"We live now in an era where normal values have been displaced. The good is called bad, the bad - good." - Anna Politkovskaya, a Russian journalist, writer, and human rights activist. (30 August 1958 – 7 October 2006).Excerpts from, "CIA Whistleblower John Kiriakou, Sentenced to 30 Months in Jail, Wears Conviction as ‘Badge of Honor’" by Kevin Gosztola:
Quotes by John Kiriakou:
I don’t think I am overstating this when I say I feel like we’re entering a second McCarthy era where the Justice Department uses the law as a fist or as a hammer not just to try and convict people but to ruin them personally and professionally because they don’t like where they stand on different issues.Gosztola:
I know Lanny Breuer. Lanny Breuer’s my former attorney from the Scooter Libby case but I think that Lanny Breuer became a zealot when he went to the Justice Department and he drank the Justice Department’s anti-whistleblower kool-aid. And I think we see the same thing with Neil McBride in the way he’s targeting WikiLeaks with a grand jury when in fact he should be targeting the bankers who have ruined our country and the crooked politicians who shirk their responsibilities to oversee the intelligence community.
I am proud that I stood up to our government. I stood up for what I believed was right conviction or no conviction. I mean they can convict anybody of anything if they put their minds to it, but I wear this as a badge of honor. I am not a criminal. I am a whistleblower. The thing that I blew the whistle on is now the law of the land. Torture is illegal and it’s officially abandoned in our country and I’m proud to have had a role in that.
The only CIA officer to go to jail for torture is now officially an officer who never tortured anybody. As has become more clear with Obama as president, the Justice Department is willing to zealously go after leakers who did no harm to national security. They are willing to zealously pursue Internet activists like Aaron Swartz. They will keep coming back with more and more charges to scare activists into informing on others or taking a plea deal. They may even join in the prosecution of some fallen sports icon for their posterity.
However, individuals involved in committing the felony of warrantless wiretapping or authorizing torture or senior-level bankers on Wall Street, who committed fraud and fueled the 2008 economic meltdown may move forward with their lives and never worry about going to jail. They are criminals the Justice Department lacks the courage to prosecute, or people the department does not think committed any crimes. And, as a result, those inside the department cannot be bothered to put in the kind of rabid effort they devote to prosecuting whistleblowers or activists, who in comparison to bankers or torturers have done nothing to hurt anybody.
