(This post is from our new blog: Unofficial Sources.)
There is no sign of an end to the erosion of Constitutional liberties
that began under George W. Bush after the 9/11 attacks and continues
under Barack Obama, a group of seven national security whistleblowers
said Monday.
“The government chose in great secrecy to unchain itself,” said
Thomas Drake, who was working at the National Security Agency in 2001
and said he saw lawlessness spread under the name of “exigent
conditions” during the Bush presidency.
Then, as part of Obama’s war on whistleblowers, prosecutors
charged Drake under the Espionage Act – a law intended to brutally
punish spies – for talking to a reporter. After a four-year long ordeal
that the federal judge in his case called “unconscionable,” all 10
felony charges against Drake were dropped in return for his guilty plea
to a single misdemeanor.
Now, Drake said, he is throwing his weight behind H.R. 1466, the Surveillance State Repeal Act.
