The USA Today

I noticed with surprise yesterday's ruling in the Manning trial, acquitting him of the most serious charge of "aiding the enemy", while convicting him of the other 21 charges using the Espionage Act of 1917. This still means of course that he will spend decades in jail, but he is not facing the death penalty.  Being quite callous and assuming the government (especially a military court) would find him guilty across the board, I was pleasantly surprised that this was not the case. I attribute this to the winds of change blowing across our country, strengthened by the actions of a few radicals (Assange, Manning and Snowden)

And where would this country be without our radicals?  Where would we be without Samuel Adam's secret society, The Sons of Liberty, some of whom dressed up like Native Americans, dumping the cargo of British tea overboard in Boston Harbor on December 16th 1773? That act and every one taken after, including signing the Declaration of Independence, were treasonable offenses, punishable by death.

Private Manning, arrested in 2010, working in Army Intelligence in Iraq, gave 700,000 pages of unreleased documents and videos showing the military"day to day"events of the War in Iraq; including some embarrassments and mistakes, the military's "dirty laundry", to Julian Assange's WikiLeaks, and other international media, like the NY Times, who broadcast them. 

Since then Ed Snowden, working as an intelligence officer for the National Security Association disclosed in June, the inner workings of the NSA and their unwarranted (that is without a warrant-as needed according to the Constitution) surveillance of USA citizens and our allies overseas.  The revelations, as well as Snowden's flight to Hong Kong, then to the Moscow airport, have caused quite a controversy. US Attorney General Holden had to write a letter last week to Russian officials declaring that if Snowden is returned to the USA, he will not be tortured or put to death.  (Have we really come to this-that this is what other countries assume to be true about us?)

Also last week was the House's amazingly close vote (217-205) in regards a proposed amendment to limit the NSA's surveillance power.  Ninety four Republicans and 111 Democrats stood up against intense lobbying from the government and its spy agencies to vote for the amendment to limit the survelliance only to those persons in targeted investigations.  No one knew the vote was going to be that close.

Another recent development, attributed to Snowden's disclosures, is about The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 and its FISA court set up to handle the government's requests to collect phone and internet data broadly. The judges who sit on the court are appointed by Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts. These judges are presented with only the government's side of the case.  There is no one arguing for the other side-in this case the American citizens who are being spyed on. The rulings and articles of law that decided the rulings are secret. The NY Times did a front page story on Roberts and the FISA court July 25th, if you wish to read more.  

My point here is that what these brave 20 year olds are doing is no less important than The Sons of Liberty's Boston Tea party in 1773.  The two planets Uranus and Pluto were in an aspect then and are in an aspect now again-2012-2015, as we have mentioned before. Uranus brings sudden surprises and a revolutionary impulse.  Pluto brings up buried or repressed or secret agendas that get exposed-"dirty laundry".  If 4.2 million people have security clearance in the US-how important are all these secrets?

The NY Times editorial said it today... some of the information Manning released was quite harmless; other pieces of information healthy for the public to see as it helps us come to a conclusion about the continuance of the Iraq War.  Manning has pleaded guilty to some of the charges-so should be punished.  But if you look at the record-The Obama administration has brought espionage charges under the Espionage Act of 1917, twice as many times as all other previous administrations combined. If 4.2 million people have clearance and 92 million documents are classified as secret annually -the public can rightly begin to lose trust in the government.  Punish Manning with a moderate sentence but the government "should do something about its addiction to secrecy". 

In a cycles scientist's language, Uranus and Pluto are speaking to one another (metaphorically) and these issues will not go away for years.  All this country's buried resentments, rage, secrets and dirty laundry" is and will get exposed.  Curtailing the media, which the founding fathers understood was needed to keep the government honest, is a necessity.  The obsessive prosecution of investigative journalists prevents stories from being covered and hampers an informed electorate. Why our addiction to secrecy?  What are we afraid of?  These brave and self sacrificing young men are leading us forward.  The outcomes for each personally do not look bright.  But their cause-what they are shedding light on is in accordance with these times.