Thomas Drake |
With spring 2019 getting underway, we asked NSA whistleblower Thomas Drake to share his thoughts about the current state of democracy in the United States. His response is below.
We urged Tom to be candid about the continuing effects from the U.S. government’s prosecution of him. “I am still digging out from the ordeal,” he wrote. “I paid an enormous price personally and professionally for standing up against the government and speaking truth about the abuse and misuse of power -- especially secret power -- hiding behind national security.”
Powerful forces insist “national security” requiresmass surveillance that makes a mockery of the Fourth Amendment. Tom Drake became a whistleblower at the National Security Agency because his conscience would not allow him to go along with secretive abuses of basic constitutional rights. As a result, “My entire life was turned inside out and upside down.”
Whether or not the rare whistleblowers at places like the NSA go to prison -- and Tom was prosecuted with the threat that he’d be in prison for the rest of his life -- a key official goal is to drive them close to the poverty line for the rest of their lives, deprived of pensions and rendered unemployable for all but low-paid jobs.
If you click here to support Thomas Drake as an NSA whistleblower who continues to speak truth to -- and about -- power, you can make a tax-deductible contribution. Whatever you can afford would be deeply appreciated. Half of every dollar you donate will go directly to Tom, while the other half will support the Whistleblowers Public Education Campaign that he chairs.
Although Tom ultimately prevailed in court after a Kafkaesque ordeal that lasted years, the government completely wrecked his personal finances. (If you’re not familiar with his courageous stand on behalf of the Fourth Amendment, please see the links under “Background” at the bottom of this email.)
And now, here are some new comments from Tom Drake:
The House Oversight Committee Chair, Elijah Cummings, in closing remarks at the Michael Cohen hearing on February 27, spoke very powerfully about the future and what is so at stake in the Age of Trump. “When we're dancing with the angels, the question will be asked: In 2019, what did we do to make sure we kept our democracy intact? Did we stand on the sidelines and say nothing?”
It reminds me of the government’s malicious and vindictive case against me because I simply stood up to support and defend the Constitution by speaking truth to power and about the government’s violation of the Constitution and other wrongdoing.
President Trump made up a faux national emergency by laundering his con-fraud enterprise scam and scheme on the U.S. to circumvent and evade Article 1, Section 9 in the Constitution -- while endangering what is left of our dwindling democracy and a hollowed out Constitutional Republic.
And yet a very secret coup against the Constitution took place under the Bush administration in the form of national emergencies implemented shortly after 9/11, due to the failure of the U.S. government to keep almost 3,000 people out of harm’s way. I became a material eyewitness to high crimes and misdemeanors committed by President Bush, Vice President Cheney and others with respect to mass violation of people’s privacy rights through vast electronic surveillance programs.
Now, there is the recent news about the apparent halt, end, suspension or shutdown of a key part of an NSA domestic spying program known as Section 215 from the USA PATRIOT Act, which was subsequently updated under the USA FREEDOM Act.
However, there is a lot of hide and seek, plus smoke and mirrors kabuki surveillance going on here. Why? Other collection authority “shells” still exist, including Section 702 and Executive Order 12333.
It’s important to note that this mass surveillance regime originated under the umbrella of NSA’s STELLARWIND program -- aka “The Program” -- right after 9/11 under the Bush administration. That mass surveillance program formed the operational heart and core of an extremely sensitive ultra state secret known as the President’s Surveillance Program (PSP). Part of STELLARWIND later morphed into the USA FREEDOM Act after updates to the PATRIOT Act, the Protect America Act and the FISA Amendments Act.
Let’s also not forget fired-by-Trump former FBI Director James Comey’s earlier participation and direct intervention to “protect” STELLARWIND during the infamous 2004 hospital confrontation under the Bush administration (with Attorney General John Ashcroft in a sickbed). The ballyhooed incident “only served to hide illegal surveillance under a new rock,” in the words of independent journalist Marcy Wheeler.
Furthermore, it is critical to point out that all of these domestic spying programs fundamentally violated the Constitution, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and the 4th Amendment on a mass scale, then went under the cover of secret FISA Court approval, secret interpretations of law and then the passage of unconstitutional ex post facto laws to make them “legal” -- a real sleight of hand.
Also important is the reminder by Marcy Wheeler, writing during the 2016 primary season for president, that Comey’s righteously rogue selling and PR of his higher loyalty and integrity was and is highly questionable considering his outsize influence on the 2016 election.
But I was “disloyal” because I defended the Constitution against the raw executive authority of Bush/Cheney licensing the unlawful secret domestic mass surveillance program by the government?
And yet I am the only person to date in relation to the NSA mass domestic electronic surveillance programs who was not only charged (also Edward Snowden) but later also indicted and prosecuted under the Espionage Act, facing decades in prison because I blew the whistle on it and other government wrongdoing, coverup and malfeasance.
We must also continue to consider the wildcard of “national security” -- the shrouded invisible elephant shells and tells in the room. Hide or trust the public’s right to know? What won’t the people know? What will remain in the shadows? Will somebody hold and keep secret the fuller set of proverbial royal flush cards in hand about investigations of executive action and executive time? And when somebody like me did so, it was defined by the government as a crime of state -- for calling out and disclosing state crimes.
Meanwhile democracy, self-determination, privacy and human rights are under severe stress in America and across the world. Flying the imperious flag of Trumplandia is a sure ticket to disaster and chaos. The U.S. flag is flying upside down as an SOS.
So, what country do we want to keep? How do we best govern ourselves -- individually and as a society?
I paid an enormous price personally and professionally for standing up against the government and speaking truth about the abuse and misuse of power -- especially secret power -- hiding behind national security. My entire life was turned inside out and upside down. I am still digging out from the ordeal.
With appreciation,
Tom Drake
PS from the RootsAction Education Fund team:
Truth-telling can be inspirational. Another NSA whistleblower, Edward Snowden, has said: “If there hadn’t been a Thomas Drake, there couldn’t have been an Edward Snowden.”
Meanwhile, Tom Drake remains deeply in financial debt. Ironically, we are in hisdebt -- morally, politically and ethically. We owe him so much because he stood up for civil liberties and human decency.
Let’s continue to help repay that debt to Tom Drake, who exposed extreme mass surveillance by the NSA.
Living in what is supposed to be a democracy, we get vital information because of the courage of whistleblowers.
Tom Drake has no intention of going silent. He wants to keep writing, traveling and speaking out. But he needs our help.
Please make a tax-deductible contribution in support of his work.
Thank you!
Please share on Facebook and Twitter.
Background:
> Daily Beast: “U.S. Intelligence Shuts Down Damning Report on Whistleblower Retaliation”
> Freedom of the Press Foundation: “Beware of Trump Administration’s Coming Crackdown on Leaks -- and Journalism”
> Minneapolis Star Tribune: “Former NSA Executive Urges Public Vigilance Against Government Overreach”
> “The Constitution and Conscience: NSA’s Thomas Drake”: Video of speech on May 2, 2017
> The Washington Times: “Donald Trump on Edward Snowden: Kill the ‘Traitor’”
> Jesselyn Radack, The New York Times: "Whistleblowers Deserve Protection Not Prison"
> Jane Mayer, The New Yorker: Thomas Drake -- "The Secret Sharer"> Marcy Wheeler, Empty Wheel: “Does Jim Comey Think Thomas Drake Exhibited Disloyalty to the United States?”> Marcy Wheeler, Empty Wheel: “‘Only Facts Matter’: Jim Comey Is Not the Master Bureaucrat of Integrity His PR Sells Him As”
|
 |  |  |
|
No comments:
Post a Comment