I fear for Julian Assange. I fear for Bradley Manning. I fear for us all.

[JDPriestly]

13. Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.

The New York Times, The Guardian, El Pais, Le Monde and Der Spiegel giddily printed redacted copies of some of the WikiLeaks files and then promptly threw Assange and Manning to the sharks. It was not only morally repugnant, but also stunningly shortsighted. Do these news organizations believe that if the state shuts down organizations such as WikiLeaks and imprisons Manning and Assange, traditional news outlets will be left alone? Can’t they connect the dots between the prosecutions of government whistle-blowers under the Espionage Act, warrantless wiretapping, monitoring of communications and the persecution of Manning and Assange? Don’t they worry that when the state finishes with Manning, Assange and WikiLeaks, these atrophied news outlets will be next? Haven’t they realized that this is a war by a global corporate elite not against an organization or an individual but against the freedom of the press and democracy?

http://www.truthdig.com/dig/page5/the_death_of_truth_20130505/

It's a very thoughtful article. Not just about Assange and Manning but about all of us who want to know more than what can be seen at a glance from a passing bus -- not just about state secrets but everything else.

Our government is completely unrealistic if it thinks that it can keep so many secrets from so many curious eyes.

Humans are naturally curious. We want to know why the sky is blue. We want to know what really happens behind all those closed doors. If you want people to listen to what you are saying, whisper. That's the secret of seasoned teachers. Just whisper.

And that is what our government does. It whispers its secrets to just enough people and just loud enough so that we all become very quiet and pay lots of attention. What fools!

And why are there so many shameful secrets in the first place? That's the real scandal here.