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Part VII: Blood Money and Broken Oaths — Resistance Rising – The Return of the Unbought Voice
By Marivel Guzman | Akashma News
“Empires are never defeated by bombs. They’re unraveled by truth.”
— Akashma News, 2025
For every general who sold his soul, there was a private who refused an order.
For every president who signed a war, there was a journalist, a dissident, a whistleblower who stood between silence and complicity.
This is their chapter—the unbought voices.
I. The Whistleblowers Who Paid the Price
Edward Snowden
In 2013, this former NSA contractor shattered the myth of democratic oversight.
Exposed NSA mass surveillance, PRISM, XKeyscore and in a corporate collusion with the U.S. intelligence apparatus unveiled a global surveillance network that targeted not only terrorists, but ordinary citizens, allies, and journalists.
Labeled a traitor by the state, a hero by the people.
From the Akashma News article, “Are Whistleblowers Heroes or Traitors?” (2017):
“What Snowden revealed was not a single violation—it was a culture of abuse. The United States had quietly converted its intelligence apparatus into a planetary panopticon.”
Snowden once said:
Now exiled in Russia, with global surveillance programs still using the infrastructure he exposed.
“Being called a traitor by Dick Cheney is the highest honor you can give an American.”
On February 10, 2017, he posted a tweet that said it all:
“Break classification rules for the public’s benefit, and you could be exiled. Do it for personal benefit, and you could be President.” @Snowden
Forced into exile in Russia, Snowden is still hunted—not for falsehood, but for truth.
Chelsea Manning
Leaked the Iraq War Logs, Afghan War Diaries, and the Collateral Murder video—exposing war crimes and civilian deaths covered up by U.S. forces.
Imprisoned. Tortured. Silenced. Yet she never recanted.
Daniel Hale
Revealed the inner workings of the U.S. drone assassination program.
His leaks showed that 90% of drone deaths were not intended targets.
Imprisoned under the Espionage Act for telling the world the truth.
These are not criminals.
They are mirrors held to a government that has forgotten its own reflection.
Daniel Hale and The Drone Papers
“The public should know what is done in its name.” — Daniel Hale
In the pantheon of modern whistleblowers, Daniel Hale stands as a quiet but unwavering voice of conscience. A former U.S. Air Force intelligence analyst, Hale leaked classified documents exposing the stark reality of America’s drone assassination program.
The documents—later published by The Intercept as “The Drone Papers”—revealed that nearly 90% of those killed in targeted strikes were not the intended targets.
Hale showed us the system’s true face: algorithmic kill lists, metadata-driven “signature strikes,” and the bureaucratic normalization of civilian deaths. For this truth, he was not hailed as a hero. He was sentenced to **45 months in prison**.
The Espionage Act was used to punish him, even though he passed information to journalists—not enemies. The Whistleblower Protection Act didn’t apply. In the eyes of the government, exposing war crimes is more criminal than committing them.
Daniel Hale’s sacrifice is a reminder: transparency is treason in an empire built on lies. But through his courage, a new chapter in resistance was written—one where memory and morality still have defenders.
For more, read the original court records: o
II. The Journalists Who Refused to Be Bought
Julian Assange
Founder of WikiLeaks.
Published war logs, diplomatic cables, CIA hacking manuals.
Now imprisoned—not for lying, but for publishing classified truths that embarrassed empire.
Abandoned by mainstream media, yet hailed by global civil society.
Gary Webb
Exposed the CIA’s role in funneling drugs into U.S. cities to fund Contra rebels in Latin America (Dark Alliance).
Smeared, blacklisted, and driven to a suspicious “suicide.”
His findings were later confirmed—but too late to save his reputation or life.
Michael Hastings
Exposed Gen. McChrystal’s toxic command culture in Rolling Stone.
His death in a car explosion remains questioned by many.
In a media world built on corporate funding, these few told the truth without permission.
III. The Soldiers Who Said No – And Never Looked Back
Camilo Mejía, Brandon Neely, Clifton Hicks, Erik Edstrom—all former U.S. military personnel who turned against the wars they fought, and spoke out.
Each served the system, then exposed its rot. But among them, one voice thundered louder across borders:
Ken O’Keefe
Former U.S. Marine turned international activist.
