US officials charged Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange, with violating the Espionage Act.
The Espionage Act.
The Espionage Act is...
one of the most controversial laws in American history.
The title suggests it's used to prosecute espionage
but in practice it's also used to prosecute even the most patriotic Americans...
...for exposing the truth...
...about war...
...and the lies of the government...
After the US entered WW1 in 1917, the government
passed The Espionage Act, making it a crime to interfere with the war effort or military
recruitment - essentially making it illegal to speak out against war.
In 1918 at an Ohio workers rally, famous union leader Eugene Debs delivered a fiery speech
denouncing World War 1. The working class who fight all the battles,
the working class who make the supreme sacrifices, the working class who freely shed their blood
and furnish their corpses have never yet had a voice in either declaring war or making
peace. If war is right, let it be declared by the people.
For speaking those words, Eugene Debs was arrested, charged with violating the Espionage
Act, and sentenced to 10 years in prison. At his trial Debs stated:
"If the Espionage Law stands then the Constitution of the Unites States is dead".
Debs had such large support of everyday Americans that he was nominated for President of the
Unites States and received close to a million votes while in prison.
The Espionage Act's harsher restrictions were later amended but it continued to be used
to prosecute heroic truth tellers. 2. Daniel Ellsberg
A former military analyst and strategic analyst at the government think tank Rand Corp., Ellsberg
had access to a top secret study of the Vietnam War known as the Pentagon Papers.
I looked at the origins of the war in the Pentagon Papers and realized it had never
been legitimate. There had never been a legitimate basis for us killing Vietnamese and I began
to see all that killing as murder. And murder it seemed to me was something that had to
be stopped. Ellsberg leaked the papers to the press revealing
truth about the Vietnam War. Covert ops, guaranteed debt, rigged elections,
it's all in there. The Pentagon Papers revealed the government
had been conducting covert operations in Vietnam for several presidencies unbeknownst the American
people; and that the primary reason for continuing the war was not to contain communism, and
not to help Vietnam, but to avoid embarrassment. They knew we couldn't win and still sent boys
to die…If the public ever saw these papers they would turn against the war…
It was worth going to prison if there was even a small chance of shortening the war.
The main ball's Ellsberg. We got to get this son of a bitch.
Ellsberg became the first person to ever be prosecuted for giving information to the American
people. The American public needed to know this information
about how they'd been lied to and how they'd been manipulated into that war.
Under the Espionage Act he faced over 100 years in prison and was not allowed to argue
why he leaked the papers to the jury. With a stroke of luck his case was dismissed
due to government misconduct when it was discovered that among other things CIA assets had been
ordered to "totally incapacitate" Ellsberg on the steps of the Capitol.
I've never appreciated what the meaning of what the separation of powers is so much as
this last week. 3. Edward Snowden
Even if you're not doing anything wrong you're being watched and recorded
While working for the NSA, Snowden was alarmed to discover the government was operating an
warrantless wiretapping program and lying about it.
Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?
No, sir. Seeing that really meant for me there was
no going back. It was the creeping realization that no one else was going to do this.
In 2013 Snowden leaked the secret programs's details to the press.
His revelations proved the director of National Intelligence lied under oath to congress,
sparked a dozen bills to reign in unconstitutional surveillance, and led to a U.S. court ruling
that the government's secret collection of American's private data was in fact illegal.
But a jury wouldn't be allowed to hear any of that because Snowden was charged with over
100 years under - you guessed it: the Espionage Act.
The Espionage Act does not permit a public interest whistleblower defense. Those charged
under it are silenced by law. They are prohibited from exercising their right from telling the
jury why they acted, in their belief, to protect the constitution or the public interest.
This World War 1 era law does not distinguish between those who freely give critical information
to journalists in the public interest or spies who sell it to a foreign power for their own.
If I am a traitor, who did I betray? I gave all of my information to the American public,
to American journalists, who were reporting on American issues.
Snowden is currently living in asylum overseas but hopes to someday be able to return home
to the U.S. I love my country. I love my family. But under
the Espionage Act it is not possible to receive a fair trial.
4. Chelsea Manning You can't trust government to be benevolent
all the time. The assumption is that institutions are functioning and they will only do what
they're supposed to do but this just isn't the case.
In 2010, Manning, a military analyst in Iraq, leaked the most classified documents to the
press since Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers.
The material exposed many unflattering truths about the American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Among other things, the disclosures revealed 15,000 previously unreported civilian deaths;
that the US was complicit in torture, violating the Geneva Convention; and a video of an Apache
helicopter crew laughing while gunning down unarmed journalists.
Oh ya look at those dead bastards. Haha! It was just another day…There are thousands
and thousands of videos like that. For informing the public and uncovering war
crimes (for which nobody has ever punished) Manning was charged under the Espionage Act
and sentenced to 35 years in prison. President Obama commuted her sentence after serving
seven years, which is the most time served by any whistleblower in US history.
She is currently back in prison for refusing to testify against the journalist to whom
she leaked the materials, Julian Assange. 5. Julian Assange
Assange is an award winning journalist and the founder of Wikileaks, a non-profit organization
that publishes news leaks. For over a decade, Assange and Wikileaks have informed the public
by uncovering corporate and governments corruption all around the world. But Assange is currently
being charged with up to 170 years in prison under the Espionage Act, making him the first
journalist under the Act. The Trump administration's indictment against
Assange argues he "repeatedly sought, obtained, and disseminated information" deemed "classified"
by U.S. government. In other words, he's facing a life sentence for practicing journalism.
If Assange can be charged with espionage for seeking and sharing classified information
that informed the public and didn't harm anyone, then there's nothing to stop the criminalization
of every other media outlet that does the same work.
The freedom of speech and the freedom of the press are at stake so people need to put aside
their personal feeling about Wikileaks and Assange.
People think that what you're trying to do is sabotage the workings of government.
No we are not that type of activists. We are free press activists.
It's not about saving the whales. It's about giving people the information they need to
support whaling or not support whaling. Why? That is the raw ingredient that is needed
for a just and civil society and without that you're just sailing in the dark.
In order to prevent American from slipping back into the dark past where speaking the
truth is illegal, the government must stop prosecuting heroic truth-tellers with espionage.
And of course: Publishers must be free to publish.
I'm Matt Orfalea. Thanks for watching.
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If I and other whistleblowers are sentenced to long years in prison without so much as
a chance to explain our motivations to a jury it will have a deeply chilling effect on future
whistleblowers, working as I did to expose government abuse and overreach.
The new interpretation of the Espionage Act that the Pentagon is trying to hammer in would
mean the end of national security journalism. The public needs to know truths about government
crimes or lies to act as a democracy. It's about all of us and I hope that together,
we'll stay free. Thank you very much.