Update:
The letter has so far been published in:
Denmark (Information): http://www.information.dk/480312 (op-ed) & http://www.information.dk/480334 (article)
US/UK (The Guardian): http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/11/whistleblowers-open-letter-after-snowden-revelations
Italy (L'espresso): http://espresso.repubblica.it/internazionale/2013/12/13/news/la-liberta-siete-anche-voi-la-lettera-aperta-all-intelligence-1.146021
Portugal (Esquerda): http://www.esquerda.net/artigo/ex-espi%C3%B5es-carta-aberta-agentes-dos-servi%C3%A7os-de-vigil%C3%A2ncia-p%C3%B3s-snowden/30587
Brazil: (Plano Brazil): http://www.planobrazil.com/exortacao-a-dissidencia/
Norway (Aftenposten): http://www.aftenposten.no/meninger/kronikker/Mot-er-smittsomt-7408989.html
Sweden (Sydsvenskan): http://www.sydsvenskan.se/opinion/aktuella-fragor/du-blir-varken-den-forsta-eller-den-sista-som-foljer-ditt-samvete-och-avslojar-/
More to follow.
/Peter
------
Open Letter to Intelligence Employees After Snowden
At least since the aftermath of September
2001, Western Governments and
Intelligence Agencies have been hard at work expanding the scope of
their own power, while eroding privacy, civil liberties and public control of
policy. What used to be viewed as paranoid, Orwellian, tin-foil hat fantasies
turned out post-Snowden, to be not even the whole story.
What's really remarkable is, that we've
been warned for years that these things were going on: Whole-sale surveillance
of entire populations, militarization of the Internet, the end of privacy.
All is done in the name of "National
Security" which has more or less become a chant to fence off debate and
make sure governments aren't held to account – that they can't be held to account– because everything is being done in the
dark; secret laws, secret interpretations of secret laws by secret courts - and
no effective parliamentary oversight whatsoever.
We are your friends – Big Brother loves you!
By and large the media have paid scant
attention to this, even as more and more courageous, principled whistle-blowers
stepped forward. The unprecedented persecution of truth-tellers, initiated by
the Bush administration and severely accelerated by the Obama administration,
has been mostly ignored, while record numbers of well-meaning people are
charged with serious felonies simply for letting their fellow citizens know
what's going on.
It's one of the bitter ironies of our time
that while John Kiriakou (ex-CIA) is in prison for blowing the whistle on U.S.
torture, the torturers and their enablers walk free.
Likewise WikiLeaks-source Chelsea (née
Bradley) Manning was charged with – amongst other serious crimes – aiding the enemy (read: the public). Manning was sentenced to 35 years in
prison while the people who planned the illegal and disastrous war on Iraq in
2003 are still treated as dignitaries.
Numerous ex-NSA officials have come forward
in the past decade, disclosing massive fraud, vast illegalities and abuse of
power in said agency, including Thomas Drake, William Binney and Kirk Wiebe.
The response was 100% persecution and 0% accountability on part of neither the
NSA nor the government.
Blowing the whistle on powerful factions is
not a fun thing to do, but despite the poor track record of Western media,
whistle-blowing remains the last avenue for for truth, balanced debate and
upholding democracy – that fragile construct which Winston Churchill is quoted
as calling "the worst form of government, except all the others".
The Winds They Are A Changing.
Since the summer of 2013 the public has
witnessed a shift in debate over these matters. The reason is that one
courageous person, Edward Snowden, not only blew the whistle on the litany of
government abuses but made sure to supply an avalanche of supporting documents
to a few trustworthy journalists.
The echoes of his actions are still heard
around the world – and there are still MANY revelations to come.
Now The Public Need You
For every Daniel Ellsberg, Drake, Binney,
Katharina Gun, Manning or Snowden there are thousands of civil servants who go
by their daily job of spying on everybody and feeding cooked or even made-up
information to the public and parliament, destroying everything we as a society
pretend to care about.
Some of them may feel favourable towards
what they're doing, but many of them are
able to hear their inner Jiminy Cricket over the voices of their leaders
and crooked politicians – and of the people whose intimate communication
they're tapping.
Hidden away in offices of various government departments, intelligence agencies, police forces and armed forces are dozens and dozens of people who are very much upset by what our societies are turning into: at the very least , turnkey tyrannies.
Hidden away in offices of various government departments, intelligence agencies, police forces and armed forces are dozens and dozens of people who are very much upset by what our societies are turning into: at the very least , turnkey tyrannies.
One of them is you.
You're thinking:
● Undermining democracy and eroding civil liberties isn't put explicitly in your job contract.
● You grew up in a
democratic society and want to keep it that way
● You were taught to
respect ordinary people's right to live a life in privacy
● You don't
really want a system of institutionalized strategic surveillance that would
make the dreaded Stasi green with envy – do you?
Still, why bother? What can one person do?
Well, Edward Snowden just showed you, what
one person can do.
He stands out as a whistle-blower both because of the severity of the crimes and misconduct that he is divulging to the public – and the sheer amount of evidence he has presented us with so far – more is coming. But Snowden shouldn't have to stand alone, and his revelations shouldn't be the only ones.
You can be part of the solution; provide trustworthy journalists – either from old media (like this newspaper) or from new media (such as WikiLeaks) with documents that prove what illegal, immoral, wasteful activites are going on where you work.
He stands out as a whistle-blower both because of the severity of the crimes and misconduct that he is divulging to the public – and the sheer amount of evidence he has presented us with so far – more is coming. But Snowden shouldn't have to stand alone, and his revelations shouldn't be the only ones.
You can be part of the solution; provide trustworthy journalists – either from old media (like this newspaper) or from new media (such as WikiLeaks) with documents that prove what illegal, immoral, wasteful activites are going on where you work.
There IS
strength in numbers; you won’t be the first – nor the last - to follow your
conscience and let us know what’s being done in our names.
Truth is
coming – it can't be stopped. Crooked politicians will be held accountable:
It's in your hands to be on the right side of history and accelerate the
process.
Courage is
contagious.
Signed by:
Peter Kofod, Musician/Ex
Human Shield in Iraq (Denmark)
Thomas Andrew Drake, Whistle-blower, Former senior executive of the NSA (US)
Daniel Ellsberg, Whistle-blower, Former US military analyst (US)
Katharina Gun, Whistle-blower, Former GCHQ (UK)
Jesselyn Raddack, Whistle-blower, Former DOJ (US)
Ray McGovern, Former senior CIA-analytist (US)
Coleen Rowley, Whistle-blower, Former FBJ (US)
Thomas Andrew Drake, Whistle-blower, Former senior executive of the NSA (US)
Daniel Ellsberg, Whistle-blower, Former US military analyst (US)
Katharina Gun, Whistle-blower, Former GCHQ (UK)
Jesselyn Raddack, Whistle-blower, Former DOJ (US)
Ray McGovern, Former senior CIA-analytist (US)
Coleen Rowley, Whistle-blower, Former FBJ (US)