Renounced his U.S. citizenship and declared himself a “world citizen” in opposition to empire.
Vocal critic of Zionism, neocolonialism, and U.S. foreign policy—long before it was fashionable.
Participated in the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, risking his life to break the Israeli blockade.
Called out not just U.S. policy but the entire system of financial parasitism behind war and media manipulation.
On record stating:
“We, the people, must demand the end of the military-industrial-complex… the bankers’ wars… because they do not fight for our freedom, they fight for their power.” (@KenOKeefe1TJP)
He wasn’t just a soldier who defected in principle.
He became a symbol of radical conscience—a truth-teller across Palestine, Iraq, London, and beyond.
And while censored and demonized by media and state agents alike, his message resonated because it was never for sale.
They told stories of:
Dehumanization of civilians,
Illegal orders,
Suicidal deployments,
War as trauma without purpose.
These voices rarely make the news—but they make up the soul of resistance: those who went, and came back unwilling to lie.
Abdullah Abu Rahma Non-Violent Resistance Hero
Posted on August 30, 2010 By Marivel Guzman
Abdullah the non-violent resistance hero
A village teacher and one of the organizers of the weekly protests, said he was amazed at the military’s assertions [of protester violence, including of “rioters” throwing “Molotov cocktails”] as well as at its continuing arrests and imprisonment of village leaders.
“They want to destroy our movement because it is nonviolent,” he said. He added that some villagers might have tried, out of frustration, to cut through the fence since the court had ordered it moved and nothing had happened. But that is not the essence of the popular movement that he has helped lead.
This February, former President Jimmy Carter wrote on behalf of the Elders, the group of global leaders brought together by Nelson Mandela to promote peace:
We are especially concerned to hear that Abdallah Abu Rahma, the coordinator of the Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements in Bil’in, was detained in a night raid on 10 December last year and faces charges of incitement, stone throwing and organizing and participating in illegal marches. […] Abu Rahma is a middle-aged school teacher who eschews violence including stone throwing.
Catherine Ashton, Europe’s Hillary Clinton, protested the conviction. Why hasn’t Hillary done so?
Perhaps the failure of the U.S. media to simply report the news might have something to do with it?
You can ask Secretary of State Clinton to speak out, as Europe’s Catherine Ashton has, by calling the State Department’s comment line at 202-647-6575 and pressing 1.
Or you can use the State Department’s web form, choosing “E-mail a Question/Comment,” and topic “U.S. Foreign Policy/Middle East.” You could use a subject like “Conviction by Israeli court of Abdallah Abu Rahmah for nonviolent protest,” and a question like “I urge Secretary Clinton and other State Department officials to speak out against the conviction by Israeli military court of Abdallah Abu Rahmah for organizing nonviolent protests against the Israeli separation barrier in the West Bank, which has confiscated Palestinian land.”
You can write a letter for publication to the New York Times here; you can contact the Times’ news editors here; you can write to the Times’ Public Editor here.
The world has changed, the heroes are in every spot in the planet, they are regular citizens, they don’t wear a red hood or a mask, they don’t fly or read minds, who ever desire to be free and stand for his dreams and fight the occupiers with bare hands that is a hero worth remembering.
Every Palestinian is in his own merit a hero to remember, the silent resistant. Every Palestinian that never gave up their dream for an independent Palestine is silent hero.
They have fought The Zionist empire with almost bare hands, armed with only their dreams of freedom and their hands holding a Flag that means more than just a rug of cloth with colors.
The Palestine Flag is at the heart of every dissenter in the world, it means dreams for freedom, means occupation, blood, destruction, tears, torture, incarceration.
But more than anything means Love for your Home Land.
And in our mind the no Palestinians means brotherhood, fighting hand by hand with the brother that reach for help.
Help with your voice to raise awareness on Palestinians struggles, their suffering, their oppression that is worsening every day. Don’t wait for your leaders to do anything or for the Rich Media to report.
Use your power to unite with the world, help a family in Palestine, help a student to fulfill his dreams, write in your blogs, make a video of the crimes.
Be a silent hero, the future generation will thank your for it.
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