tl;dr US government doesn't only protect their war criminals, but also other kinds of criminals. And US public either doesn't care, or can't do anything.
Whenever there's coverage of this in US/western media (a relatively rare phenomenon considering the hundreds of cases like this in just the past decade), the reaction is usually minimal. At best, a few outraged centre-left will say it's a shame that the people responsible were never prosecuted. But this sidesteps the fact that this issue is systemic, the US culture and legal system allows this to happen over and over, and the entire government is criminal.
The problem is the public thinks that those being targeted are all dirty evil criminals, and I also think America as a whole doesn't have an "innocent before guilty" mentality. It's not just the American leaders that have corrupt minds. It's also a lot of Americans, who are supporting this sort of stuff.
The media is also not helping at all, and making the problem worse, because they are usually on the government's side when it comes to such issues.
I would counter that in fact the US Government is the biggest of the problems. All of those other actors fall under the law and are much more likely to be punished for their actions whereas the US Govt doesn't have to obey any laws and constantly finds ways around the existing protections, National Security Letters as just one example.
I'm not proud of what the government here in America is doing to its own citizens. Prison population, border detainment, Guantanamo... The USA is imprisons over 2 million people. Our human rights record is not strong.
The US government has become practically unresponsive to even the gravest of crimes, such as torture and pervasive surveillance of it's own citizens. Crimes committed by those in power are either ignored, fined a percentage of their profit, or wrist slapped while those who oppose the powerful have their lives ruined.
Yes, a morally good person can no longer work for the US government, a threshold into evil has been crossed -- was it acceptable to work for the Stasi, for Mao or Stalin? No it wasn't, and isn't acceptable to assist the US government.
If you took time to understand the psychology of what is happening worldwide to all governments and nations, you would recognise that, in general, the citizens of every nation are being ignored by those who are supposed to be responsible to them.
It is unfortunate that the citizenry of the US has lost sight of the incredible freedoms, privileges and responsibilities inherent within the US constitution. The fact that there is now publicised the above situation and the courts and government will not take the proper action and the citizens are not out protesting to all of their respective representatives is highly indicative of how far the US has fallen.
I may live in a country that has no such constitutional protections, but we appear to have a few more actual protections than the citizenry of the US. My own country has endemic problems and in many ways we are following the dark path of the US.
If a population cannot stand up and say no to their government then any actions by that government is then acceptable to and condoned by the citizens.
It is lamentable that governments and even courts push the idea of "rule of law", when so many laws are either plain stupid or are just downright wrong. "Rule of Law" means that it applies to everyone including the government. If any group is beyond or above the law then you no longer have the situation of "rule of law" applying.
In the US, you have a provision of Jury Nullification that is extremely powerful, yet you are not taught about this, nor is it legitimate to discuss the subject in public.
The imprisonment of anyone without due process and not sticking the the principle of "not guilty until proven beyond a reasonable doubt" has ensured that the government and its associated LEO's, spy agencies and defence forces can get away with whatever they want.
I personally do not like nor consider the ACLU to be an honourable group, but they do go to bat for various people that need help in these kinds of situations, especially when the government exceeds it privileges.
On final note, my original comment was intended to stimulate discussion on the limits on what is allowed under the US constitution for all the parties involved. Maybe my point was lost due to not being a US citizen and the interesting fact that many in the US think American is English and so fail to understand such subtle comments.
reply