We Need Whistleblowers

The Espionage Act is antiquated and broken, and it has been used to prosecute whistleblowers so they are unable to mount a legal defense. It's hard to present any evidence when everything in the case is classified.

We've had Chelsea Manning and Reality Winner who served jail time. Chelsea revealed our war crimes in Iraq to WikiLeaks, and so the CIA tried to assassinate Julian Assange. Reality leaked a NSA document that was evidence that Russia hacked our election systems. Edward Snowden tried to warn us about the mass surveillance problem, but only a small percentage of his leaked documents ever made it to the public. They tried to abduct Ed, so he was whisked off to Russia in quite an amazing operation. All of these persecutions and prosecutions of these heroes has served as a deterrent for future whistleblowers.

The good news is that hackers haven't stopped hacking, and leakers haven't stopped leaking. They're just being much more careful with their leaks. Instead of using WikiLeaks, there are sites like DDOSecrets which has had their .com URL censored on all of the social media platforms because of all of their information on police officers. Hacking collectives like Enlace Hacktivista have their own websites, and the dark web is chock full of stolen secrets (most are fake on the dark web, but some are real if you know where to look).

Chelsea is working on her memoirs, and I can't wait for them to be released. Here's an interview she just did, and it's really good to see her again and know she is readapting to a normal life: https://english.elpais.com/usa/2025-10-31/chelsea-manning-former-intelligence-analyst-if-someone-were-to-publish-a-massive-leak-today-people-would-say-oh-this-isnt-true.html