President Obama’s War On Whistleblowers

Jim Hightower explains how the Obama administration is exploiting a 1917 Espionage Act in an effort to silence whistleblowers, in his column, “Speaking Truth About Power:”

Unfortunately, it looks like the Obama administration is making it harder for federal workers to serve the public by blowing the whistle on wrongdoing. In progressive circles, the most common complaint about Barack Obama’s presidency is that it doesn’t go far enough, instead being content with half-step reforms. On one important issue, however, the Obamacans have been going way too far.

With an executive excess that would’ve given pause even to the Bush-Cheney regime, the White House and Justice Department have been trying to silence truth-tellers who dare to reveal government misdeeds to journalists. Every president hates leaks, but this one is hauling public-spirited leakers into federal court, vengefully accusing them of being spies!

His bludgeon is a 1917 Espionage Act that was intended to apply only to people who give aid to our enemies by revealing national security secrets. In its nearly 100 years on the books, the act had been used only three times — but Obama has already brought out this sledgehammer six times in only three years, wielding it to prosecute simple whistleblowers.