Former Ambassador Urges U.S. Officials To Leak More Memos

[tuvor]

By Nathan Diebenow
Associate Editor

AUSTIN — The former ambassador to Afghanistan, Ann Wright, called on U.S. federal employees to leak more secret memos on the lead-up to the war in Iraq like Downing Street memos uncovered by the British press this last May.

“It seems like the British government is leaking like a sieve. We need to get our own U.S. government colleagues to be leaking like a sieve,” said Wright, who gave up her career in the foreign service because she disagreed with the U.S. invasion of Iraq. “We need more documents — certainly not documents that are really going to jeopardize the security of the United States — but documents that show the sequence of events within our own government.”

Wright said that many federal employees disagree with the policies of the current administration but stay involved for a host of reasons, one of which more often than not is that they have mouths to feed. A closer look of the major U.S. newspapers, however, shows that those discouraged officials inside the government are sending signals of hope to the American people, she said.

“It’s important that we encourage our colleagues in the U.S. federal government to think really seriously about the future of our country and to inform their conscience and look to see if they can find the equivalent memos that we have in our United States government,” said Wright. “So if you have any colleagues, cousins, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, sons or daughters that are working in whatever level of government, talk to them. Just casually mention it. You never can tell.”

http://www.iconoclast-texas.com/News/2005/31-40/31news02.htm

[quaoar]

1. Whistleblowers

are today's true patriots.

[90-percent]

2. Difficult Decision

Patriotism vs. career path and security.

Whistle Blower types can expect nothing but harsh retribution for doing what's best for their country.

Sad and true.

-85%

[Just Me]

9. Still doesn't compare to the sacrifice demanded of our soldiers.

If they truly love their country, they will come forward and take the risk.

Besides, such courage may very well lead to a better career and greater financial security if, in the end, the grotesque corruption is revealed.

[jillan]

10. Whatever happened to that whistleblower on Halliburton?

Her name was Bunny ----? She had an unusual name.
She worked for the gov't in an accounting position, and was appalled by the amount of $ going to Halliburton. The story first broke days before the Nov election. Dorgan recently mentioned her.

I know this is off topic, but that is another huge scandal that has been overshadowed.

Ugh - so much crap coming from this administration. It's maddening!

on edit- here's the link if you want to refresh your memory on this.

Her last name is Greenhouse - how could I forget that name?:silly:

http://www.whistleblowers.org/html/bunny_greenhouse.htm

[bunny planet]

13. Bunnatine Greenhouse. Good question? Haven't heard anything about her

lately.

[sattahipdeep]

3. Sibel Edmonds

http://www.justacitizen.com/

Gagged, But Not Dead
By Sibel Edmonds

And lastly, for those of you who may think that since I have been gagged and stopped
by almost all available official channels, I must be ready to vaporize into thin air, please
think again. I am gagged, but not dead; not yet.

http://www.justacitizen.com/articles_documents/May14-05-Gagged%20but%20not%20Dead.htm

In the past three years, I have been threatened; I have been gagged several times;
I have continuously been prevented from pursuing my due process; all reports and
investigations looking into my case have been classified; and every governmental
or investigative authority dealing with my case has been shut up. According to legal
experts familiar with my case, the level of secrecy and classification in my court case
and the attitudes and handling of the court system in dealing with my case is
unprecedented in the entire U.S. court history. According to other experts I am one of
the most, if not the most, gagged woman anybody knows of or has heard of. Why?

[meganmonkey]

4. cool!

As a general rule, trying to get the government to 'leak like a seive' doesn't seem like a good thing. But given the lies, deceit, cheating and overall criminality in this admin, I say let it flow!

[sattahipdeep]

5. Mr. Fitzgerald....Why?

Patrick J. Fitzgerald began serving as the United States Attorney for the
Northern District of Illinois on September 1, 2001. Mr. Fitzgerald was initially
appointed on an interim basis by Attorney General John Ashcroft before being
nominated by President George W. Bush. The United States Senate confirmed his
nomination by unanimous consent on October 23, 2001, and President Bush signed
his commission on October 29, 2001.

Mr. Fitzgerald served on the Attorney General's Advisory Committee
from 2001-2005, and he remains Chair of that Committee's sub-committee on terrorism.
He is also a member of the President's Corporate Fraud Task Force.
In December 2003, he was named Special Counsel to investigate the alleged disclosure
of the identity of a purported employee of the Central Intelligence Agency.

http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/iln/aboutus/patrickjfizgerald.html

[EVDebs]

6. Carl Bernstein on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart said same

....and Bob Woodward's jaw dropped to the floor while he was saying that more leakers (and whistleblowers) were needed !

[mikita]

8. I don't watch TV anymore, but oh how I wish I had seen this n/t

[damntexdem]

7. And state and local government officials need to leak any info on:

official voter fraud.

