Why We Need Whistleblowers

Although they are not saying as much, it doesn't take a genius to see that it is the heavy hand of Washington DC who are pulling the levers behind the Wikileaks leader Julian Assange extradition case.
It would be naive to think that once he leaves the shores of Britain he will not end up alongside Bradley Manning in an American prison cell after a brief stopover in Sweden because Assange is viewed as a whistleblower by the Obama Administration and one thing that Obama is not, is a friend of those who shine a light on what the American Government do in the dark.
Four years ago, on the campaign trail, Barack Obama shared his views on whistleblowers saying: 'Often the best source of information about waste, fraud and abuse in government is a government employee committed to public integrity, willing to speak out. Such acts of courage and patriotism should be encouraged rather than stifled' but as President, the reality has been very different and Obama has brought more prosecutions against whistleblowers under the Espionage Act than all the previous Presidents combined.
The Obama Administration has established a record as the most aggressive prosecutor of government leakers in U.S. history and apart from punishing those individuals that have exposed or embarrassed the US Government, it also acts as an intimidating warning to others that if they do the same, there will be serious repercussions and so the avenues for knowing what your Government is doing dries up and the public are left knowing less and less about the people they voted into Office and that's a dangerous thing.
It isn’t hard to see why Obama and all Governments hates leakers, we would still be in the dark with regards to much of the disaster that was Iraq and continues to be Afghanistan if not for such platforms as Wikileaks, and that is how the Government would prefer it, they would much rather we listen unquestioningly to the Government issued reports and sources and take their words as the truth.
Only we have learnt the truth that Governments lie and spin and we should always question what they say especially as Obama is closing down as many avenues as possible that the public can find the truth about how his administration conducts itself at home and on the International stage, eager to preserve his own power and ability to operate in secret and why he sees whistleblowers as his enemy number one.
Exactly the reason why we should be deploring the current actions taken against the likes of Assange and Bradley Manning who expose secret government corruption, brutality and illegality to the world and why we should continue to question everything that our leaders tell us because where the truth will not paint them in a positive light, you won't find out about unless someone bravely blows the whistle on them.