Ex-CIA officer turned whistleblower, John Kiriakou, possesses little subtlety on the topics of torture and the right to dissent – which I discussed with him in Part 1 of this interview – nor does he when examining the disturbing erasure of press freedom and the need to protect whistleblowers.
In fact, the posturing of American Exceptionalism abroad tightly parallels the disappearance of what arguably once made this nation exceptional – protections against infringement on liberties and a handy list of rights intended never to be trodden upon by an unwieldy government.
Freedom of the Press might sound inapplicable to the ordinary U. S. citizen, but the fact an interminable list of presidents peg the press as an enemy entity in actuality endangers us all. Imagine a State writ large, its press impotent in obtaining what is currently public information – whether through excessive classification, censorship, or dissuading likely whistleblowers from stepping forward for fear of draconian punishment – no expectation to hold pols accountable would be reasonable.
Kiriakou practically screams for us all to pay attention to the myriad trimmings of freedom falling away before our eyes – and to prepare for inevitable backlash should we remain fools, unwilling to do anything but complain.
This post was published at The Daily Sheeple on June 27, 2017.
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