Movie ‘Fair Game’ highlights importance of whistleblowing

Ambassador Wilson’s wise words to “hold the government to account” require us to aggressively question the double standard for “leak” prosecutions.  Of course, the answer is not to prosecute all “leaks” but to clearly distinguish between leaking (when Bush officials revealed Plame’s name) and whistleblowing (when Thomas Drake went through proper channels to disclose government waste)…..

Hold Your Government to Account And Go To Jail – Government Accountability Project, by Jesselyn Radack on October 20, 2010 ( The Whistleblogger / 2010 ) Last night I saw a premiere of the movie Fair Game, the story of how Bush administration officials ruined the CIA career of former Ambassador Joseph Wilson’s wife, Valerie Plame, in retaliation for Ambassador Wilson blowing the whistle on the Bush administration’s lies about Iraq obtaining yellow cake uranium from Niger – the reason we went to war in Iraq. At the end, Ambassador Wilson urges us, as American citizens, to “stand up and hold our government to account.”

I wish everyone could heed Ambassador Wilson’s advice, but the reality is, Obama – not Bush – has criminalized whistleblowing.

As Michael Isikoff so poignantly expressed yesterday, the Obama administration’s policy dictates that picking the wrong issue to hold the government account for can land you in jail…….

we are not obligated to to blindly trust the government to pick and choose what national security information leaks warrant a jail sentence.  The conspiracy to retaliate against Ambassador Wilson by leaking Valerie Plame’s name certainly demonstrates such trust would be disastrously misplaced.

Ambassador Wilson’s wise words to “hold the government to account” require us to aggressively question the double standard for “leak” prosecutions.  Of course, the answer is not to prosecute all “leaks” but to clearly distinguish between leaking (when Bush officials revealed Plame’s name) and whistleblowing (when Thomas Drake went through proper channels to disclose government waste)…..

Hold Your Government to Account And Go To Jail – Government Accountability Project

October 22, 2010 - Posted by Christina MacPherson | secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | nuclear weapons, uranium