Dan Gillmor observes that the two top New York Times headlines this morning “sum up the Obama administration”:
EXTRACT: As Yale Professor Jack Balkin recently put it to Jane Mayer about the Obama presidency: “We are witnessing the bipartisan normalization and legitimization of a national-surveillance state.” This state, as much as anything, is devoted to gathering as much intrusive data as possible about as many citizens as possible without a shred of oversight or suspicion of wrongdoing: exactly that which has proven to create inevitable abuse and exactly that which the Fourth Amendment sought to bar.
The tension between protecting true national security secrets and ensuring the public’s “right to know” about abuses of authority is not new. Indeed, the nation’s founders faced this very issue.
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Later that month, without any recorded dissent, Congress enacted America’s first whistle-blower-protection law: “That it is the duty of all persons in the service of the United States, as well as all other inhabitants thereof, to give the earliest information to Congress or any other proper authority of any misconduct, frauds or misdemeanors committed by any officers or persons in the service of these states, which may come to their knowledge.”
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Nearly two centuries later, the Supreme Court justice William O. Douglas, praising the founders’ commitment to freedom of speech, wrote: “The dominant purpose of the First Amendment was to prohibit the widespread practice of government suppression of embarrassing information.”
Phi Beta Iota: This is not about Barack Obama–he sold out, get over it. This is about a two-party tyranny that hides its prostitution to Wall Street behind secrecy–chasing down whistle-blowers benefits both these parties all those they have shaken down for kick-backs. This is about a system that is inherently corrupt, in which 63 of 65 parties–and all Independents–are shut out, disenfranchised, and cheated.
Phi Beta Iota: Below is circulating among the Gold Warriors in Asia. We anticipate the nationalization not only of mines, but of land, followed by a rejection of most foreign debt, foreign seed, and foreign vaccines and medications. We continue to believe 2012 will be a year of awakening and bring a major correction to how power is exercised in the public interest. Public intelligence will play a huge rule, and will have a marketable value based on transparency, truth, and trust. We reassert our commitment to non-violent truth & reconciliation. There is money to be made in healing humanity and Earth, unleashing the power of the three billion brains now largely idle for lack of connectivity and back-office exploitation.
‘It was a targeted attack,' says expert who once worked for organization
Reuters, 11 June 2011
Phi Beta Iota: This is interesting on two levels. First, all instruments of Empire can expect to be attacked; without any central impetus, we anticipate a global cyber-intelligence and penetration network to develop, similar to what has matured for Free/Open Source Software, but with penetration, understanding, and neutralization of as the objective. A Cyber-Militia, if you will. Second, no government, no corporation, no international organization, can muster the global intelligence capability needed to be effective in today's reality–the US Government least of all. An opportunity is emerging for a multinational decision-support centre and network co-sponsored by a mix of stakeholders who are willing to commit to absolute integrity. That is all it takes: integrity and a commitment to “The Virgin Truth.”
In 1990 new proteins were engineered into the American food supply. Other countries don't allow it. Walmart, Kraft and Pepsi actually formulate different food for export. America has highest cancer rates in the world.
Robyn O'Brien gives us information and patterns she has assembled and synthesized about how our food “industry” makes us sick (allergies, cancer, etc., etc.), raises our health care costs, weakens our global competitiveness, etc. and what we can do about it.
Phi Beta Iota: Industry–which operates on public incorporation commissions–lacks integrity because the government lacks integrity, as does the media in a corporate state. We have had a failure of integrity across the entire US system of systems (see Paradigms of Failure).
Phi Beta Iota: The President's declaration that the border is “safe” has inspired a sense of disbelief and even scorn among those who know that it simply is not so. This level of “cognitive dissonance” now characterizes informed public reactions to most of what the President says on any issue. There is only one cure: he needs intelligence with integrity. Or not.
In a whirlwind conclusion to the prosecution of former National Security Agency official Thomas A. Drake, Mr. Drake agreed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of “exceeding authorized use of a computer.”
Prosecutors were unable to sustain any of the felony counts against Mr. Drake that were contained in last year’s ten-count indictment, including charges of unauthorized retention of classified material under the Espionage Act of 1917.
A copy of the June 9, 2011 plea agreement is here.
Mr. Drake had been suspected of unauthorized disclosures of classified information to the press, though he was not specifically charged with that offense, and he denied committing it.
Much of the case was conducted behind closed doors and off the public record, so many intriguing aspects of its ultimate resolution remain obscure for the time being. But it seems clear that the Obama Administration misjudged the merits of its case against Drake, pursuing minor infractions with disproportionate zeal.
Meanwhile, Mr. Drake’s legal team, public defenders James Wyda and Deborah L. Boardman, did a superb job of defending their client in a challenging legal environment. Drake’s supporters at the Government Accountability Project managed to win a remarkable degree of public sympathy and support for a supposed felon.
Speaking of disproportionate zeal, I wrote last Monday that there was “no possibility” of avoiding trial on June 13. Consider this a correction.
Phi Beta Iota: We are very pleased that Mr. Drake, who is on record about being uncompromising with the truth, has in essence–with some serious help from legal professionals with integrity–buried the unethical Department of Justice and National Security Agency attempt to intimidate, railroad, and destroy one of the few senior executives with the balls to challenge the incestuous pathologically mis-managed mess we call an “intelligence” community. As Congressman Ron Paul puts it, “lying is not patriotic.” We all swear an oath to support the Constitution, and from where we sit, Mr. Drake upheld his oath, and senior officials at Justice and NSA violated their oaths of office–not surprisingly, but reprehensible never-the-less. “Integrity” is the most frequently searched for term on this web site, and rightly so: without integrity, intelligence is not achievable.
