Strange + Strange often = True
As I read the most recent issue of Sojourners (April 2011) I ran across a brief report from Ray McGovern relating to the now famous (or infamous) WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange. The combination of unusual author and atypical assumptions lent a “luster of midday to objects below.”
First strange bit: Author Ray McGovern was a career CIA guy, an analyst for 27 years. He lived and slept intelligence and saw it all from the inside. That leads to strange number two.
Second strange bit: Now speaking for the church, from the inside of a religious point of view, McGovern defends the whole WikiLeaks enterprise. In fact, he paints Assange not as an enemy of the state, but rather as an enemy of the state of denial.
Sidetrack: At the unavoidable risk of dating myself, I’ll share that while I was in college the then controversial Daniel Ellsberg came to my campus and spoke. We were packed like sardines in a large conference hall. And I remember his arrival, his words and the impact of them. Ellsberg was the WikiLeaks of his time, sans the electronic means to broadcast it by web, blog, text, or tweet. He just wrote about it and talked to groups about it. The Pentagon Papers simply revealed the unimaginable extent and scope of US incursions in the world. And Ellsberg was painted with the same “unpatriotic” brush as Assange is today. They tried to assassinate his character, make him into a criminal, define him as enemy of the state. But I digress.
Back to our former CIA agent become church activist. McGovern simply knows, from experience, how assassinations are ordered, secret covert missions conducted, and disappeared persons detained and tortured. So when WikiLeaks “outs” this, makes impossible our denial that such things are taking place on our tax dime and on our behalf, he simply nods. He knows it’s true. And the docs and video footage leaked by WikiLeaks verify it.
What McGovern also knows is that every attempt is made to “kill the messenger” when the messenger carries information that uncovers the truth. If we can make him appear shady, criminal, and an enemy of the state, he can be delegitimated, the ultimate goal. If not physically assassinated, his reputation can be. Then he can be dismissed with the wave of a hand.
I am fairly suspicious of claims made by anyone in the political realm. People just twist things to conform to their already existing point of view. But sometimes Strange + Strange = True. I think this is one of those cases. And unless the truth becomes known, and citizens insist that this is not the way we want to behave on the world stage, then we will continue in a state of denial. And not even WikiLeaks will be able to help us.
vitalwholeness 