Whistleblowing definition: do you think governments and big companies do not keep any secrets from society? We all have skeletons in our closet that we would very much like to keep under lock. But sometimes secrets are kept at a much higher level, say governmental or organizational.
And while, for the most part, the undisclosed information remains sealed, there have been several moments in modern history, when someone has stepped up and revealed what was going on.
One of the most recent cases of whistleblowing is Edward Snowden’s reveal of “PRISM,” a top-secret mass surveillance program conducted by the U.S. National Security Agency and British GCHQ. Snowden exposed the information to a reporter from “The Guardian” sparkling one of the biggest international scandals, not to mention a major security breach of the NSA. Currently, Snowden is residing in a hotel near an airport in Moscow, waiting for Russian authorities to give him asylum in the country.
Even though Snowden’s leak of information is a significant event of this kind in the modern world, there are a couple of others that should be mentioned. We would like to present you with a list of five more whistleblowers in modern times who brought into light some of the darkest secrets of the U.S.
These cases should clear up the whistleblowing definition quite clearly for you, in a style similar to our coverage of New World Order facts earlier this year.
Check out the rest of the slideshow on the following pages:
No. 5: The Syphilis Experiments and Peter Buxton
While medical experiments are necessary for creating new drugs and treatments, sometimes things are taken to an extreme. For four decades, the US Department of Health endorsed an experiment that involved observing the progression of syphilis, when left untreated. The problem with this? The study pretty much used unassuming African-Americans as guinea pigs. Not only were they not treated, despite the fact that the cure for syphilis had been discovered, they were also lied to in regards to the nature of their disease. When Peter Buxton joined the study in 1966, he immediately became concerned regarding the lack of morality and ethics and went to the papers with his story.
No. 4: The NYPD and Frank Serpico
Unfortunately for the NYPD, the 1960s were filled with corrupt policemen and dubious affairs. Nonetheless, there was still one honest cop left who decided to blow the lid on everything that was going on – Frank Serpico. His actions made the NYPD clean up their act, but Serpico’s career in law enforcement ended when he was shot in the face while on the job. Nonetheless, he survived and his story inspired a movie, starring Al Pacino.
No. 3: Kerr-McGee and Karen Silkwood
Karen Silkwood was in charge with evaluating safety and health concerns of workers at a nuclear power plant, Kerr-McGee. She soon uncovered that the company was violating major regulations and decided to take the data to the Atomic Energy Commission. Soon afterwards, it was revealed that she had been exposed to plutonium. Fearing for her life, she decided to leak the story to the media, but never managed to tell her side. The evening in which she was supposed to meet with the reporters, her car was discovered off the road with her body in it.
No. 2: The Pentagon Papers and Daniel Ellsberg
Daniel Ellsberg, a former Vietnam combatant and a Pentagon official, was becoming increasingly disillusioned with the war and took it upon himself to put a stop to it. Given his position, he had access to several security documents, known as the Pentagon Papers, which described US’s involvement in the war in great detail and who clearly showed how the officials had been lying for years. At first, he kept the documents within his circle of friends but after the New York Times found out about them, he decided to release them to several newspapers. He surrendered himself, but was released after it was revealed that he had been illegally wire-tapped.
No. 1: The Nixon Administration and W. Mark Felt
Undoubtedly one of the most famous whistleblowers in modern history is W. Mark Felt, former Associate Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The sordid details of the Watergate affair as well as other illegal activities in which then-president Richard Nixon was involved are no longer a secret to anyone. But all of this is thanks to Mr. Felt, who decided to step up and reveal what was going on.
