by Stephen Lendman

Daniel Everett Hale

US new millennium regimes virtually eliminated protection of whistleblowers who report about US government misconduct — as mandated by 1989 legislation, notably including crimes of war and against humanity.

According to the US Whistleblower Protection Act, they’re obligated to report law or regulatory violations, gross mismanagement, waste, fraud and/or abuse, as well as actions endangering public health or safety.

The 2012 Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (WPEA) failed to protect government employees from reprisal for disclosing official misconduct.

The Obama regime prosecuted more whistleblowers and leakers involved in exposing US wrongdoing than all its predecessors combined, illegally targeting nine individuals.

In May 2019, former US air force/national security intelligence officer Daniel Everett Hale was wrongfully arrested, detained, and indicted on five counts, four under the long-ago outdated 1917 Espionage Act.

He was targeted for revealing secret information to a reporter about illegal Pentagon/CIA drone wars US authorities want suppressed.

Ongoing in multiple theaters today, it’s part of the US war OF terror, not on it.

On Tuesday, Hale was sentenced to 45 months in prison by the Alexandria, VA—based US District Court — for acting above and beyond the call of duty.

In police state America, it’s now a criminal offense at the discretion of its ruling regimes and go-along courts to the highest level.

StandWithDanielHale.org reported the following:

“In May 2019, drone whistleblower Daniel Everette Hale was arrested and indicted on allegations that he disclosed classified documents about the US military’s assassination program.”

On March 31, 2021, Hale pleaded guilty to a single count under the Espionage Act, carrying a maximum sentence of 10 years.”

Unless paroled that’s unlikely, he’ll spend the next 45 months behind bars for honorably disclosing US military assassinations by drones.

After air force service, including at the Pentagon’s infamous Afghan Bagram air base, he “became an outspoken opponent of the US targeted killings program, US foreign policy more generally, and a supporter of whistleblowers.”

“He publicly spoke out at conferences, forums, and public panels.”

“He was featured prominently in the award-winning documentary National Bird, a film about whistleblowers in the US drone (war) program who suffered from moral injury and PTSD.”

He “based his criticisms on his own participation in the drone program…”

It selects targets “based on faulty criteria and attacks on unarmed innocent civilians.”

He shared important information about secret US assassinations in breach of international law.

US predator drones sanitize killing on the cheap — compared to manned aircraft and ground troops.

Drone war “pilots” work from computer keyboards wherever they’re based.

Faceless enemies nearby or half a world away are attacked. Virtual war kills like sport.

Dozens of US drone command centers operate worldwide.

Run by Pentagon and CIA elements, they guide weapons with joysticks and monitors like computer games against live targets with intent to kill — dismissive of so-called collateral damage.

Official secrecy suppresses information about planned missions.

An earlier report by Stanford University’s International Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Clinic and New York University School of Law’s Global Justice Clinic (NYU-SU) titled “Living Under Drones” explained their harm to civilians, saying:

Official claims about precise, effective “targeted killings (with) minimal downsides or collateral impacts” — making the US safer — is utter rubbish.

Polar opposite is true, confirmed by first-hand evidence.

Drone strikes eliminate few so-called “high-value targets,” at most around 2% of individuals killed, SU/NYU explained, adding:

“US drone strikes cause considerable and under-accounted-for harm to the daily lives of ordinary civilians, beyond death and physical injury.”

“Their presence terrorizes men, women, and children, giving rise to anxiety and psychological trauma among civilian communities.”

“Those living under drones have to face the constant worry that a deadly strike may be fired at any moment, and the knowledge that they are powerless to protect themselves.”

Targeted areas are struck multiple times in quick succession – the practice called “double tapping.”

Collateral damage at times can be extensive.

By executive order, Trump banned disclosure of civilian deaths by drones – despite little information ever revealed.

According to UK-based Reprieve, drone strikes greatly increased under Trump in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen, adding:

“…America’s illegal drone war has expanded (greatly) across the globe, (Trump) increas(ing) and widen(ing) drone strikes…systematically weaken(ing) safeguards.”

“(E)ven individuals not considered to pose a ‘continuing and imminent threat’ can be targeted for death without trial” under a secret US assassination program.

Leaked CIA documents revealed that the US often does not know who it is killing, and that militant leaders’ account for just 2% of drone-related deaths.”

Civilians in harm’s way pay the greatest price — no one ever held accountable for high crimes of war and against humanity.

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StandWithDanielHale.org
said he “enriched the public’s knowledge about matters of grave civic
concern.”

Time and again, the US notoriously rewards its worst and punishes its best.
VISIT MY WEBSITE: stephenlendman.org
(Home – Stephen Lendman). Contact at
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

My two Wall Street books are timely reading:
“How Wall Street Fleeces America: Privatized Banking, Government Collusion,
and Class War” www.claritypress.com/product/how-wall-street-fleeces-america/

“Banker Occupation: Waging Financial War on Humanity”
www.claritypress.com/product/banker-occupation-waging-financial-war-on-humanity/

streamingclarity.global

Stephen Lendman was born in 1934 in Boston, MA. In 1956, he received a BA from Harvard University. Two years of US Army service followed, then an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in 1960. After working seven years as a marketing research analyst, he joined the Lendman Group family business in 1967. He remained there until retiring at year end 1999. Writing on major world and national issues began in summer 2005. In early 2007, radio hosting followed. Lendman now hosts the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network three times weekly. Distinguished guests are featured. Listen live or archived. Major world and national issues are discussed. Lendman is a 2008 Project Censored winner and 2011 Mexican Journalists Club international journalism award recipient.