Obama's war on whistleblowers – The trial of Bradley Manning

Dylan Murphy

If you had free reign over classified networks… and you saw incredible things, awful things… things that belonged in the public domain, and not on some server stored in a dark room in Washington DC … what would you do? 

God knows what happens now. Hopefully worldwide discussion, debates, and reforms… I want people to see the truth … because without information, you cannot make informed decisions as a public. - Quotes from an online chat attributed to Bradley Manning

On 3 June the trial of PFC Bradley Manning finally began. He will have spent over three years in prison. During his first year of incarceration the conditions Bradley was kept in amounted to torture and were condemned by the UN’s special rapporteur on torture, Juan Mendez. 

The American government has devoted great energy and resources to the persecution of Bradley Manning since his arrest in 2010 for releasing documents to WikiLeaks that exposed US war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is all part of President Obama's war on whistleblowers that has led to his administration arresting more people under the 1917 Espionage Act than all of the previous governments put together. Up until Obama took office, the US government had only prosecuted three whistleblowers in 40 years. Now under Obama six people have/are being prosecuted for their whistleblowing activities. 

DHS wastes billions of taxpayers' money in the so-called fight against terrorism

Dylan Murphy

Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 Congress passed legislation that created the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Its mission was simple to protect the United States from any future terrorist attacks.

It now employs over 240,000 people to carry out five core security missions. Number one is to prevent terrorism and enhance security. This is closely followed by managing US borders and administering immigration law to safeguarding cyberspace and ensuring resilience to natural disasters.

The Department of Homeland Security has become the third largest Federal department bringing together 22 different Federal agencies and has a huge billion dollar budget.

Recent events have cast shadows over the Department of Homeland Security and suggest that the third largest Federal department is not fit for purpose. One large shadow over the DHS is the damning report issued by Senator Tom Coburn in December 2012 Safety At Any Price: Assessing the Impact of Homeland Security Spending in US Cities. Dr. Coburn conducted a year-long investigation into how the DHS spends its billion dollar budget. It is a devastating indictment of the organization's leadership.