Obama has prosecuted most of US whistleblowers

Rob Kall, executive editor of OpEdNews.com, made the remarks on Wednesday in commenting on reports that the US government has concluded that there is a new leaker providing national security documents to journalists.
 
“The art of getting through your life unscathed when you become a whistleblower” is really difficult, Kall said, adding, “But it is important, and it’s something that is essential. So whoever that person is [I say] God bless you, thank you, and we need a lot of more people just like you.”
 
According to US broadcaster CNN, the government officials reached the conclusion after a news website called The Intercept, which has access to documents from surveillance whistleblower Edward Snowden, published new revelations on Tuesday about the scope of the US terrorism watchlist.
 
The Intercept article focuses on the growth in US government databases of known or suspected terrorist names during the Obama administration.
 
The article cites documents prepared by the National Counterterrorism Center dated August 2013, which is after Snowden left the United States to avoid criminal charges.
 
Rob Kall said, “I’d like to call that person a whistleblower. And to me, whistleblowers are among the most important people in a democracy. These are the people who stand and take risks and show incredible courage when they don’t have to. And they are people who help to tell the truth.”
 
“What we have is a situation where the president, Obama, has prosecuted more whistleblowers than all past presidents combined. And we have situation where the president and his henchman, Eric Holder, the worst Attorney General in the history of the United States, basically work hand in hand,” he added.
 
“The most recent evidence of that is where the heads of the intelligence system for the US, [John] Brennan and [James] Clapper, lied to Congress, brazenly lied and said they were not doing things they were doing and then got caught; and then Obama said he is fine with that,” Kall stated.
 
“So what we have is a partnership. We have a partnership between the executive branch and the judicial branch – the JoD [Department of Justice] working together. What should happen is Clapper and Brennan should be investigated, and they should be prosecuted for lying to Congress and for violating the law, but it didn’t happen, and it doesn’t look like it is going to happen,” he noted.
 
“So what we need is whistleblowers because the truth is being covered, it’s being obscured, and, of course, you got the mainstream media ignoring it. And what we need is to have the people who have the courage, and I believe it takes more courage to be a whistleblower than it does to join the army or the navy or the military,” the journalist said.
 
Snowden began leaking classified intelligence documents in June 2013, revealing the extent of the NSA's spying activities.
 
He revealed that the spy agency has been collecting the phone records of millions of Americans and foreign nationals as well as political leaders around the world.
 
Snowden fled his country to avoid espionage charges. In August 2013, Russia granted him asylum for one year.
 
Many regard Snowden as a whistleblower and a national hero for blowing the lid off the US government’s global surveillance operations.
 
Some analysts say that the existence of a potential second source means that Snowden may have inspired some of his former colleagues to reveal crucial information about the agency’s inimicable activities.