To the Editor:

Principled, irrepressible and heroic individuals such as Edward Snowden and Bradley Manning – who must be defended – exemplify and demonstrate that the primary enemy of governments are their own people.

Members of Congress call these men traitors, as they vote again to keep in place the indefinite detention of Americans without due process, charges or trial for those accused of “terrorism.” And provide legal cover and justification for egregiously unconstitutional and criminal acts, as the commander in chief arrogates to himself and future presidents the “right” to extra-judicially and arbitrarily kill and kidnap, including Americans.

The U.S. Constitution has become an obstacle and threat to America’s imperial ambitions, and those who swear an oath to uphold it. They’ve made it a crime to expose the lies and crimes of the state, and have established secret courts with secret interpretations of secret laws to secretly silence dissidents, recalcitrants and whistle-blowers.

We’re told the reincarnation of “Total Information Awareness” is “a modest encroachment on privacy,” and that it has “saved lives.” They claim to have thwarted 50 terrorist attacks, of which the details of course are secret. And as they hack, corporatize and consolidate information, they clandestinely mobilize, train and equip 7th century jihadists, death squads and terrorists, whose communications they claim to be intercepting to keep us safe.

With government-invented and manufactured threats, the instruments of U.S. domination and social control are being repatriated from America’s never-ending, hegemonic wars. And the incipient structures for a future police state are being put into place.

John St. Lawrence

Johnston