Oath Keepers – by Stewart Rhodes
Oath Keepers launches new campaign to place signs and billboards near Washington D.C. area defense and intelligence agencies, praising Edward Snowden for exposing the NSA spying on Americans and urging other government employees to follow Snowden’s example by becoming whistle-blowers.
To launch this new campaign, Oath Keepers has placed three back-lit signs on the subway platform in the D.C. Metro Pentagon Station.
The first sign at the Pentagon Station is done in the style of the theater scene from George Orwell’s 1984 and features Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, as “Big Brother” (which we think he was born to play):
That “Big Brother” sign makes it clear that by exposing the NSA spying on Americans, Snowden honored his oath, and other government employees need to honor their oaths by also exposing unconstitutional actions. Here is an actual photo of the sign, posted on YAL’s (Young Americans for Liberty) Facebook page:
Thanks YAL!
The URL on the sign, oathkeepers.org/expose, takes viewers to a special landing page where the government employees can learn more about their obligations to blow the whistle on government violation of the Constitution, and more about exactly what the NSA has been doing and how it fits into the larger picture of the ongoing creation of an uncountable, totalitarian police state in America that is outside the Constitution and a grave threat to the survival of liberty in America. This particular “Stop Big Brother” artwork will also be going on a billboard along a major freeway in Maryland, near the NSA headquarters at Ft. Mead (as close as we can get it). That freeway billboard should be up within the week.
The second sign now in place at Pentagon Station is aimed directly at CIA employees, reminding them that their oath is not to a “corporate culture of secrecy” as new CIA director Brennan recently stated, but is in fact to the Constitution:
And yes, we knew exactly what we were doing when we decided to use the J.F.K. swearing in as the graphic for this sign. Read this.
CIA Director Brennan’s revealing statement came with his announcement of the CIA’s new Orwellian “Honor the Oath” campaign to stop leaks and whistleblowers:
In a memo to the CIA workforce this week, Brennan says the “Honor the Oath,” campaign is intended to “reinforce our corporate culture of secrecy” through education and training.
Brennan is truly outdoing even George Orwell in his novel 1984 when it comes to twisting the meaning of words. In America, the Oath, and the only oath that is operative within legitimate government under our Constitution, is the oath mandated by Article VI, which is to “support this Constitution.” Brennan must be talking about some other oath outside of, and contrary to, the Constitution. Just as in 1984, where the “Ministry of Love” is where you were taken to be tortured, and the “Ministry of Truth” is where lies and propaganda were created, in the CIA, honoring “the oath” means to “reinforce [and obey] our corporate culture of secrecy” by never exposing anything done by “The Company” no matter how heinous, how unconstitutional, how evil, or how much in violation of the oath to the Constitution. Typical totalitarian ethics. Help us counter his brainwashing by reminding CIA employees of their actual oath. We will place this same message on a billboard near CIA headquarters in VA.
The third sign just placed at the D.C. Metro Pentagon Station is intended to reach our military personnel within the Pentagon, and any other government employees who have ever served in the military, using the Iwo Jima flag raising as a backdrop to the message “they honored their oaths. Honor yours. Refuse to Violate the Bill of Rights. Expose unconstitutional acts”:
And that sign is very similar to the billboard we have placed outside of the Marine Corps base at 29 Palms. All three signs direct the readers to the same landing page at oathkeepers.org/expose where Oath Keepers has a strong message for them:
When Edward Snowden blew the whistle and exposed NSA spying on Americans, he did the right thing. He honored the oath he swore to defend the Constitution by warning We the People of what was being done to us, by our own government, in direct violation of the Constitution. Snowden could not use the “normal” channels for reporting unlawful behavior because our government is controlled and dominated by oath breaking criminals and Constitution killers, from top to bottom. It is absurd to demand that he report crimes against the Constitution to the very criminals who are committing those crimes. They are not going to hold themselves accountable. The only recourse is to blow the whistle to the real bosses, the American people, so the people can hold them accountable. And that is exactly what Snowden did. And that is exactly what you should do if you have similar knowledge of violations of the rights of the American people and violations of the Constitution you swore an oath to defend. You have a duty to speak out.
The regime, and those complicit in its crimes, want you to think that speaking out and exposing them is “treason.” This should come as no surprise. No oppressive regime in the history of the world, no budding dictatorship, ever acknowledged the illegality and illegitimacy of its actions. To the contrary, every oppressive regime that has infested a nation has perverted the host country’s legal system to make its crimes “legal” and to turn the legal system into a weapon to silence not just dissent, but also to silence those who seek to expose its crimes. It is no different here, in the United States. As Congressman Ron Paul noted, “truth is treason in the empire of lies.” That is what the regime believes. But in reality, silence is treason when our Republic is being destroyed from within.
Read the rest of our statement here.
This latest campaign is part of a broader effort to place billboards at strategic locations throughout the United States. Currently we have billboards outside of military bases at 29 Palms Marine Corps Base, Ft. Benning, GA, Ft. Hood, TX, Ft. Stewart, GA, and at Hunter Army Airfield, GA. Go here to see them all.
Oath Keepers, of all the things we have done, and are doing now, there is no more important single effort than getting these billboards up in front of every major military installation in America, and as a secondary goal, in front of every intelligence agency installation as well. As we have seen, it only takes one person – one “Snowden” to change history by stepping up and doing what is right. When we place signs and billboards like this, we never know who will read it, what effect it will have on them, or what they may do in response.
