Obama's War on Whistleblowers is Why Clinton Lost

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Lots of theories have been advanced as to why Clinton lost. Strangely most of them are probably true, as Trump only won by a narrow margin. Any small effect could easily have tipped the balance the other way.

An aversion to the arrogance of the political correctness "police" is one such example, and yes, that probably tipped the balance in favor of Donald Trump too.

A reason that I haven't heard yet or I may have missed it being said, is Obama's War on Whistleblowers. As we know, the Obama administration has prosecuted more whistleblowers under the Espionage Act than all previous administrations combined.

John Kiriakou for instance. He was sentenced to 30 months in prison for disclosing classified information about the illegal US torture program. None of those responsible for the illegal torture program ever faced trial.

Not that I think Trump voters care about that, they probably don't. Many might even want to deal with whistleblowers more harshly than Obama did.

Chelsea Manning (formerly Bradley Manning), Wikileaks biggest leaker, was sentenced to 35 years in prison. A verdict eagerly supported by Obama, who had already declared him guilty pre-trial. Similarly Clinton said of Snowden that "he broke the law", which sounds a tad hypocritical coming from her, not to mention that it's not for her, but rather for courts, to make that judgment.

While Manning is getting psychologically tortured in a US military prison, Assange himself has been stuck for years in the embassy of Ecuador in London. Being confined to a few small rooms so as to stay out of the clutches of the US government. It's not hard to imagine that he truly hates Obama and Clinton - were I in the same predicament I probably would too.

Not surprisingly Assange saw the presidential campaign as an opportunity to strike back, and strike back he did. Hackers, who may have been state sponsored by Russia, leaked thousands upon thousands of e-mails to Wikileaks. Many of which suggested impropriety and were duly published by Wikileaks.

When Donna Brazile, from the Clinton Campaign, claimed those e-mails to be fake, hers were shown to be real.

Trump in contrast did not suffer any hit from Wikileaks.

While I fully understand Assange's reaction, it does seem a bit naive. Republicans used to pour scorn on him, and wish for him to be assassinated. Much like democrats do now. There is no reasonable expectation that his situation will improve under a Republican administration, or that Manning might be pardoned by Trump. The only likely result is more enemies for Assange, many of whom will now want him dead more than ever.

Without Wikileaks' involvement in the campaign, it's quite likely that the balance would have swung the other way, and Clinton would have been elected president.

We may want to blame Wikileaks for that, but it's not really hard to understand why they'd want to attack their persecutor, or even team up with their enemy's enemy. It's a pretty basic human reaction.

Instead we should be blaming the Obama administration, it is their misguided War on Whistleblowers, while promising to be "the most transparent administration ever", that caused Wikileaks to react the way it did.

Had Assange not been driven into a corner and seen Manning sentenced to 35 years in a military prison, he would not have rolled out his anti-Clinton campaign.

Put another way: had Obama kept his promise, had he charged government officials who committed crimes instead of locking up whistleblowers who exposed them, we'd now likely have president-elect Clinton.

Let that sink in for a moment Mr. President.

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