[E-rundbrief] Info 1250 - J. Galtung: Assange-Manning-Snowden Theses

[Matthias Reichl]

E-Rundbrief - Info 1250 - Johan Galtung/ TRANSCEND Media Service: Five 
Theses about Assange-Manning-Snowden.

Bad Ischl, 22.8.2013

Begegnungszentrum für aktive Gewaltlosigkeit

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Five Theses about Assange-Manning-Snowden

EDITORIAL, 5 August 2013

by Johan Galtung, 5 Aug 2013 - TRANSCEND Media Service

[1] The leaks are not about “whistle-blowing, but a nonviolent, civil 
disobedient, fight against huge social evils.  Whistle-blowing, 
warning, presupposes that somebody can be warned, in fact wants to be 
warned, and is in a position to do something.  Obviously those who can 
do something about US foreign policy, who have the power – 
legislative, the Congress, particularly the Senate; executive, State 
Department-Pentagon-White House; judiciary the Supreme Court; 
economically the giant banks; culturally the mainstream media – know 
perfectly well what is going on: these are all efforts to hang on to 
imperial economic, military, political and cultural power. But they do 
not want change.  And those who want a change, a major part of the US 
population, allied populations and most of the rest of the world have 
been warned, but are to a large extent powerless.  So they believe; 
but see thesis [5].

The whistle-blowing discourse is much too optimistic.  Ossietzky was 
not a whistle-blower about Nazism, nor was Solzhenitsyn about 
Stalinism (nor Khrushchev for that matter), nor Solzhenitsyn about US 
foreign policy (his Harvard speech).  They were fighting something 
they knew was basically wrong, hoping to alert others to join them in 
the struggle.  Thus, to offer to do time in prison for Manning would 
be to relieve his pain, but the deep fight is more important. Civil 
disobedience carries risks, all three knew that; one was caught and 
exposed to a farcical military court process.

[2] Basic is not the media-political focus on Assange-Manning-Snowden, 
but on what they revealed. The focus on the revealers is a cheap way 
of avoiding the focus on a painful reality. Take Manning as an 
example: TRANSCEND Media Service-TMS published an article by Juan Cole 
from 31 Jul 2013, “Top Ten Ways Bradley Manning Changed the World”:

     Manning revealed the video of a helicopter attack in Iraq on 
mostly unarmed non-combatants, including two Reuters journalists. 
Result: the Iraqi parliament said No to the Bush administration wish 
to keep a base in the country (the US military withdrew 31 December 2011);
     Manning revealed the full extent of the corruption of the 
Tunisian dictator Ben Ali, adding fuel to the youth revolt;
     Manning revealed that Yemen dictator Saleh acquiesced to the US 
drone attacks in Yemen, a factor in his removal from power;
     Manning revealed that then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton 
ordered UN diplomats to spy on their UN counterparts, wanting detailed 
intelligence on the UN leadership, with passwords, encryption keys;
     Manning revealed that John Kerry pressed Israel to be open to the 
return of the Golan Heights to Syria as part of peace negotiations;
     Manning revealed Afghan government corruption was “overwhelming”;
     Manning revealed the authoritarian, corrupt Mubarak-Egypt regime;
     Manning revealed that Robert Gates was against striking Iran’s 
nuclear facilities, arguing they would be counterproductive;
     Manning revealed the Israeli policy “to keep the Gazan economy 
functioning at the lowest level possible consistent with avoiding a 
humanitarian crisis”;
     Manning revealed that Syria’s Assad and wife bought jewelry and 
had a gilded style of life in Europe while his artillery killed in Homs.

Not all is negative for USA-Israel; there is light at the end of the 
tunnel.

Take Snowden as another example: his revelations, the USA spying as 
much on their allies as on Afghanistan, threatens US plans for the two 
big Trans-Atlantic and Trans-Pacific trade blocs to exclude BRICS 
(Peter Myers, peter at mailstar.net, July 23 2013).  Should that happen, 
then this is world history indeed – with the USA now bidding for time.

[3] Diplomacy in general was revealed, not only USA.

When Assange’s first WikiLeaks were published this column wrote:

“The emperor unclothed.  But not only the US emperor, also the 
Diplomacy emperor.  What kind of ridiculous discourse is this, so 
focused on the–negative, on actors, usually elite persons, in elite 
countries?  Gossip, puerile characterizations, the kind of “analysis” 
of power typical of immaturity. – Where is the analysis of culture and 
structure, light years more important than actors who come and go?– 
Where are positive ideas? Where are ideas about how to convert the 
challenges from climate change into cooperation for mutual and equal 
benefit?  Like water distillation projects at Israel’s borders with 
Lebanon and Palestine, fueled by parabolic mirrors?  Like positive 
US-Iran cooperation on alternative energy?

“These diplomats belong to a state system era we have to put behind 
us. Retrain or retire them, and train thousands of civil servants for 
world domestic policy.  Drop the ridiculous secrecy and 
confidentiality of how they are playing cards with us all, with humans 
and nature.  They have no right to hide their incompetence behind 
veils of secrecy.  Democracy means transparency, not feudal games.

“WikiLeaks: Thanks.  May you become WeeklyLeaks.  We need you.

“Democracy dies behind closed doors.  WikiLeaks opens those doors; an 
enormous service to democracy.”

What Manning and Snowden revealed are the death throes of the US 
empire; what Assange et al. revealed are the death throes of the state 
system as we know it. Both processes will take time; the former less 
than the latter. But make no mistake: the three made history. Three 
names that will be remembered after some US presidents recede into an 
oblivion so well deserved. Who knows the top English in India, like 
viceroys and their crimes – roys of vices? MacMahon, Mountbatten? – 
Gandhi looms higher. Who knows the names of Ossietzky’s and Dreyfus’ 
tormentors?  Or the English who tried to keep the “Atlantic Seaboard” 
colonies? Washington, Jefferson, Franklin overshadow them all.

They may even contribute to the reduction of standing armies and, if 
the USA changes, to understanding among nations.  A shared Nobel Peace 
Prize to all three? (not very likely from a US client country).

[4] US allies comply out of fear, not out of agreement. Quite 
concretely: they comply to avoid that one day the US Air Force will 
land on the many bases at their disposal “as the government is unable 
to protect its own population”.  The Americans are coming; not the 
Russians, not the Muslims.  And more likely the further the USA slides 
down the well-greased totalitarianism incline: next step, probably 
FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) camps for suspects – for 
categories, meta-data! – like Japanese during WWII.

[5] Everybody, and the media, can speed up the processes.  Rotten 
apples should fall from the tree; a little shake will help.  The key 
star media, with Anglo-America’s The Guardian and The Washington Post 
playing major roles, deserve our praise. Then, let millions surround 
foreign ministries and embassies, demanding an end to spying, changing 
their servers away from the Big Traitors in the USA, suspending 
further cooperation, degrading diplomatic relations. Till credible 
dis-spying – the equivalent of dis-armament – takes place.

__________________________

Johan Galtung, a professor of peace studies, dr hc mult, is rector of 
the TRANSCEND Peace University-TPU. He is author of over 150 books on 
peace and related issues, including ‘50 Years-100 Peace and Conflict 
Perspectives,’ published by the TRANSCEND University Press-TUP.

Editorials and articles originated on TMS may be freely reprinted, 
disseminated, translated and used as background material, provided an 
acknowledgment and link to the source, TRANSCEND Media Service-TMS, is 
included. Thank you.

http://www.galtung-institut.de/de/welcome/johan-galtung/


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