Title: Silenced Film Explores the Human Toll of Obama's Crackdown o
Show: Democracy Now!
Date: 2014-04-24
URL: https://youtu.be/5-xgSQyOlg0
Duration: 5.5:00

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[00:00] well how far would you go to tell the truth that's the question posed by a remarkable new documentary called silenced which just premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival it it follows three National Security whistleblowers who fight to reveal the darkest corners of America's war on terror challenging a government that is increasingly determined to maintain secrecy as it expands its powers they are former justice department lawyer jessyn Rak former uh senior NSA official Thomas

[00:30] Drake and the former CIA officer John kako the film depicts the extraordinary lens the government traversed to wreak havoc on their personal lives through a sustained campaign of intimidation and harassment this is the trailer for silence part of the purpose of doing what they've been doing for the last several years is to destroy you I never thought of myself as a whistleblower sometimes I go back and forth in my mind mind where I wish I had

[01:01] kept my mouth shut and other times I wish that I had shouted it from the rooftops there is information that the public in a functioning democracy has a right to know Thomas Jefferson said that an informed citizenry is the crucial part of the Democracy I took an oath I had to deal with a government who was in violation of the oath and I couldn't remain silent I could not live with myself knowing that another human being could be put to death because I kept my mouth shut sh would you call it torture

[01:31] water boarding is probably something that we shouldn't be in the business of doing I was the first CIA officer to confirm the use of torture techniques against Al-Qaeda prisoners our country had instituted a torture policy and we ran head into that you're supposed to accept these things as normal because to the people who have been there it is completely normal NSA would now instrument the United States of America for the purposes of draget blanket electronic surveillance on a v scale I explained the facts of my case

[02:03] to my lawyer he said wow you meet the classic textbook definition of a whistleblower we're people who join the government for all the good reasons work for a number of years and then confront something that just stops US the White House has approved it it's all legal as soon as he said it's all legal the hair stood up on the back of my neck they began asking me questions well I've spent my entire adult life working with the FBI so the FBI needs my help

[02:34] I'm happy to help he looked at the file and said very matter of factly this file has been purged they're now engaged in an active cover up at the highest levels it wasn't until I was about an hour into this interview that I realized wait a minute they're investigating me the apparatus of the US government was turned against me every phone call you've ever made emails you've ever sent your bank statements tax records I was trying to be honest and obey the law and yet I'm the one who ends up having to

[03:04] hire a team of lawyers they set the target they put the bullseye on me and said we're going to make an example of him I have to try to protect my children from being exposed to it I've got the FBI surveilling me on and off for the last 7 months you have to mortgage your house you have to empty your bank account I've applied for every job I can think of haven't gotten even an email or a call back the people that you used to work with turned against you your neighbors are at least suspicious because it's not every day that government investigators are knocking on their doors what has now happened to my

[03:36] family it's a very tormented existence you're not loyal you're not a good American you're a terrorist sympathizer that secrecy regime despite President Obama's pledges of transparency and openness has only continued to expand I'm not the pushover that these guys think I am I'm as tough as they are and I'm going to fight that trailer for the new documentary silence just premiered at

[04:07] Tribeca Film Festival we're joined by the film's director James spon he's previous documentary incident in new Baghdad was nominated for an Academy Award welcome to democracy Now talk about why you chose these three people Tom Drake jesselyn radak as well as John kyaku um thank you for having me by the way um well um I really making my previous film incident new Baghdad was already this was on my radar of course that film was made possible because of that footage released by Wikileaks and

[04:39] we now know it was Chelsea Manning who who released this footage of of an Apache helicopter attack in in Baghdad and uh so that got me to thinking about this whole you know who controls the information who's allowed to release it and who's not what what is the American public allowed to see and and and what aren't they allowed to see and who are the people who kind of have the courage to step up and say wait a minute when the whole bureaucracy is going another Direction they say well well I'm not sure about this you know and and uh dissenting against uh what's

[05:12] the the common practice uh so I thought well these are kind of rare individuals and I want to learn more about them and and that's when I started researching uh the people in my
