The Real Face of Betrayal With Respect to the American People

The Washington Post and the New York Times were presented with what amounts to a first offer of refusal by Bradley Manning which would have enabled those newspapers to access documents which, among other things, showed unarmed journalists being gunned-down by US forces from a military helicopter. In addition those documents contained information that played a role which helped to ignite the Arab Spring -- events that have since turned to winter. However, the two aforementioned newspapers apparently had no interest in holding Obama's administration accountable for its promise of transparency. Whether those newspapers should be considered as co-conspirators in treachery concerning the interests of the American people or just cowards is hard to know, but whatever the answer might be, they are hardly worthy of the title: 'journalist'. 

More than four decades ago, Daniel Ellsberg had released sensitive, classified information to The New York Times, The Washington Post, and 15 other news outlets which became the basis of the best-selling 'The Pentagon Papers'. Those newspapers seemed to have a much different opinion about such matters in 1971 than presently is the case, and, as a result, those papers appear to have joined forces with the side which they are supposed to critically investigate.

Like Ellsberg, Manning is a whistleblower who was seeking to help, not hurt, the American people. Manning believed that if the American people actually knew what was going on in their name, they might take steps to stop such activities.

Some people, of course, take issue with the foregoing characterization and claim that Manning is a traitor -- that he endangered American interests by releasing information that provided behind the scenes insight into what actually happens within the circles of the power elite rather than the sanitized version which is handed out by official government sources and their journalistic partners in an attempt to keep the American people, and the rest of the world, in the dark about such matters. The secrets that are being protected by the government and its journalistic allies are all about how to control: information, resources, economies, nations, finances, and people in order that they might all better serve a plutocracy ... the rule of the wealthy few.

The whole idea behind legislation such as: 'The Patriot Act' and the 'National Military Authorization Act', along with whatever 'Acts' and 'Executive Orders' that people like Bradley Manning are being charged as having violated is to establish a position of power which is capable of: labeling, marginalizing, prosecuting, jailing, torturing, censoring, eliminating, punishing, disappearing and/or executing anyone who is deemed to constitute a threat to the interests of the plutocrats. Those aforementioned pieces of Congressional/Executive/Judicial betrayal of the American people all all about destroying America, not protecting it ... and by refusing to live up to their true fiduciary responsibilities to the American people (not the sham ones which they spout in their sound bites), both the government and papers like The New York Times and the Washington Post have issued a death notice to any real semblance of democracy in America.

There can be no real sovereignty in America, or elsewhere, when secrecy is maintained in order to serve the sort of national interests which are dedicated to the oppression of people on behalf of the plutocrats in governments, corporations, and the world of journalism. The 'national interests' that people like Bradley Manning threaten are not yours or mine, but, rather, they are the interests of those who do not have our best interests at heart.

The following 7-plus minute excerpt is a commentary by Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks Network television show concerning the Bradley Manning issue.