Why does the U.S. not tolerate freedom of speech and whistleblowers?
The government claims Edward Snowden has violated his nondisclosure agreements to keep information secret, even though the National Security Agency was violating American citizens’ civil liberties regarding surveillance when they were collecting digital data on American citizens without a search warrant.
The ACLU is representing Snowden and insists that all information in the book was already public knowledge, and that the information was not classified, which indicates another attempt by the federal government to silence whistleblowers.
The fact that the government is trying to deprive Snowden of any monetary gain shows to what extent the government will go to silence free speech.
This is no longer the America that tolerates whistleblowers and free speech that was so highly cherished by the Founding Fathers, and Daniel Ellsberg during the Vietnam War when the Pentagon Papers were published by the Washington Post in spite of President Richard Nixon’s federal court injunction.
Any government that conceals violations of civil liberties and war crimes has indicted itself with such secrecy.
National security is not a valid argument to protect the government from allowing the public to know the facts regarding surveillance of innocent American citizens, and the methods used by our government in the prosecution of the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Yemen.
David Cowan,
Port Angeles