John Grant: "Leaking is an honorable enterprise"

John Grant (from his article Truth through a soda straw):

Leaking is an honorable enterprise

In order to prevent the release of material damning or embarrassing to them, the Pentagon and the Obama administration are criminalizing good, honorable people whose instincts are to be open and fair.

There is no reason why Americans should not see what US soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan are doing in their name and with their tax resources. In a free society, the fact something may discredit the military is the military’s problem. Using the power of courts, prisons or worse to quash the truth is, as a Times editorial put it, disgraceful.

In a Department of Defense Anti-Terrorism Awareness Training course, the following question is asked:

Which of the following is an example of low-level terrorism activity?

A. Attacking the Pentagon.
B. IEDs.
C. Hate crimes against racial groups.
D. Protests.

The correct answer is D. Protests.

If at the center of your government you have a huge, closed, untouchable military institution that trains its personnel to see legitimate civilian opposition as the enemy, you are in trouble. The arbitrary rule of secret government becomes inevitable.

Decent, red-blooded Americans need to support courageous entities like WikiLeaks and prevent the US government from making truth-seeking a criminal act.