Patriots or Turncoats?

[northern]

Cigarettes and sugar. Two items we have found out are not good. it was through people releasing classified information. In WWII my parents said there was a saying "Loose lips sink ships"

 

[Tonka Boater]

Forget about the current messengers for a moment, the question is do 'you' want to know or not? If you want to know, it isn't the government that'll tell you. It means someone else has to step up, and at obvious great risk.

It'll be a sorry day when fear silences the last whistle blower.

It's not an issue of wanting to know or not....or even having the right to know.

Sure now that Assange and Snowden have confirmed what we already suspected, we should exercise reasonable precaution and do whatever we can to ensure our elected officials protect the sanctity of our Constitution.

However, relying on rogue people, groups and nations to identify misdeeds in our government is not an effective or sustainable way to ensure our liberties are protected. I agree that legit whistleblowers should be protected. If someone gains knowledge of illegal, unethical or harmful activities through the course of their normal duties they should not be punished. However, stealing information and weakening our national security is treason or espionage. It's illegal no matter how you slice it. The means do not justify the ends.

The answer is to not let this happen in the first place and discourage becoming a society of hacktivists bent on destroying our own country.