Standing Up for Truth and Ben Franklin

June 14, 2015

Because of the excessive secrecy exercised by the U.S. government, whistleblowing has become a necessity for American democracy, a reality that struck home to former FBI official Coleen Rowley and other whistleblowers as they encountered Benjamin Franklin’s words in Germany.

By Coleen Rowley

Our recent “Stand Up for Truth” whirlwind speaking tour through London, Oslo (see here and here), Stockholm and Berlin last week as well as webinars, visual presentations and speaking events in U.S. cities was exhausting but quite successful.

Truth has always been a difficult and often frustrating business, especially when that old story line tends to repeat of the naked Emperor continuing to ignorantly march forward, even after the little boy has yelled the truth. But someone has to do it!


Throughout the week, we discussed the problem of pernicious governmental, corporate and other top-down secrecy involved in globalization that enables large-scale wrongdoing and keeps citizens in the dark about it, making effective solutions and real democracy, and even our collective security, impossible.

These issues were relevant especially in Germany, given the context of the details that have emerged about the long-term NSA-BND spy pact targeting European officials, a scandal now being investigated by a German parliamentary committee. Of course such scandals only occur when the truth is effectively kept hidden for decades by powerful institutions.

So how can citizens learn the truth a little sooner? We were able to meet with Scandinavian officials working with the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights for the Council of Europe which, significantly, has just completed a Draft Report on Improving the Protection of Whistleblowers.

In Norway, we were able to speak to the fact that a freedom of speech and debate institution had just awarded the 2015 Bjørnson Prize, named after a Norwegian Nobel literature laureate, to Edward Snowden. The academy lauded the American whistleblower “for his work protecting privacy and for shining a critical light on US surveillance of its citizens and others” asking the Norwegian cabinet to protect his visit to Norway in September to receive the prize.


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Daniel Ellsberg, Norman Solomon, Jesselyn Radack, Coleen Rowley and Thomas Drake on June 7, 2015, in front of Benjamin Franklin dedication of Kongresshalle in Berlin, Germany. (Photo credit: Johanna Hullar)


more............


https://consortiumnews.com/2015/06/14/standing-up-for-truth-and-ben-franklin/