“Hands Off” Edward Snowden and all Whistleblowers, “Hands Off” the Privacy of Americans

Edward Snowden has the nation and the world a great service in revealing the the government’s mega-surveillance of the U.S. public. “The Obama administration should honor, not punish, him or anyone else who has stood up for the Constitution and against corruption.”

“As if the Benghazi cover-up of the Embassy attack, the IRS targeting of right wing groups and the AP journalist witch-hunt were not enough, the Obama administration is now faced with explaining to China and the US public why China should stand down on surveillance and cyber attacks while the US steps up it surveillance and cyber attacks . Whistleblower Edward Snowden, a former CIA technician working for the military firm Booz Allen Hamilton under NSA contract, took responsibility for exposing widespread NSA wire-tapping and surveillance against the American people.

Last week, based on information provided by Snowden, the Guardian revealed that the NSA is:

* Carrying out a data-mining program, Boundless Informant that details and maps, by country, billions of pieces of U.S. and overseas computer and telephone network data.

“The chairs of both congressional intelligence committees said the whistleblower involved should face prosecution.”

Snowden’s revelations are the most significant act of whistleblower courage since the leaks of Daniel Ellsberg and Bradley Manning. The Obama administration, which has prosecuted the most whistleblowers in history, should honor, not punish, him or anyone else who has stood up for the Constitution and against corruption.

In 1969 Ellsberg, a former U.S. military analyst working for a defense contractor leaked the Pentagon Papers, a report showing that then-President Johnson and his administration had lied to the public and Congress about the Vietnam War. Beginning in April 2010 Manning, an active U.S. Army soldier, leaked classified materials on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and diplomatic cables on other issues.

The Obama administration uses campaigns against whistleblowers such as Bradley Manning, now on trial, and Edward Snowden to instill fear in the American public.  We call upon all people to expose corruption, to insist on government accountability and to organize. Progressive forces worldwide must pressure the Obama administration to stand down on prosecuting Edward Snowden and retaliating against all whistleblowers.

Director of Transparency and Accountability for the Green Shadow Cabinet.

King Downing is an attorney and founder of the Human Rights-Racial Justice Center which advocates and organizes around criminal and economic injustice including mass incarceration, police abuse and racial profiling. Downing is a contributor to the following books: Twelve Angry Men and Torture in the US. He is the Chair of the Commission on Corrections Reform for the Green Shadow Cabninet.