Silenced

John Kiriakou is the only person currently in prison for the CIA’s illegal torture activities – and he didn’t torture anyone. Thomas Drake was an NSA agent who reported on the agency for illegally spying on American citizens. SILENCED is an alarming documentary that takes us behind the scenes to hear the story of how two men, heroic in their level of patriotism, became two of only 11 people ever charged under the archaic Espionage Act of 1917 (eight under the Obama administration). Proving that whistleblower protection laws are the very foundation of a free republic, this film makes the argument that since 9/11, there has been an ever-blurring line between what is right and what is treasonous. And now, in the wake of the recent release of the Senate Intelligence Committee report on the CIA’s Detention and Interrogation Program, that line has clearly been ignored under the auspices of protection. SILENCED takes an incendiary look at how the lives of two men were destroyed for trying to do the right thing and at the accountability advocate, Jesselyn Radack, who risked her own freedom to bring their cases to the public. SILENCED is another example of how the most patriotic thing an American can do is the right thing. And how doing the right thing can land you in prison. – T.W.