Once upon a time… Actually, not too long ago everything changed. The main characters of this not fairytale are the 
governments in the role of Pinocchio, and the whistleblowers in the role of the truth tellers. This is a simple story of the well-known wooden puppet which is predisposed to telling lies and fabricating stories for numerous reasons. However, there was one obstacle to telling lies, which was the nose that extends quite far when a lie was being told. So each time the nose became long enough to poke a truth teller, Pinocchio’s lies were being exposed to the public.
Here we will focus on two of the truth tellers’ cases, namely those of Bradley Manning (now Charlie Manning) and Edward Snowden. Manning was an Intelligence analyst for the U.S. army; in early 2010 he leaked classified information to WikiLeaks. The information “included 91,000 files from the war in Afghanistan, 392,000 from the Iraq War, 779 files of inmates in the Pentagon’s Guantanamo prison, and a quartet of a million memoranda from the U.S. State Department.”[1] All of the leaked information shows injustices (corruption, violence, conspiracy) by governments and military services. It is impossible to go through the content of all of these files, but in order to get some insight, here is an example:
This is “footage of two US Apache attack helicopters firing on and killing 12 civilians on a street in Baghdad.”[3] As seen there is an excessive use of military power over innocent civilians, which remains unpunished.
In 2013 Edward Snowden leaked classified information from the NSA (National Security Agency). The files expose “a number of mass-surveillance programs undertaken by the NSA and GCHQ. The agencies are able to access information stored by major US technology companies, often without individual warrants, as well as mass-intercepting data from the fibre-optic cables which make up the backbone of global phone and internet networks. The agencies have also worked to undermine the security standards upon which the internet, commerce and banking rely.”[4] This raised public concerns about personal freedoms and security. The following interview provides a better understanding of this issue:
So, the lesson from this short story is that Pinocchio needs to learn to be honest, if it is to be favoured by the public. The importance of transparency is essential for a peaceful life. No one wants to be lied or spied on, and as long as there is a lying puppet there will be a truth teller to uncover its dirty deeds.
References:
[1] “This Machine kills secrets”, Andy Greenberg, CPI Group (UK), 2012, p. 14
[2] “Baghdad Airstrike/Collateral Murder, WikiLeaks”, Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ojw5MnsqkJQ viewed 23.01,2015
[3] “Bradley Manning: Whistleblower or traitor?”, Al Jazeera, http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/insidestory/2013/08/2013817912749650.html viewed 23.01.2015
[4] “The NSA files decoded”, The Guardian, http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/the-nsa-files viewed 23.02.2015
[5] “NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden”, Youtube, The Guardian, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hLjuVyIIrs viewed 23.01.2015
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