Battleangel

Karen Kwiatkowski ponders the issue of whistleblowers in her latest column …

Whistleblowers in government can learn one thing from the current interest story about former FBI Deputy Director W. Mark Felt. The U.S. government and government-dependent media response is timeless and utterly formulaic.

Predictably, whether under Nixon, Clinton or Bush, those who blow whistles and raise concerns will be attacked and discredited with a degree of personal viciousness reserved specifically for those who challenge the mythology of White House and federal beneficence.

Source: Karen Kwiatkowski, LewRockwell.com

And Karen Kwiatkowski knows from personal experience. The list of mistreated and depreciated whistleblowers goes on. Take Daniel Ellsberg, Mark Felt of course, Cynthia Cooper, Sherron Watkins, Coleen Rowley, Katharine Gun, Joseph Darby, Jim Massey, Sam Provance Paul van Buitenen, Mordechai Vanunu, Linda Tripp, Sibel Edmonds and lately Thomas Fiscus and John Riggs to name a few.

The irony being of course that as far as Thomas Fiscus and John Riggs are concerned they used the internal apparatus of the system to report what they felt were unacceptable conduct. Many organizations like for instance the US military has much touted ways of telling the truth. But in reality, it will still get you into a world of trouble. And in the case of the US military, Rumsfeld himself talks about the obligation to report wrongdoing. Just as long as it’s actual wrongdoing and not something that you’ve just “misunderstood” and is in fact part of the accepted conduct of the system. And as long as you don’t think they’ll thank you for it. That you’ll keep your job and wont be ostracized.

Whistleblowers still remain among the most controversial people in society. It’s like if you had committed regicide in the middle ages. Betrayed your God, your God given leader and your country and various intangible principles. You would have been burnt, had limbs hacked off, been pulled arms and legs from torso, had your heart plucked out, been decapitated and then either cremated or had your remains go on tour. Never mess with the powers that be. And if you do be prepared. No one undermines the legitimacy of the system with impunity. They’ll never thank you and they’ll turn large parts of the populace against you as well.
Therefore, we are forever in the debt of the people mentioned above and hundreds more like them. People who have risked their lives and sacrificed their wellbeing to serve us all.