It needs to be said again, and I like how Conor is phrasing it over at The Atlantic regarding the scoop that the federal government forced Verizon - a major telecommunications company - to force over the phone calls of millions of Americans without warrant or evidence, and forced Verizon to keep its' corporate entity's mouth shut:
Who helped the journalists obtain that "top secret" court order?
Hopefully, that's going to stay secret for a long time. As Charlie Savage and Edward Wyatt note in the NY Times, "The order was marked TOP SECRET//SI//NOFORN, referring to communications-related intelligence information that may not be released to noncitizens. That would make it among the most closely held secrets in the federal government, and its disclosure comes amid a furor over the Obama administration's aggressive tactics in its investigations of leaks." In other words, it was likely leaked by someone who took a personal risk exposing it.
Why?
It is impossible to know. But it isn't hard to identify likely motives. Perhaps the leaker felt morally repulsed by the knowledge that the government is spying on millions of innocent citizens in secret, something normally associated with Communist and fascist regimes, not democratic republics...
...Perhaps the spying offended the leaker's patriotism, as it transgresses against traditional American values...
...Perhaps the questionable legality of the warrantless spying is what prompted the leaker to act.
The motive could've been the leaker's perception that secretly vesting the government with the power to know who is calling whom, at what time, and perhaps even from what location, invites abuses so severe that they obviously outweigh whatever legitimate benefits come from this practice...
...Finally, the leaker might think that if the government is going to take part in spying on a massive scale, that ought to be something the polity debates and knows about, not the secret machinations of a segregated ruling class doing things that would shock many they're paid to represent...
...Any of those motives would cause me to regard the leaker as a hero. If one of them explains the leak, then thank you, unknown American. May you inspire future leakers to follow their consciences when government is transgressing against basic norms of justice (and to exercise good judgment and due caution to refrain from releasing information that really ought to stay secret.) Anyone uncomfortable with the government secretly obtaining information about all of your phone calls, possibly including your physical location when you make them, should remember this case the next time Team Obama talks about the perniciousness of national security leaks.
Some leaks are pernicious -- but certainly not this one.
There would be fewer leaks if the Bush and Obama Administrations hadn't improperly hid so much of consequence from the American people, including policies that made federal employees uncomfortable or ashamed, usually because they're illegal, immoral, or at odds with American values...
If our partisan political parties have a shared flaw, it's the love of secrecy. And this love carries over into the civil service, where more and more people (now upwards of 1 million employees) have the authority to stamp something Top Secret and file it away without any transparency. We had Cheney hide his dealing with energy corporations under the aegis of "national security"... well before 9/11 happened.
And for all that the Obama administration is doing for civil rights in general, this administration has been hideous when dealing with the need for public accountability and government transparency, going after whistleblowers with the fervor of a Nixon-era Plumber. Never mind the fact that the crimes these whistleblowers revealed to the world - Bradley Manning revealed serious human rights abuses and war crimes - are more serious than someone revealing those crimes happened.
We want... WE NEED... our leaders in any republic democracy to be accountable for their actions, both good and ill. Without that accountability, reckless and criminal behavior flourishes.
So yes, thank you secret whistleblower.
P.S. start hiring very good lawyers, secret whistleblower...
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