Fighting Secrecy and the National Security State
An Interview With Birgitta Jonsdottir, the Co-Producer of WikiLeaks's "Collateral Murder" Video
Bernstein, Dennis
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/06/14/fighting-secrecy-and-the-national-security-state/
Date Written: 2013-06-14
Publisher: Counter Punch
Year Published: 2013
Resource Type: Article
Cx Number: CX15109
An interview with Iceland Member of Parliament Birgitta Jonsdottir of the Pirate Party on the status of the international struggle against government secrecy and surveillance.
Abstract:
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Excerpt:
I am so thankful to the whistleblower in the NSA case, Edward Snowden, because he put forward and got the entire world to pay attention to what many of us have been saying of the NSA, suspicions that it was being abused. I learned much from Thomas Drake, a NSA whistleblower who they tried to put him in a long-term prison. I think it's important that people wake up – your government is not only prying into U.S. civilians’ private data, but into every person on the planet who uses Facebook or smart phones. You have become like China, Russia, and you must roll it back because you still can. Europe is thinking about building a digital fortress around itself to protect the civilians in Europe against tyranny – not against China, Iran or North Korea, but against the United States surveillance state.
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Most of us are brought up to have the ethics of "if we witness a crime, we are supposed to tell about it." If you see somebody stealing a very expensive perfume, would you look the other way? If you see somebody abusing children, would you look the other way? If you see somebody killing somebody, would you look the other way? If you see somebody committing war crimes, would you look the other way? I am brought up to tell the truth. I am brought up that if I see a crime, I am supposed to report it.
Most of the world is a part of the Geneva Convention, except the United States. If the people of the U.S. want to earn respect, trust and compassion from the rest of the world, they need to start cleaning up their garden. It is absurd and very depressing that nobody has been questioned or held accountable for the murders that we witnessed in the "Collateral Murder" video, except Bradley Manning, who showed it to us, who had the guts, heart and ethics to put it out there.
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