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Shooting the messenger

In a piece on truthdig, former NY Times Bureau Chief in Jerusalem, Chris Hedges, reflects on the main players in the leaking of information - WikiLeaks, Assange, Manning and Snowden - and how each is viewed.  

"The most crucial point about the leaks from Assange, Manning, Hammond and Snowden is that they expose egregious crimes by the state and a concerted attempt by the government to mask and lie about its criminal activity. We have a legitimate right to be informed about these crimes. And those who live in foreign countries have a legitimate right to know about the crimes we have carried out and are carrying out against them. But we live in a state where the rule of law no longer functions. We live in a state where those who commit crimes are the persecutors and those who expose them are the persecuted. This is the nature of all totalitarian states. Manning, Assange, Snowden and Hammond, whatever their differences, function as our prophets. They are the voices crying out in the wilderness. And they are the ones the state intends to martyr. Just as the differences between Jeremiah and Amos in the Hebrew Bible did not diminish their courage and their voices, the differences among Snowden, Manning, Assange and Hammond should not be permitted to diminish the vital importance of all their acts."   

Whilst on the subject of  "secrets" and the public being denied access to important information which impacts on them, have you heard about the upcoming TPP?     Read on for [on Electronic Frontier Foundation] an explanation, but reflect on how despite the public being fed up with how politicians have behaved - think NSA and the populace simply not being informed of critically information  which they ought to know about - and clearly haven't heard or got the message that secrecy for its own sake just isn't acceptable.

"The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a secretive, multi-national trade agreement that threatens to extend restrictive intellectual property (IP) laws across the globe and rewrite international rules on its enforcement."


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