? Drake now works as a technical expert at an Apple store, earning an hourly wage.
Unfortunately, given the quality of the non-media in our country today, both Drake and Snowden had to go to UK’s The Guardian to tell their story. Here’s what Drake told The Guardian.
"In accordance with the Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act, I took my concerns up within the chain of command, to the very highest levels at the NSA and then to Congress and the Department of Defense. I understand why Snowden has taken his course of action because he’s been following this for years; he’s seen what’s happened to other whistleblowers like me.
"By following protocol you get flagged – just for raising issues. You’re identified as someone they don’t like, someone not to be trusted. I was exposed early on because I was a material witness for two 9/11 congressional investigations. In closed testimony, I told them everything I knew…
"But as I found out later, none of the material evidence I disclosed went into the official record. It became a state secret even to give information of this kind to the 9/11 investigation.
"I reached a point in early 2006 when I decided I would contact a reporter. I had the same level of security clearance as Snowden. If you look at the indictment from 2010, you can see that I was accused of causing ‘exceptionally grave damage to U.S. national security.’
"Despite allegations that I had tip-top-secret documents, in fact I had no classified information in my possession, and I disclosed none to the Baltimore Sun journalist during 2006 and 2007. But I got hammered: in November 2007, I was raided by a dozen armed FBI agents, when I was served with a search warrant. The nightmare had only just begun, including extensive physical and electronic surveillance.”
This is what happens to whistleblowers. There doesn’t seem to be any percentage in telling the truth, does there? But good, honest people still believe there is.
While in the end it is your choice about Snowden -- you can love him like a patriot or hate him as a traitor -- don’t lose sight of the fact that he did something our president did not. He told the truth. And telling the truth shouldn’t be a choice.
He told Americans something we did not know, that our government was spying on us, everyday citizens, not terrorists. We did not know. And we had a right to know.
While Karl Rove was thrown into a tizzy because the Taliban have had to change their mode of communication because of Snowden, he lost sight of the fact that Americans’ Constitutional rights were being violated right and left, by their government.
Because of their government, not Snowden, everyday Americans are now afraid to use their phones. Because of their government, not Snowden, they’re afraid to use their computers, because with each keystroke they are keenly aware that their private communications are being surveilled.
And in the back of their minds they have a hunch that these communications are ending up in Obama’s in-box.
As for "We the People,” we will continue to tell the truth and support those who do. We will also withdraw our support for those in our government who lie. We’ve had enough.
And we will heed Thomas Drake’s solid advice for Edward Snowden. "Always check six.”
That’s a phrase used by fighter pilots: look behind you for enemy aircraft; consider what your enemy is doing when you make a move; and don’t just make a move blindly.”
Our founders thought truth and justice were worth dying for and we do, too. When Thomas Drake was asked if he still believes what he did was worth it, here’s what he said.
"Is freedom worth it? Is liberty worth it? Is not living in a surveillance society worth it? If you don’t want to live it, then you’ve got to stand up and defend the rights and the freedoms that prevent that from actually happening.”
So do the right thing, America, even when circumstances make us doubt the usefulness of telling the truth in Obama’s world, Freedom is worth it.
Hold the line, America.