The whistleblowers are the new generation of American patriots

The violation of civil liberties in the name of security has had a profound impact on those who came of age after 9/11

When Darrell Anderson, 22, joined the US military he knew there was going to be a war, and he wanted to fight it. "I thought I was going to free Iraqi people," he told me. "I thought I was going to do a good thing."

Until, that is, he realised precisely what he had to do. While on patrol in Baghdad, he thought: "What are we doing here? Are we looking for weapons of mass destruction? No. Are we helping the people? No, they hate us. What are we working towards, apart from just staying alive? If this was my neighbourhood and foreign soldiers were doing this then what would I be doing?" Within a few months, he says, "I was cocking my weapon at innocent civilians without any sympathy or humanity". While home on leave he realised he was not going to be able to lead a normal life if he went back. His mum drove him to Canada, where I met him in 2006 at a picnic for war resisters in Fort Erie.

Anderson's trajectory, from uncritical patriotism to conscious disaffection and finally to conscientious dissent, is a familiar one among a generation of Americans who came of political age after 9/11. Over time, efforts to balance the myth of American freedom on which they were raised, with the reality of American power that they have been called on to monitor or operate, causes a profound dislocation in their world view. Like a meat eater in an abattoir, they are forced to confront the brutality of the world they are implicated in and recoil at their role in it – occasionally in dramatic fashion.

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Comment by Nikki on June 19, 2013 at 11:07pm: John, I also worked 2 blocks from the twin towers. Glad I got out of NY when I did.

Comment by John Carman on June 19, 2013 at 11:05pm: You are so lucky to be here Nikki ! It may be a blessing in disguise.

Comment by Nikki on June 19, 2013 at 10:56pm: Flight 800 was personal for me since I had been on that flight a few years earlier.

Comment by John Carman on June 19, 2013 at 7:30pm: I have been a Whistle-blower since about 1983 and "public" since 1995 while in U.S. Customs. I am considered an "Expert" in the field.

Here's another disclosure I just made!! Flight 800 shot down by orders form Vice President Dick Cheney!!

Just because: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yzx0MEPFzaM

You're welcome!! Now sue Dick Cheney and the Government!!

I'll take 33%, same as an attorney would.

John Carman

john.a.carman@gmail.com

www.customscorruption.com

Comment by Joseph Ellul-Grech on June 19, 2013 at 12:54pm: I whistle blew on ex-EU Commissioner John Dalli when he was the Finance Minister of Malta in 1999. In revenge he framed me. I am still being penalized today. I now live in exile in the UK and will never be able to visit my family in Malta again because of him. Whistle blowers will always be penalized and will always have to live in exile. http://ec-eu-john-dalli.blogspot.co.uk/

Comment by ImaJWalker on June 19, 2013 at 8:06am: THEY were able to get away with this due to 'lack of communication' between the masses and the wealthy crooks.. today..thank the good god.. we have the internet and they WILL NOT be able to Hide their b.s. anymore. Whistleblowers are the best!! Support each and every one of them.

Comment by Joseph Ellul-Grech on June 19, 2013 at 1:17am: Whistleblowers are always penalized.

Comment by truth on June 18, 2013 at 9:53pm

Comment by David on June 18, 2013 at 9:43pm: The Zodiac Killer symbol means KEN (what are the meanings of his clues?)
now whos covering that up?

Comment by Gary Oldman on June 18, 2013 at 8:55pm: "In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." G.Orwell

Thank God for whistleblowers!