Chained Freedom

First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.

Then they came for the socialists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak for me.

- Martin Niemöller

***

In the middle of the Battle of Fallujah an army intelligence analyst comes across a gunship video so shocking it made him question the ethics of this ongoing war, a war which claimed the lives of both unarmed civilians and armed assailants.

Jared Fleming, an army intelligence officer is sentenced to thirty five years in prison under the Espionage act. His crime—leaking not just that Apache aircraft gunship video but also nearly 70,000 classified US military and diplomatic documents to the rogue information website called Cryptome.

This judgment was supposed to act as a deterrent to anyone willing to expose national secrets without considering the consequences of their actions on matters of national security. Instead it had the opposite effect and gave birth to a movement that would force totalitarian governments to face legal consequences as a result of evidence posted on Cryptome.