The occasion was the annual meeting of the Academy of Philosophy and Letters, June 13, 2015, at the BWI Doubletree Hotel — oddly, surrounded by NSA buildings in Linthicum, MD. John Henry of the Committee for the Republic hosted the evening program titled: “The National Security Agency’s War on the U.S. Constitution”
Main speakers were William Binney, Kirk Wiebe, Thomas Drake, and James Bamford. Bruce Fein, John Henry, and Ray McGovern also spoke.
The Committee for the Republic was eager provide an appropriate occasion for Binney to receive the framed citation (in English and German) for the Sam Adams Award for Integrity in Intelligence. The paper citation and traditional corner-brightener candlestick holder was originally presented to Binney at an SRO ceremony in Berlin on January 22, 2015.
Ed Snowden, who was live-streamed into that Berlin ceremony, emphasized, “Without Bill Binney there would be no Ed Snowden.” Bill, in turn, had been greatly encouraged by the courageous, principled stand taken by Tom Drake in facing down the U.S. Department of Justice and NSA successfully, after four years of persecution that included government-provided “evidence” proven in Court to have been forged.
Actually, in a very real sense, it was a triple play: Drake to Binney to Snowden. So it was altogether appropriate that Tom Drake be the former Sam Adams Associate honoree to present the framed award to Bill Binney on June 13, 2015 in the belly of the (NSA) beast.
Tom also had been the clear choice of his colleague Sam Adams Associates to present the 2013 award for integrity to Ed Snowden in Moscow on October 7, 2013. As soon as Ed surfaced in Hong Kong, he made it clear that U.S. government abuse of Tom had convinced Ed that he had to leave the U.S. in order to achieve his mission and have some chance — however slight it seemed at the time — of avoiding spending the rest of his life in prison.
Hats off to Drake to Binney to Snowden: courageous patriots all!