We do know that each of these billboards will be seen and read by thousands of current serving military, contractors, staff, and employees, and there is not a damn thing that Brennan, Clapper, Holder, or Obama can do about it. Remember, one drop of truth is an antidote and disinfectant to a whole bucket of bull, which is why the powers that be don’t like us reminding the current serving of their oaths, and they greatly fear others following in Snowden’s foot-steps, because they need that “culture of corporate secrecy” to continue to rob our children of their birthright of liberty and to complete the construction of their dream totalitarian machine.
They fear exposure, and they fear an awakened and angry American people who are still capable of stopping them – otherwise why do they need secrecy? If they were ready to pull the plug on this Republic once and for all, they would do it now, and would not need secrecy. They are not ready yet, and are vulnerable and at risk if exposed. So expose them! Wake up the troops and teach them what is going on! Inspire others to expose them. Shine the light on the cockroaches within both political parties. Remember, this is not about left or right. It’s about the Bill of Rights.
And if we wake up enough Americans, especially in the military, it is possible to have an American counterpart to what happened in East Germany in 1989 when the East German military refused to crack down on the peaceful protesters, and without the support of the Army, the Communist Party and the Stasi secret police were done. The Stasi, who had been so feared, were suddenly exposed and vulnerable, powerless to do anything now that the military refused to support them, and they ran and hid, tearing off their uniforms, trying to avoid the wrath of the people they had oppressed.
NSA, CIA, DHS, FBI, ATF, heed the lessons of history and learn from the fate of the Stasi, who were no match for the people once fully woken up and activated. The same will happen here, if we have anything to say about it (and we do). Do what is right, now,because it is right, before your course is set and your fate sealed. Go down in history as patriots, rather than as traitors.
Patriots! Help us put up more billboards across the country.
You can help the billboard campaign in three possible ways:
1. You can secure a billboard in your area. You (or you and some friends or a local group) can pay for it directly, and we will provide you with the artwork. Just contact us to coordinate (select “volunteer” and add “Billboard” to subject line). You could hold a local fundraiser to raise the money, or perhaps you want to just pay for it yourself (we had one gentleman do just that in Florida).
2. Make a donation to our billboard fund, which is spent exclusively on billboards. Not one dime in that fund is spent on anything else, and all money is used to pay for artist Jeff Ford to design the artwork (and he works very cheap), and then to pay the billboard company to up it up (which is by far the greater expense). That is it. Major effective and efficient. Our goal is to maintain billboards at each military base for at least three or four months, and longer if we can (so long as enough donations come in, we will keep going!), changing the message every two or three months, and going down the list of ourDeclaration of Ten Orders that active duty Oath Keepers are urged to refuse to obey, and/or focusing on other critical issues.
Not long after we launched the billboard campaign, we were blessed with one amazing patriotic lady from Idaho who donated $30,000.00 to our billboard fund, which then brought the total amount in the fund to $45,000.00 (with the other $15,000.00 coming from many small donations), but we are now down to less than $15,000.00 left to spend, and that will go fast, so please donate what you can to support this vital effort.
3. Volunteer to hand out educational materials to the troops. Even if you don’t have money to donate, you can donate your time by volunteering to be “boots on the ground” outside of a base where we have placed billboards. We need you to help us pass out pocket Constitutions, DVDs, flash-drives, booklets, brochures, newspapers, and other outreach and educational materials, directly to the troops. Several of our members have already done so, with great success. Just contact us to volunteer. Put “boots on ground volunteer” in subject line.
For more on what we think of Edward Snowden exposing the NSA spying, here is what I told Reason Magazine in a recent interview:
He is an example of what needs to be done by anyone who has knowledge of such gross violations of our rights. We need more to stand up, because this is surely the mere tip of the iceberg of the infrastructure for a police state that is being built over us.
This is about far more than supposed attempts to ferry out al Qaeda operatives. This is part of a growing Stasi and Checka style surveillance police state which tags, tracks, and prepares plans to detain dissidents with the “Main Core” database of millions of Americans who the regime considers a “threat.”
And this is also really about the absurd claim that the U.S. is a battlefield and the Fourth Amendment doesn’t apply to the President’s “surveillance of the battlefield.” That was the claim of neocon, government-supremacist Bush lawyers, like John Yoo, and that idea that the Bill of Rights is trumped by Executive war powers has also been the consistent claim of Obama lawyers such as Harold Koh, justifying even the targeted killing of Americans.
And that absurd view, that so long as they call it “war’ they can sidestep the Bill of Rights and act like Stalin, is shared by both Republicans (like Senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain, and Rep. Peter King), and Democrats like Harry Reid (who tells us it’s been going on for seven years, so don’t worry about it).
Unless we the people purge out these oath breakers from BOTH parties, we will find ourselves in a nightmare dictatorship and we will have to fight to throw it off. Sweat now or bleed later. Purge them all. – Stewart Rhodes
And that is exactly what we must do, as I have tried to warn people again, and again. You have a narrow, and rapidly closing window of opportunity to restore the Republic in a relatively peaceful manner, with little loss of life. But that window is closing faster with each day, as the totalitarian psychopaths within the regime speed up their plans to attain their goals before too many Americans wake up. We are in a race. It is time to sprint for the finish, and also time to prepare for the fight in case we have no choice but to do as our forefathers did. Wake up all you can, especially within the ranks of the military, as fast as you can, and also work hard to get your local veterans woke up too, and busy helping you get your community squared away and strong, as fast as you can, so that you can best resist the beast if it must come to a fight.
For the Republic,
Stewart Rhodes
Founder and President of Oath Keepers