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WHISTLE BLOWERS, DEEP STATES, AND SUNLIGHT
Monday, June 17th, 2013 | Posted by Garen Yegparian
Garen Yegparian
BY GAREN YEGPARIAN
Daniel Ellsberg (The Pentagon Papaers), Sibel Edmonds (Turkish money
in U.S. politics), Julian Assange/Bradley Manning (Wikileaks), and
now Ed Snowden (NSA-phone-gate [that's my invented term]).
These are among the best known of the leakers who reveal government
secrets when their consciences, civic awareness, and sense of duty
drive them to realize the government is doing WRONG. They are on the
front lines of American democracy and citizenship that have built
what liberties citizens of the U.S. now enjoy (often without realizing
how precious and fragile they are).
Without this kind of check on the actions of government, any government
of any country of any era will tend to grow more and more powerful
and intrusive. It is the nature of large entities to do so.
Corporations and religious institutions are no different. In fact,
the only way to check the latter two is through government, which is
the only entity that is subject to the control of citizens. Of course
citizens have to be alert, ever vigilant, to keep government in their
service, instead of becoming government servants. That's where the
heroes named above come in.
But we must also understand what drives the particular big entity
called "government" into the misbehaviors that citizens must check.
Government is charged with securing the lives and rights of its
citizens. It is also an entity, a being of sorts. Both of these
motivations impel it to perpetuate and secure itself. But periodically,
the people, employees, actually doing the work lose sight of the
necessary and appropriate bounds they must honor, and that's what
produces the scandalous behaviors that require citizens' oversight
and action.
Part of how that "need" to persist manifests itself appears in the
form of what has been described as the "deep state" that governments
create as a means of saving themselves in case of a very serious
threat. In Turkey, it is connected to the "Ergenekon" grouping that
has been undergoing prosecution by the current government because
these two factions represent different sectors and mentalities of
Turkish society. In the U.S., it's easy to argue that the NSA, with
its uber-secret operations is a part of the country's "deep state"
institutions.
I brought up Ergenekon because in the process of restraining the
activities of deep-states, it is possible to abuse the process of
remediation. In Turkey, the Islamist government has been using the
opportunity to weaken its secularist/Ataturkist/military opposition.
All of this leads us to the necessity of sunshine, open government,
transparent processes that citizens can watch over. It also makes
emphatic the need for alert and engaged citizens, not passive ones who
are too busy with reality television or the (artificially worsened)
struggle to earn a living.
So where are the leakers of our homeland? Ironically, on the
Turkish occupied, Western Armenian, side of the border, there must
have been some, otherwise, the Ergenekon prosecutions might never
have succeeded! Had we had just one courageous soul come forward,
the infamous Protocols signed by Yerevan and Ankara might never
have gotten far enough to become the dangerous legal document now
threatening the Republic of Armenia's future.
We must overcome our fear of (usually imaginary) immediate harm
or embarrassment at revealing hidden misbehaviors so that Armenian
statehood, whether it is one country or multiple, is strengthened.
http://asbarez.com/110691/whistle-blowers-deep-states-and-sunlight/
Monday, June 17th, 2013 | Posted by Garen Yegparian
Garen Yegparian
BY GAREN YEGPARIAN
Daniel Ellsberg (The Pentagon Papaers), Sibel Edmonds (Turkish money
in U.S. politics), Julian Assange/Bradley Manning (Wikileaks), and
now Ed Snowden (NSA-phone-gate [that's my invented term]).
These are among the best known of the leakers who reveal government
secrets when their consciences, civic awareness, and sense of duty
drive them to realize the government is doing WRONG. They are on the
front lines of American democracy and citizenship that have built
what liberties citizens of the U.S. now enjoy (often without realizing
how precious and fragile they are).
Without this kind of check on the actions of government, any government
of any country of any era will tend to grow more and more powerful
and intrusive. It is the nature of large entities to do so.
Corporations and religious institutions are no different. In fact,
the only way to check the latter two is through government, which is
the only entity that is subject to the control of citizens. Of course
citizens have to be alert, ever vigilant, to keep government in their
service, instead of becoming government servants. That's where the
heroes named above come in.
But we must also understand what drives the particular big entity
called "government" into the misbehaviors that citizens must check.
Government is charged with securing the lives and rights of its
citizens. It is also an entity, a being of sorts. Both of these
motivations impel it to perpetuate and secure itself. But periodically,
the people, employees, actually doing the work lose sight of the
necessary and appropriate bounds they must honor, and that's what
produces the scandalous behaviors that require citizens' oversight
and action.
Part of how that "need" to persist manifests itself appears in the
form of what has been described as the "deep state" that governments
create as a means of saving themselves in case of a very serious
threat. In Turkey, it is connected to the "Ergenekon" grouping that
has been undergoing prosecution by the current government because
these two factions represent different sectors and mentalities of
Turkish society. In the U.S., it's easy to argue that the NSA, with
its uber-secret operations is a part of the country's "deep state"
institutions.
I brought up Ergenekon because in the process of restraining the
activities of deep-states, it is possible to abuse the process of
remediation. In Turkey, the Islamist government has been using the
opportunity to weaken its secularist/Ataturkist/military opposition.
All of this leads us to the necessity of sunshine, open government,
transparent processes that citizens can watch over. It also makes
emphatic the need for alert and engaged citizens, not passive ones who
are too busy with reality television or the (artificially worsened)
struggle to earn a living.
So where are the leakers of our homeland? Ironically, on the
Turkish occupied, Western Armenian, side of the border, there must
have been some, otherwise, the Ergenekon prosecutions might never
have succeeded! Had we had just one courageous soul come forward,
the infamous Protocols signed by Yerevan and Ankara might never
have gotten far enough to become the dangerous legal document now
threatening the Republic of Armenia's future.
We must overcome our fear of (usually imaginary) immediate harm
or embarrassment at revealing hidden misbehaviors so that Armenian
statehood, whether it is one country or multiple, is strengthened.
http://asbarez.com/110691/whistle-blowers-deep-states-and-sunlight/