Det danske Fredsakademi
Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 19. August
2012 / Timeline August 19, 2012
Version 3.5
18. August 2012, 20. August 2012
08/19/2012
Do The People Have A Right To Know What Their Governments Are
Doing?
By John Scales Avery
“Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers
of the people alone. The people themselves, therefore, are its only
safe depositories.” Thomas Jefferson, (1743-1826)
"The jaws of power are always open to devour, and her arm is
always stretched out, if possible, to destroy the freedom of
thinking, speaking, and writing." John Adams, (1735-1826)
According to the Nuremberg Principles, the citizens of a country
have a responsibility for the crimes that their governments commit.
But to prevent these crimes, the people need to have some knowledge
of what is going on. Indeed, democracy cannot function at all
without this knowledge.
What are we to think when governments make every effort to keep
their actions secret from their own citizens? We can only conclude
that although they may call themselves democracies, such
governments are in fact oligarchies or dictatorships.
At the end of World War I, it was realized that secret treaties had
been responsible for its outbreak, and an effort was made to ensure
that diplomacy would be more open in the future. Needless to say,
these efforts did not succeed, and diplomacy has remained a realm
of secrecy.
Many governments have agencies for performing undercover operations
(usually very dirty ones). We can think, for example of the KGB,
the CIA, M5, or Mossad. How can countries that have such agencies
claim to be democracies, when the voters have no knowledge of or
influence over the acts that are committed by the secret agencies
of their governments?
Nuclear weapons were developed in secret. It is doubtful whether
the people of the United States would have approved of the
development of such antihuman weapons, or their use against an
already-defeated Japan, if they had known that these things were
going to happen. The true motive for the nuclear bombings was also
kept secret. In the words of General Groves, speaking
confidentially to colleagues at Los Alamos, the real motive was
“to control the Soviet Union”.
The true circumstances surrounding the start of the Vietnam war
would never have been known if Daniel Ellsberg had not leaked the
Pentagon Papers. Ellsbebrg thought that once the American public
realised that their country's entry into the war was based on a
lie, the war would end. It did not end immediately, but undoubtedly
Ellsberg's action contributed to the end of the war.
We do not know what will happen to Julian Assange. If his captors
send him to the US, and if he is executed there for the crime of
publishing leaked documents (a crime that he shares with the New
York Times), he will not be the first martyr to the truth. The
ageing Galileo was threatened with torture and forced to recant his
heresy ¨C that the earth moves around the sun. Galileo spent
the remainder of his days in house arrest. Gordiano Bruno was less
lucky. He was burned at the stake for maintaining that the universe
is larger than it was then believed to be. If Julian Assange
becomes a martyr to the truth like Galileo or Bruno, his name will
be honoured by generations in the future, and the shame of his
captors will be remembered too.
John Scales Avery is a theoretical chemist noted for his research
publications in quantum chemistry, thermodynamics, evolution, and
history of science. Since the early 1990s, Avery has been an active
World peace activist. During these years, he was part of a group
associated with the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World
Affairs. In 1995, this group received the Nobel Peace Prize for
their efforts. Presently, he is an Associate Professor in quantum
chemistry at the University of Copenhagen
08/19/2012
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