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NSA Whistleblower Warns National Press Club: U.S. Government Engaged in a ‘Direct Assault’ on Free Speech

Mar. 18, 2013 1:43pm Erica Ritz

NSA Whistleblower Thomas Drake Warns National Press Club About First Amendment and State Secrecy

(Photo: National Press Club

A former executive of the National Security Agency (NSA) is continuing his crusade against creeping encroachments on American liberty, speaking out at the National Press Club on Friday.

Thomas Drake had been with the NSA for 32 years and was the senior technical director when he decided he could no longer support the agency’s actions. For the past several years, he has been raising awareness as a whistle-blower about domestic spying, waste, and fraud, and was even prosecuted under the Espionage Act for allegedly leaking classified information (the charges have been dropped).

Featured prominently on TheBlaze’s premiere of “For the Record,” Drake asked the audience at the National Press Club to consider a cause dear to their own hearts: press freedom and the First Amendment.

The National Press Club wrote of the event (all subsequent emphasis added)

In a passionate plea for the sanctity of the First Amendment, Drake warned that journalists are being increasingly frozen out of government sources.

“How else will the press report the real news when their sources dry up and the government becomes a primary purveyor of its own news?” he asked in one of many disturbing scenarios posed to the audience. He quoted George Orwell and John F. Kennedy to the same effect: It is a slippery slope from government secrecy to tyranny.

Club President Angela Greiling Keane has made press freedom a priority for her presidency this year. Had Drake been convicted, “it would have had a chilling effect on whistleblowers and journalists, who often receive and keep defense documents,” she said in introducing Drake.

Speaking more generally, Drake spoke of national security as a “new state religion”:

“I like to think that we have reached a critical event horizon [on] whether national security as a new state religion will further suck the dwindling light of the First Amendment into the black hole of classification and secrecy hidden from public view. It seems that secrecy is actually strengthening the national security state in order to hide from accountability and oversight at the expense of informed public interest, where it matters the most.”

“What is the price of keeping the public in the dark, and having the government increasingly operating in the dark through secret law, or interpretations in secret of existing law?” he asked ominously.

“…In our post-9/11 world, the government is increasingly in the ‘First Un-amendment’ business, engaged in a direct assault on free speech and the very foundation of our democracy.”

The National Press Club posted video of Drake’s entire speech:

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Comments (58)

G-WHIZ
Posted on March 19, 2013 at 10:18am
The guy has a good point…BUT…he was raised in PUBICSCHOOLS and doesn’t know WE DO NOT HAVE A DEMOCRACY!!

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edie1945
Posted on March 19, 2013 at 8:11am
Are your EYES WIDE OPEN.

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revelation2012
Posted on March 19, 2013 at 3:26am
For Immediate Release
November 21, 2012
Presidential Memorandum — National Insider Threat Policy and Minimum Standards for Executive Branch Insider Threat Programs

MEMORANDUM FOR THE HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES

SUBJECT: National Insider Threat Policy and Minimum Standards for Executive Branch Insider Threat Programs

This Presidential Memorandum transmits the National Insider Threat Policy and Minimum Standards for Executive Branch Insider Threat Programs (Minimum Standards) to provide direction and guidance to promote the development of effective insider threat programs within departments and agencies to deter, detect, and mitigate actions by employees who may represent a threat to national security. These threats encompass potential espionage, violent acts against the Government or the Nation, and unauthorized disclosure of classified information, including the vast amounts of classified data available on interconnected United States Government computer networks and systems.

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- revelation2012
  Posted on March 19, 2013 at 3:26am
  The Minimum Standards provide departments and agencies with the minimum elements necessary to establish effective insider threat programs. These elements include the capability to gather, integrate, and centrally analyze and respond to key threat-related information; monitor employee use of classified networks; provide the workforce with insider threat awareness training; and protect the civil liberties and privacy of all personnel.
  
  The resulting insider threat capabilities will strengthen the protection of classified information across the executive branch and reinforce our defenses against both adversaries and insiders who misuse their access and endanger our national security.
  
  BARACK OBAMA
  
  Report this comment
- revelation2012
  Posted on March 19, 2013 at 3:44am
  TITLE II–CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY RETIREMENT AND DISABILITY SYSTEM
  
  SEC. 201. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.
  
  There is authorized to be appropriated for the Central Intelligence Agency Retirement and Disability Fund for fiscal year 2013 the sum of $514,000,000.
  
  Report this comment
MAX0O1
Posted on March 18, 2013 at 10:29pm
GOD BLESS YOU. And thank you for your bravery and also being on GLENN’S FIRST
FOR THE RECORD

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MarvinMr
Posted on March 18, 2013 at 8:19pm
No way. Really?! Once they have your guns, they can make you do or say whatever they want. Sit down and shaddap!

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BenFrank1791
Posted on March 18, 2013 at 4:59pm
Looks like the government is trying to horn in a the presses day jobs.

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762x51
Posted on March 18, 2013 at 4:21pm
“U.S. Government Engaged in a ‘Direct Assault’ on Free Speech”

This would have been news – 20 years ago.

Welfare voters will not care as long as the EBT card is full.

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- revelation2012
  Posted on March 18, 2013 at 4:36pm
  lets see how many EBT card carrying people there will be when they have
  
  to SUBMIT to being CHIPPED to obtain,,,,,,,,, o b a m a c a r e ENACTS March 23, 2013
  
  [322]
  
  Report this comment
- revelation2012
  Posted on March 18, 2013 at 4:44pm
  A Microchip implementation will be mandatory for all american citizens living in the U.S. by March, 23rd 2013 it is stated in the Obama Health Care Bill!
  
  H.R. 3200 section 2521, Pg. 1001, paragraph 1. in the Obama Health care bill.
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQrp6TgeO0Q
  
  Report this comment
JMorcan
Posted on March 18, 2013 at 4:17pm
“was even prosecuted under the Espionage Act for allegedly leaking classified information ”

That’s how they reward whistle blowers in China, too. Even revealing financial corruption at a state-owned company brings charges of disclosing state secrets. That’s where we’re headed as well if Americans continue to allow the government to run over them.

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- 762x51
  Posted on March 18, 2013 at 4:22pm
  The only way to stop this rogue government now is by force of arms.
  
  Report this comment

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