Blog #8: Whistleblower

 

The U.S. Department of Justice states that "Whistleblowers perform an important service for the public and the Department of Justice when they report evidence of wrongdoing." A prime example of a whistleblower today would be Edward Snowden. Edward Snowden is known for exposing NSA surveillance. In 2013, Edward exposed the existence of "previously classified mass intelligence gathering surveillance programs run by the U.S. National Security agency and the U.K.'s intelligence 

organization, Government Communications Headquarters." This of course did not make our government happy. They charged Snowden with violating the Espionage Act. This lead to Snowden leaving the country and fleeing to Hong Kong and eventually Russia to avoid the charges. However, in 2015 Snowden wanted to return back to the United States, indicating he was wiling to face prison if he was able to return. More than a million people petitioned for him to be pardoned, during the end of President Donald Trump's term, Trump released a "last-minute clemency list, pardoning 73 people," but to many's surprise Snowden was not on that list. Luckily for Snowden, he never went to prison but for a period of time he had to keep quiet. 

Another example of a whistleblower who exposed our government, is Daniel Ellsberg. He exposed United States lies about the Vietnam War. He did this by the help of his 13 year old son and 10 year old daughter. They would photocopy classified documents, eventually leaking these documents out exposing the Pentagon Papers, which was a 70 thousand page top secret history of United States involvement in the Vietnam War. This information shed light on how President after President from 1945 to 1967, knew the war to be unwindable yet, mislead Congress and the public about the war. After this information was leaked, Daniel was put on trial for Espionage. He was at risk for 115 years in prison. Luckily the charges were eventually dropped. Now Daniel is looked back on as "the most dangerous man in America." Later he is quoted that his his only regret through this all was not releasing the documents earlier. 

In both of these examples we see these two whistleblowers charged with espionage. Thus, let's take a quick look at what espionage is. the Espionage Act of 1917 states that it is "intended to prohibit interference with military operations or recruitment, to prevent insubordination in the military, and to prevent the support of United States enemies during wartime." This act that was made, to many felt like it put limits on our first amendment, which gives us the right of freedom of speech. We see the risk that both Snowden and Ellsberg took in speaking up. Many more like Snowden and Ellsberg have spoken up exposing the lies in which our government is telling us. Each time it comes with a risk because of the Espionage Act of 1917. Even with this risk at stake, it is good that we have people willing to step up and expose the wrongdoings in our government, in order to protect us. The affects of whistleblowing on our society today and on different segments of our society have been allowing us justice and protection. I believe whistleblowers are needed and should be protected in order for justice to be served.