Silenced Page #11

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seven of them

under barack obama.

the effect of the charge

on a person's life,

being viewed as a traitor,

being shunned

by family and friends,

incurring massive legal bills,

is all a part of the plan

of forcing the whistle-blower

into personal ruin

to weaken him to the point

where he will plead guilty

to just about anything

to make the case go away.

i know.

the three espionage charges

against me

made me one of the obama seven."

[ car door closes ]

-i think the government's going

to launch an investigation.

i think they're going to say

i've committed grave crimes,

i've, you know,

violated the espionage act.

they're gonna say, you know,

i've aided our enemies.

-a disclosure of this kind,

of highly classified material,

gives our terrorist enemies

a playbook

for our activities

designed to thwart them.

-the longer

the snowden saga drags on,

so do the questions

about the surveillance programs.

i don't think

anything about this

is something the white house

wants to deal with.

-the government is desperate

to not deal with the actual

content of those disclosures.

-why is the government

spying on its own people?

-our concern is that they

have grabbed these phone calls

and grabbed these e-mails

and have the temptation

to listen to them and read them

whether they have

the authority to or not.

-the u.s. government

has routinely violated

the constitutional protections

afforded its own citizens

while disregarding the internal

integrity of other states

and the fundamental rights

of non-u.s. citizens.

-"some of the investigations

began during

the bush administration,

as was the case with

nsa whistle-blower tom drake.

but espionage act cases

have been prosecuted

only under obama."

you know, he's my only client

in jail for this right now,

and he completely

doesn't belong there.

and he completely gets

how politicized this is.

[ voice breaking ]

and, for me, as an attorney,

i know i did

all i could for him,

but on a personal level,

it feels like a failure.

i feel...

l-like i could have --

there's something

i could have done more.

in our history,

it's been whistle-blowers

who have made the difference,

it's been whistle-blowers

who have caused

these major, cataclysmic changes

in our society.

and i think freedom

can win out over fear.

[ dramatic music playing ]

[ up-tempo music playing ]

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