Corporate-Funded Lap-Dog Watchdogs, AntiWar.Com, Whistleblowers & Bradley Manning
Last year, in our series ‘Mega Corporate Foundations’ Lap-Dogs’ we took on pseudo-whistleblower watchdog organization Project on Government Oversight (POGO) and their consistent betrayal of legit government whistleblowers, their corporate sugar-daddies such as Soros-Rockefellers-Carnegie, and their incestuous relationship with the Executive Branch, especially the White House. You can read our coverage here, here, and here. We also produced a video report on POGO begging the obvious question: Who’s Watching the Watchdogs:
We also exposed POGO’s Transparency Award to President Obama, their classified ceremony presenting this award to Obama in the White House, and their declaration of Obama as the most transparent president in the entire history of the United States. Let’s watch our exclusive video produced by James Corbett on this mockery of an award:
The established fact that this most transparent president in the history of this nation happens to be the president with the worst record when it comes to secrecy and persecution and prosecution of government whistleblowers did not stop POGO at the time, and apparently, a year later, with many more whistleblower prosecution cases under this president’s belt, POGO continues its assault on government whistleblowers and truth-tellers by standing by the President’s side, and against whistleblowers and truth-tellers.
Of course, the mainstream media and many quasi alternatives have yet to take notice of these issues and charlatan-hypocrite NGOs such as POGO, funded by the 0.01%. So it was heartening to see a well-written timely commentary at Firedoglake.com in defense and support of Bradley Manning and on the true-nature of POGO and its hypocrisy:
This is from an organization that relies upon and, from time-to-time, supports whistleblowers (though some argue, not without merit, that POGO exploits whistleblowers in its efforts to cozy up to the powers that be).
For a different take on the Manning case, see this:
A generation before Bradley Manning, Daniel Ellsberg understood that some laws were worth breaking to expose and bring accountability to far greater crimes. Ellsberg tried to voice his grievances within his chain of command, as Manning did, before being ignored. I have heard many people justify the government’s treatment of Manning simply because of the risks he allegedly took. “He should have known better,” they say, missing the point. Asked in 1971 if he was prepared to go to prison for releasing the Pentagon Papers, Ellsberg’s reply was simple: “Wouldn’t you go to jail to end this war?”
Future posts will explore POGO’s financial ties and its role in the veal pen that is the whistleblower community.
P.S. This isn’t the first time that POGO throws its values out the window to please the power structure.
…
As you all know, the media has been a major enabling actor in government persecution of whistleblowers. Either by their right-out attacks or simply by their silence they have been the enablers. That’s why I take a notice of the very few who throw their weight on these cases with honesty or stand in solidarity with the cause. In this case, I am heartened and thankful to see a popular website transcend partisan lines and take on the issue full-force. Kudos to FDL contributor ‘MSPB Watch.’
I think it is also appropriate to highlight a contrary action by another website, since I recently wrote about it here at BFP, albeit within a slightly different context. In September 2011 Antiwar.Com put on this publicity and PR campaign for POGO, who gave Obama an award for being the most transparent president of the United States-ever:
This morning I was very surprised to find at AntiWar.Com a long marketing piece written on an infamous Lap-Dog Watch-Dog. Written by an apparently ignorant contributor, Kelley Vlahos, the piece is filled with highly selective and sugar-coated promotional misinformation. Missing from this PR piece for this corporate NGO was its $4 million backing by George Soros, Rockefeller family members, Carnegie, and numerous ‘Secret & Classified’ corporate backers.
That’s not all. For a site that has been promoting itself as anti government secrecy, Antiwar.Com’s not-so-bright Vlahos conveniently blacks out POGO’s record on supporting the Obama administration’s retaliation against whistleblowers, his pro secrecy actions, and his anti transparency campaign since day one of his presidency.
…
Despite hundreds of letters and comments from well-known government whistleblowers and their readers, AntiWar.Com refused to run a correction on the false promotional campaign they ran for POGO at their site. Not only that, their new operations manager personally called me to say that: ‘government whistleblowers were disgruntled by nature, and that they would not make a single change to their promotional article on Soros –funded and long-discredited Project on Government Oversight (POGO).’ Even today, despite Manning and numerous other cases, AntiWar.Com stands by POGO and their new management, who have been labeling government whistleblowers such as myself as: a Disgruntled, Jew-Hating Douche, Racist, Sexist, Anti-Israel, and Women-Hating bunch.
Finally, last year I published an eloquent short commentary by whistleblowers’ attorney Stephen Kohn on Bradley Manning and his case. I am going to run that audio clip again, and encourage you to share and disseminate it. Here it is.
This site depends exclusively on readers’ support. Please help us continue by subscribing .
