Sibel Edmonds

The more famous stories we do know. Daniel Ellsberg was harassed and attacked, caricatured by the state as a criminal, not a hero. The many witnesses against the U.S. military regarding Agent Orange, and years later, the vaccinations and experimental drugs that are part and parcel of what would become known as Gulf War Syndrome, which today has killed more U.S. citizens than the Vietnam War, all of these men and women were treated as enemies of the state. Those who would tell the truth about the propaganda, and original intent, on the way to the wars in and continuing occupations of both Afghanistan and Iraq, are all made to be enemies of the state. Think about Bunny Greenhouse observing in pre-Iraq invasion contracting, and Sibel Edmonds in the months before 9-11. Fired, stifled, harassed, treated badly by our own government for simply telling the truth. And those who would bear witness to mistreatment and unlawful acts of war and interrogation by the United States here and around the world, are, you guessed it, enemies of the American state. /.../

What I have learned from my own experience in telling the truth from within the military industrial complex when it is politically unpopular, is that our whistleblowers are indeed uncommon men and women. For every truth-teller who feels they must speak honestly and openly to preserve their dignity, their pride, and their liberty, there are one thousand, maybe ten thousand, even one hundred thousand men and women who want nothing more than to be able to pay their mortgage, get along with their employer, and keep their head down, and serve their time in the well-managed penitentiary.