[gratuitous]

11. What about it, government officials?

Over 1,800 military dead, some 25 already this month. John Kerry's famous question, "How do you ask someone to be the last man to die for a mistake?" has to be echoing in a few ears. I'd be willing to bet that there are not a few government officials who read the postings here at DU. Some of them probably have a heart and a conscience.

Charles Manson exercised great control over his duped followers, but on the night of August 8, 1969, he made the mistake of including one human being, Linda Kasabian, in the group of murderers he sent out to the Sharon Tate home. Her testimony put Manson and his "family" away for life. Is there a latter day Linda Kasabian who will expose the corrupt Bush administration?

Or do all officials in the government absolutely believe in what's being done in our names with our tax dollars? Innocent people being detained for years, some of them tortured to death. An illegal war launched on a ginned-up pretext. 1,800 dead soldiers and the number of civilian dead is known only to God, as it is not this administration's policy to keep track of the "collateral damage" that is, the dead civilians they create.

Yes, it's going to be tough to come forward, no question about it. A person could lose his or her livelihood, pension, even freedom. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was hanged by the Nazis. Gandhi and Dr. King were cut down by assassins' bullets, as were Anwar Sadat and Yitzhak Rabin. But all of these men knew that what was right was more important than doing what was politic. And the world was, for a time, a better place for their efforts.

But now those efforts are in danger of being thrown uselessly away. Are our soldiers dying in a noble cause? Really and truly? Some folks in the government have in their hands, maybe right this moment, documentary evidence of the Bush administration's cynical manipulation of people's good intentions that has led us to this awful pass. Is this what America stands for now? Is illegal war, naked imperialism, unjustified detainment, and torture what the United States believes in? Our country used to denounce and go to war against evil empires and mad regimes that practiced this grotesques statecraft. Now it's our standard.

Where are the brave leakers?

[VegasWolf]

12. Anybody who helps stop Bush will end up saving countless lives of

innocent human beings both at home and abroad.

[leveymg]

14. Join the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition

They don't seem to have a website of their own, but can be contacted through Sibel Edmonds at http://www.justacitizen.com/

Here's an article about the first public meeting of the group back in April.


http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0405/042705c1.htm

National security employees form whistleblowers coalition
By Chris Strohm
[e-mail]

More than 50 former and current government officials from more than a dozen agencies have formed a new coalition to protect and support national security whistleblowers.

The group, called the National Security Whistleblower's Coalition, is planning a series of meetings with House and Senate lawmakers and a press conference on Thursday to put forward its proposals. The coalition was spearheaded by FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds, who was fired after alleging security breaches, mismanagement and possible espionage within the FBI's translation service in late 2001 and early 2002.


"We believe that the biggest and the most important thing is individual accountability," Edmonds said Wednesday. "As long as a few bad apples are allowed to hide behind the wall of the agencies, you can't pass any law, any regulations. It's not going to do any good. Laws are meaningless without accountability."


Government Executive first reported on the emergence of a national security whistleblower's movement last year after the 9/11 Commission released its final report on intelligence failures.


Whistleblowers associated with the coalition come from agencies such as the FBI, CIA, National Security Agency, Defense Department, Energy Department, Transportation Security Administration, Federal Aviation Administration, and former U.S. Customs Service.


"I call them left-wing, right-wing, no-wing, I don't care. We all have a common cause," Edmonds said. "Tomorrow we are going to be coming in the hundreds. And then we are going to come in the thousands. How long are they going to ignore us?"

SNIP

[Just Me]

17. The more that coalition grows, the greater power and influence,...

,...it will have, particularly in these precarious circumstances.

[cyberpj]

15. Didn't congress table whistleblower legislation that would have helped

protect people if they came forward?

I'm sorry. I was watching that for a while and then lost it because there's just SO MUCH to try to watch with BushCo! I believe that's their strategy -- just keep doing things one after the other so no one has a chance to follow up on any one thing.

[Talismom]

16. This is a beautifully worded call to true patriots who care about

saving their nation from a fascist takeover. I'm very moved by it and look forward to being inspired by the courage of a new generation of heros.

[txindy]

18. Wonder if * will read the Iconoclast (from Crawford!) while on vacation.

:rofl:

Seriously, though, a very impressive newspaper. :patriot: Too bad most wingnuts refuse to - or can't - read. :freak:

[PurityOfEssence]

19. 42% of Americans think Junior should be impeached if he lied to go to war

That's a truly damning statement. We are an ugly people. We can cloak our selfishness and greed with homilies about independence and such, but that's a deplorable statistic.

If (as we know he did) he lied to go to war, EVERYBODY should want the son-of-a-bitch cashiered on the spot. That's what a "drumhead court martial" is all about.

For us as a people to not overwhelmingly demand the head of an asshole who lies to sucker us into a war of conquest and subjugation shows that we're filth.

This is disgusting. It will make no news. Who cares about THEM?