U.S. Drone Whistleblowers Have Their Bank Accounts Frozen
December 7th, 2015Via: Hang the Bankers:
The U.S. Government failed to deter them through threats of criminal prosecution, and clumsy attempts to intimidate their families.
Now four former Air Force drone operators-turned-whistleblowers have had their credit cards and bank accounts frozen, according to human rights attorney Jesselyn Radack.
“My drone operators went public this week and now their credit cards and bank accounts are frozen,” Radack lamented on her Twitter feed (the spelling of her post has been conventionalized). This was done despite the fact that none of them has been charged with a criminal offense – but this is a trivial formality in the increasingly Sovietesque American National Security State.
Michael Haas, Brandon Bryant, Cian Westmoreland and Stephen Lewis, who served as drone operators in the US Air Force, have gone public with detailed accounts of the widespread corruption and institutionalized indifference to civilian casualties that characterize the program. Some of those disclosures were made in the recent documentary Drone; additional details have been provided in an open letter from the whistleblowers to President Obama, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, and CIA Director John Brennan.
“We are former Air Force service members,” the letter begins. We joined the Air Force to protect American lives and to protect our Constitution. We came to the realization that the innocent civilians we were killing only fueled the feelings of hatred that ignited terrorism and groups like ISIS, while also serving as a fundamental recruiting tool similar to Guantanamo Bay. This administration and its predecessors have built a drone program that is one of the most devastating driving forces for terrorism and destabilization around the world.”
Research Credit: Pookie
Let’s hope their lawyers can metaphorically burn the fascists who pushed that decision through to a crisp.
Of course, I wouldn’t normally consider it necessary to state the bleeding obvious as I’ve done through my use of the word ‘metaphorically’ in the sentence above, but knowing the twisted worldview of those who flinch at any use of the English language that moves outside the limits they would place on people’s thoughts and expression in all arenas of communication, I thought I should make it plain to any individual possibly interpreting this post as incitement to a criminal act that I am not condoning or encouraging such nor am I promoting physical violence.
Dennis, if you’re living in the USSA, GTFO.
Though I don’t live in the US and don’t want to, I’m a fan of the US after having lived there for a decade…Its people, its natural beauty, its founding principles. Consequently, I’m no fan of forces destructive to those things.
I thought more than twice about posting my first comment, but if I hadn’t posted it, it would have been through fear, and then…What is it they always say? Ah, yes…’The terrorists would have won’
If you’ve anything more to add, Pookie, I’m all ears.