If you want to know why it’s important to cherish the First Amendment to the Constitution, please watch this amazing and powerful speech delivered by Thomas Drake recently at the National Press Club in Washington. It’s one of the most eloquent defenses of freedom of speech and truth-telling you’ll ever hear. Drake is one of four whistleblowers from the National Security Agency who exposed an enormous corruption scandal at the NSA and a vast and illegal domestic surveillance system that still exists. For that, he was indicted under the Espionage Act as a spy under charges that could have sent him to prison for the rest of his life. But as he says in this speech, he was “saved” by the First Amendment and the existence of independent media. He describes here what he went through and warns the public – especially reporters – of the dangers we all face from the Surveillance State. I’ll be telling the “untold story” of Drake and his fellow whistleblowers this week in The Nation. I hope you tune in.
