Michael Ondaatje Quotes
It's an odd state to be in, blowing the whistle on your home country.
Ondaatje, Michael. Interview. The New York Times, 2000.
If Casey had listened to Sofaer as the State Department did, President Reagan would have been spared the worst Scandal of his Presidency—Iran Contra. Casey had a great antipathy to lawyers. See {637470}.
Edward Snowden, a defense contractor and government employee, publicly revealed that the U. S. intelligence agencies were intercepting and keeping a data base of ALL telephone calls and all Internet e-mails. The government had denied that this was so, and had classified the domestic spying program as Top Secret. Snowden had signed an agreement not to reveal any classified information, and he violated the agreement. Therefore the government was trying to extradite Snowden from Russia at the time so that they could criminally prosecute him. However, there was great debate as to whether the spying on all Americans was legal and Constitutional. Many saw Snowden as a “whistleblower” and pointed out that the government which had lied wanted to prosecute Snowden for telling the truth. Fein, an attorney, was representing Snowden and his family.
Harrison, then a young Captain, was concerned about the French, British and Spanish agents "plotting" in the United States:
Commenting on a former CIA agent's defection to Russia:
The Abudurahman Alamoudi case was the subject of discussion.
Power to legislate had just been given to Hitler and his cabinet.
His definition of betrayal was to join any political party but his, to publicly criticize him or his government, or to dissent in various forms.
Bush had served earlier as the head of the CIA and understood the costs of such better than most. He was put in a difficult position when his son was President and one of the senior White House operatives, for small partisan advantage, leaked the name and identity of Valerie Plame, a covert CIA operative. Bush the father, remained silent even after the leaker was identified.
Once he assumed the Presidency however, he flip flopped on this issue and approved prosecution of the Drake case and other whitle blowers. At the beginning of his second term, Edward Snowden, tried to get his superiors to do something about the massive surveillance of the American Public that the intelligence agencies were carrying out in secret. When Snowden was ignored, he went public through two newspapers. Obama castigated him for revealing that the government officials had lied and were operating a secret spying and eavesdropping system monitoring virtually every American. The Obama Administration chased him around the world trying to get him extradited for criminal trial in the United States.
Philip Michael Ondaatje CC FRSL, is a Sri Lankan-born Canadian poet, fiction writer, essayist, novelist, editor, and filmmaker. He is the recipient of multiple literary awards such as the Governor General's Award, the Giller Prize, the Booker Prize, and the Prix Médicis étranger. Ondaatje is also an Officer of the Order of Canada, recognizing him as one of Canada's most renowned living authors.
