Blog Post #10

 Whistleblowers

I was most impressed by the whistleblower presentation. Whistleblowers are really interested to learn about because of how they would go against their own country and it is very baffling to think about what the country could have done to make someone do that.

I got to learn about the original whistleblowers in 1777. There were 10 navy officers who revealed that their commodore, Esek Hopkins, was committing war crimes. Hopkins was dismissed but he sued the blowers back and 2 of them were arrested in return. This lead to laws that help whistleblowers that will blow on their own companies. However, the government is not too friendly on government secret leakers.

The most well-known whistleblower was Edward Snowden. He was a technical assistant for the CIA who leaked how immoral the CIA surveillance measures were by releasing thousands of NSA documents. He had to do this from a hotel in Hong Kong. Now he lives in Russia because the U.S government would put him jail or execute him if he was ever caught. I wanted to talk about Snowden because of how even the mention of his name will get websites or blogs (like this one or Luke's) a content warning even if it is just the mention of a guys name.

Pictured here is what is going to get my post probably censored (A picture of Edward Snowden)

Why are they so interesting:

Whistleblowers let us see another side of the U.S government. Everyone knows the government does shady stuff but when someone is actually willing to expose that to the public what they are doing it is very new and exciting to see. The government very obviously does not want these people running free and it is exciting to hear about an "enemy of the U.S Government" and how they are hiding out in Hong Kong or Russia.