Kevin Gosztola: How the Government’s Prosecution of Aaron Swartz Pushed Him Toward Death
Just as the government sought to make an example out of NSA whistleblower Thomas Drake, made an example out of former CIA officer John Kiriakou for “leaking” a name of an agent and is making an example out of Pfc. Bradley Manning for allegedly providing classified and non-classified information to WikiLeaks, it pursued Swartz hoping to convict him and set a precedent that would limit Internet freedom and the free flow of information. Meanwhile, banks like HSBC received no jail time for terrorist financing, not a single person from a Big Bank on Wall Street was prosecuted for major financial crimes that led to the 2008 economic collapse and those in the Bush administration and intelligence community, who authorized torture, were allowed to roam free. Do not expect his suicide to change anything. The government will continue to take up cases against Internet activists, who do no real harm, while looking the other way as white collar criminals and war criminals receive accolades, enjoy prestige and success and benefit from government welfare
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This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 15th, 2013 at 7:49 AM and filed under Activism, Blog Posts, Civil Rights, Education, Legal, Youth. Follow comments here with the RSS 2.0 feed. Skip to the end and leave a response. Trackbacks are closed.
