My Top 5: Modern Government Whistleblowers

 



Whistleblowers are people who expose dishonest or illegal activities in the government or private organizations. 

Thomas Jefferson (a morally conflicted man of paradox) once said,

"A nation as a society forms a moral person,

and every member of it is personally responsible for his society." 

 



 

With the recent Edward Snowden/ NSA surveillance whistleblower controversy many commentators have been asking the question...is Edward Snowden a hero or traitor?  I guess I would say neither.  Theoretically, he is just an American citizen doing what he believes is the morally responsible action to protect his society.  Historically, I believe we have had thousands of citizens (aka social activists, reformers, muckrakers, etc.) who took great risk to expose immoral, illegal, or dishonest activities.  Some of my favorite "historical whistleblowers"...Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, John Brown, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Wendell Phillips, Upton Sinclair, Ida Tarbell,  Helen Hunt Jackson, Ida B. Wells, Eugene Debs, Thurgood Marshall, Dr. King...to name a few.

 



 

Fog's Top 5 Modern Government Whistleblowers

 







5. Gary Webb (1996) - He reported that Nicaraguan drug traffickers were allowed to sell cocaine (1980's crack epidemic) in the United States because they were using profits to support CIA-backed Nicaraguan Contras.

4. Peter Buxton (1972) - He exposed the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment to the public...a 40 year "public health study" in Tuskegee, Alabama to discover the effects of untreated syphilis.

3. Mark Felt (1972) - aka "Deep Throat" he secretly disclosed Richard Nixon's involvement in the Watergate Scandal.

2. Julian Assange (2006) - He founded WikiLeaks which publishes secret/ classified information from anonymous sources and whistleblowers.

1. Daniel Ellsberg (1971) - He and his colleague Anthony Russo from RAND Corporation photocopied classified documents that would later become known as the Pentagon Papers. The documents revealed that the government felt that the war in Vietnam could not be won and would lead to thousands of casualties.  They showed that JFK, LBJ, and Richard Nixon had lied to the American people and Congress in regard to "our success" in Vietnam.