Obama's War on Whistle Blowers

To financially support Manning and Wikileaks, we urge readers to go to bradleymanning.org and Wikileaks online store, which sells t-shirts, tote bags, etc.

We should also note that the criminal acts revealed by Wikileaks are going almost entirely uninvestigated and unprosecuted, while the Obama Administration instead viciously persecutes Manning and other whistleblowers, notably Thomas Drake.

Obama's "Justice" Department has refused to indict any of the criminals in the Bush Administration, and has refused to even investigate Bush et al.'s crimes and incredible incompetence—such minor matters as stealing the 2000 election; being asleep at the switch prior to 9/11; lying the U.S. into an illegal war of aggression; allowing Osama Bin Laden to escape in 2001; the slow, incompetent response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster; wholesale spying on everyday Americans; torture; politicization of the Justice Department; massive contractor corruption in Iraq; etc., etc.

Obama's rationale for all this is incredible. His refusal to investigate and prosecute gross crimes which have resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths, millions of "internal" refugees (in Iraq), and literally trillions of dollars in economic damage is that — get ready for it — we need to "move forward." To point out the bleeding obvious, this rationale could easily be used to avoid prosecution of murders, rapes, and armed robberies—to avoid prosecution of literally every crime ever committed. (Every crime ever prosecuted happened in the past, so why not just ignore these crimes and "move forward"?)

Add to that Obama's astounding assertion that he has the right to order the extrajudicial execution of American citizens simply because he believes them to be Muslim terrorists, and the incredibly authoritarian National Defense Authorization Act, which repeals the right of habeas corpus and allows the government to lock up people indefinitely without charge, and it becomes very obvious that on civil liberties issues there is no difference between Obama and the Republican theocrats.

In terms of civil liberties, the upcoming presidential election will not be a choice between the lesser of two evils. It will be a choice between pure authoritarian evil and pure authoritarian evil.

Barack Obama protects criminals, criminalizes whistleblowers, and trashes our civil liberties (with the active complicity of both Republicans and Democrats). He's a shameless corporate tool and an enemy of human freedom. As Richard Nixon's felonious attorney general, John Mitchell, once put it, "Watch what we do, not what we say." If you strip away Obama's progressive rhetoric—trotted out just in time for the upcoming election—and look at what he's done, it becomes abundantly clear that he is, to put it kindly, an authoritarian hypocrite.

Finally, check out Courage to Resist, whose goal is to "support the troops who refuse to fight." Among other things, they carry Free Bradley Manning t-shirts, buttons, and "silent agitator" stickers. Please also support Wikileaks by ordering something from their online store. And please do check out Anonnews, the news site of Anonymous, the hero hackers group which is Wikileaks' primary online defender.