As a dispute is brewing in the
whistleblower community on whether to name the country targeted by a
massive US spying operation, former MI5 agent Annie Machon told RT the
global community deserves to know information whistleblowers risk their
lives for.
Despite warnings doing so “could lead to increased
violence” and potentially deaths, anti-secrecy group
WikiLeaks says it plans to publish the name of a country targeted
by a massive United States surveillance operation earlier
described in The Intercept report – which only named the Bahamas as one
of the targets.
RT: What would be the consequences if we did
know about the other country besides the Bahamas?
Annie Machon: Well, I think the whole situation
here is very unfortunate. I would like to say upfront that I'm a
huge supporter of the model of WikiLeaks, a high tech publishing
conduit for whistleblowers at risk of persecution and
prosecution. And I'm also a huge fan of what Glenn Greenwald has
been doing over the years as a campaigning journalist, most
notably for his support of WikiLeaks and also his subsequent work
with Edward Snowden.
But I'm looking at it from a whistleblower point of view. And I
can see some issues here I think, where the whistleblower takes a
risk, they take certain information which they feel is very much
in the public interest, which they access is not going to harm
anyone or put any lives at risk and they want it published. So as
soon as you get any sort of mainstream media or media outlet
deciding, taking it upon themselves to decide to what is being
published, then we have a sort of de facto censorship again.
Edward Snowden risked his life in getting this information out
there. He thought it was important enough to do that, and I think
it would only be fair for that information to come out.
RT: Right, we know it’s the Bahamas that is
one of the countries, which is then is this other country and why
by revealing its name would it cause such a disastrous impact
according to Glenn Greenwald?
AM: Well this is a very good question. Is he a
security expert? I don’t think so. He is a fabulous campaigning
journalist, but Edward Snowden took that document to prove a
certain point, that endemic surveillance of a vulnerable country.
And I think we the people, the global population certainly
deserve to hear that.
RT: So you think this should be revealed?
What country then are we talking about, do you think?
AM: I do not know. I do not know, but I think
what is being revealed from this latest disclosure is that they
tend to be countries who might be targeted by the US because of
their involvement as transit countries or whatever in the war on
drugs. They are part of the cartel target list or the drug trade
target list. And I think this highlights very clearly that the US
uses not just the war on terror to invade our civil liberties and
to intercede and invade other countries around the world, but for
five decades it has been waging the war on drugs and using that
for exactly the same purpose, to take away our civil liberties.
RT: This is disastrous for the whistleblower
community. You are a part of that community. Is this a massive
spat on the whole whistleblower initiative?
AM: I don’t think it will be harmful to the
actual whistleblowers. More will come out despite the attempts by
US in particular, the UK and other countries, to wage this war on
whistleblowers. There will be future people of conscience coming
forward and saying, 'this is wrong, this is a war crime, this
needs to be addressed.'
Unfortunately the spat has created a bit of a sideline away from
the actual need of the disclosures and future disclosures. And we
are seeing this action as blockage for getting information out
there, which we the people need to know. So I hope it can get
resolved. But whichever way, whistleblowers will continue to come
out as long as there is corruption and no other alternative for
them.
The
statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those
of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.
Source:www.rt.com
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