Snowden, Assange, Wikileaks and Ronan

This has been a very interesting year for me to say the least! I never would’ve imagined this time last year that I would be debating the likes of Keith Ellison, and Tom Perez on CNN for the highest leadership role of the Democratic Party. I certainly didn’t think my political career would revive itself after my humbling loss as a State Representative Candidate in the 2016 election cycle. Perhaps the most interesting thing that I have found the most intriguing, is the among of people that not only respect my points of view on the issues, but seek them out and want to use them as references for their own!

I am just a guy who was Active Duty for a few years when the Government Shut Down happened in 2013 and my entire world view changed in an instant! I was no less in my own echo chamber within the Armed Forces, as others have been in their own ideologies or cultural norms. So to be writing this opinion piece now, is no less of a daunting and shocking revelation, than finding out your country’s leadership is willing to sacrifice millions of their fellow citizens for a political stunt!

This brings us to the topic of this particular piece, which is: whistle-blowing. Where does Samuel Ronan stand on the issues of whistle-blowing, Edward Snowden, Julian Assange, and Wikileaks. First and foremost, I have already mentioned my military background, and I must stress that my military affiliation does limit me somewhat in answering these questions, as I am still able to be Courts Martialed with a Dishonorable Discharge, if I go to Wikileaks, or share any of their information. Therefore my opinion of the content within Wikileaks does not exist for I have never viewed it.

“What a cop out answer.” Perhaps, but I am not a fool and I like the rest of you have 2 eyes, 2 ears, and access to the internet. I have read the articles, I have been through the briefings, I am more or less aware of what these revelations are. That being said, I personally, was not surprised by them, nor particularly unaware. The Patriot Act that was put into place almost immediately after the terrorist attack on 9/11 was the first, and very public iteration of public mass surveillance that was embraced by the American People…albeit with the promise of its temporary necessity. Fast forward to the Snowden Revelations and Wikileaks and we still have government oversight of the population that has doubled down and become more insidious than we could have ever imagined.

To that end I applaud both men for their efforts in raising the awareness and outlining precisely how far down the rabbit hole the corruption and abuse of power the government, CIA, military, and other intelligence communities have gone! That being said…

It is not enough.

Recently I have been in several discussions about Snowden, whistle-blowers and Wikileaks, more so perhaps, because of my party affiliation and the notorious tendencies to crush any hint of revelations against the government, or powerful elite. Throughout these discussion I have consistently been lambasted for suggesting that persons of influence, power, and means should do more than simply provide raw information to the masses and hope that the citizenry will act upon that information of their own volition and topple the corrupting powers that be.

This puzzles me.

Why should Snowden, and Assange who have risked their lives, and given up their freedom to a life of hiding, not be expected to make that sacrifice have a greater meaning or purpose than simply providing information? would it not make their sacrifices that much more worth while if they helped facilitate actionable opportunities that We The People could reproduce, and proliferate? It is clearly not enough that these revelations are public, because they are still ongoing today. If a massive uprising of the proletariat were going to topple the CIA, and the corruption in Washington, simply by revealing it to the masses, then it most certainly would have occurred by now.

That isn’t being dismissive of the facts, or the efforts of both men. That is simply viewing the facts, and the chronological turn of events as they have occurred, or in this case should have occurred. This is however where the discussion typically breaks down among Assange and Snowden supporters: to suggest that they haven’t done enough is to dismiss their efforts…

We have heard arguments like that in the past about other people, other movements, and in general other topics of discussion. Such rhetoric is counter intuitive and disregards the very real shortfall of the revelations: nothing has changed. Fundamentally something must change if we are to live in a free and open society without massive civilian surveillance and corruption in government. If that something isn’t going to happen organically by a collective will of the people then a catalyst of some sort must be made, created, or presented so that these changes can take effect!

It is my humble opinion that Edward Snowden, and Julian Assange, who both have sacrificed so much, for so long, would be the subject matter experts on: intelligence, international law, espionage, human rights, and ethics violations that they could in fact, facilitate some sort of plan of action that the layman could support, reproduce and proliferate!

The example I used in one of my discussions was this:

“If you have the cure for cancer, and you disseminate it to the public, but that cure for cancer is written on a piece of paper, and scattered throughout the trove of documents, all containing other medical information, would the public have the cure for cancer in their reach? Technically yes. Could the general populace piece together that cure from the vast array of information you presented them? Would they be able to then manufacture and distribute that cure to the rest of the world? Or would they require some means, method, or resource to compile that cure, and present it to persons with the skills, knowledge, and ability to produce the cure?”

The thing is, the revelation itself doesnt change anything, as we are seeing, now, today, in real time. It is how we act upon that revelation that makes the difference. However as citizens we are not privy to the inner workings or mission guidance of the CIA. We certainly are not in charge of allocating funding to these projects, or determining their legality. There is no citizens oversight of the intelligence community. Even if there were, not every citizen has access to classified information. Fundamentally we have been given a coloring book without any crayons, or means to procure them.

My stance is that if we are to truly succeed in having a Citizens Oversight of our Intelligence Communities, Law Enforcement, and other entities shown to be in gross violation of ethics, standards, and Citizen’s Rights, then we need more than just data. We need the legal strength to take action, we need the resources to organize, the tools to communicate and collaborate. We need the funding to file the class action lawsuit, and sue the Federal Government to create an Oversight Committee, that is publicly chosen. These are the tools and resources necessary to effect the kind of change that would allow us to reverse the atrocities outlined in these leaks!

I, as a Congressman would be able to play a small role in making that a reality. That however is one small piece of the greater puzzle, and doesn’t itself empower the Citizens of America to fightback. We need more. I do not have the answers of “what” precisely that is, but Snowden and Assange most certainly do. They are the messengers. They are the ones that can turn the message into a plan, and the plan into action!

Am I wrong for holding them to that standard?