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Don't expose the lie...you may find yourself in jail [1]
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Date: 2022-07-24
I just watched a story on 60 Minutes about Reality Winner (her actual name) who was jailed for exposing Russia and its broad scheme to hinder the 2016 General Election. She received a sentence of 4+ years and although now out of prison, cannot still talk about the issues she disclosed. (See Russian Interference in 2016 Election).
Ms. Winner was a highly trained Air Force Intelligence Specialist later assigned to a drone unit. Winner was awarded “... the Air Force Commendation Medal for "aiding in 650 enemy captures, 600 enemies killed in action and identifying 900 high-value targets. Read Reality Winner's Bio.
I am a US Navy Vietnam Blue Water Combat Veteran (1966) and I would serve again if I could.
When I left the Navy in 1967 and after a short stint repairing IBM 360 computer systems, I went back to university and received a BA in Accounting. I briefly interned with Lybrand, Ross Bros and Montgomery (does anyone remember the Big 8?) Because my graduation date was not June and outside the typical hiring cycle, I was placed by Lybrand temporarily with a Bay Area company known as U.S. Natural Resources as an accountant (this was in 1971-1972).
U.S. Natural Resources, at the time, invested in a variety of industry focuses and one of those focused areas was oil and gas. It had substantial holdings in Wyoming (natural gas), and coal leases in the Appalachian areas.
I had a need to examine one of the oil and gas leases and started to rummage through the map drawers and came across dozens and dozens of Mekong Delta oil and gas leases, issued by the Republic of [south] Vietnam. WHAT THE FUCK!!!!!
I thought we were in South Vietnam to prevent the North Vietnamese and Chinese folk from running over the south and then expanding their influence throughout Southeast Asia. Well, I may have been wrong, maybe: it was, as always, as always, about oil. When one of my managers found out that I had inadvertently looked at the Mekong Delta leases, I was told to be quiet about my discovery.
This was a time when the Pentagon Papers were being published and Daniel Elsberg getting arrested. I didn’t want to get arrested so I kept quiet. Enough time has now passed and I am now too fucking old to give a damn if I am disclosing something classified.
While I would never have sought similar publicity of the details of Ellsberg exposés, I am grateful for what folk like Daniel Ellsberg, Edward Snowden, and now Reality Winner have done.
If we are to remain a democracy, then we need the clearest visibility of our Government’s involvement in everything it does, within strict reasonableness. While I do not believe the data Reality Winner disclosed created a disclosure of what could not have been discovered independently and outside the National Security Agency, I would never disclose if we have a mole in China’s or Russia’s or Iran’s top-level governments and I don’t believe she did either.
Reality Winner, who is now home from prison but on strict probationary terms, has requested a pardon from President Biden. Joe - please give her one, she deserves it.
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