Portraits of "Americans who tell the truth"

Artist Robert Shetterly's ongoing series of portraits of "Americans Who Tell The Truth" includes a recently-unveiled painting of John Kiriakou, the former CIA agent and counterterrorism adviser who became a torture whistleblower and was sentenced today to 30 months in prison:

Even if torture works, it cannot be tolerated -- not in one case or a thousand or a million. If their efficacy becomes the measure of abhorrent acts, all sorts of unspeakable crimes somehow become acceptable. I may have found myself on the wrong side of government on torture. But I’m on the right side of history. …There are things we should not do, even in the name of national security. One of them, I now firmly believe, is torture.

There's a book, too. More about the project here. Bradley Manning is among the more recent news figures who is also included in the series.

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

MORE: art • leaks • paintings • politics • whistleblowers

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http://www.facebook.com/ted.hurley2 Ted Hurley

Heroes, IMO.
http://twitter.com/bobledrew Bob LeDrew

I was an unlikely fan of Robert Shetterly, in that I was editing small magazines in Halifax, and subscribed to Maine Times, well, to steal ideas from them. He was their editorial illustrator, and one of his illustrations struck me so much that I bought it. It’s still with me, 21 years later. I love it. And I’m glad to see that he’s taken his gifts even further in the time since.
noggin

People like this and the laws that are (mis)-used against them are why presidential pardons exist.
- aikimoe
  
  Unfortunately, they’re out of luck with this President.
  
  http://www.propublica.org/article/obama-has-granted-clemency-more-rarely-than-any-modern-president
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    There’s a person who makes submissions to the President, and apparently the current person who does that thinks that nobody should be spared.
    - aikimoe
      
      And that person is employed by the President. That person can easily be replaced by the President.
    - class_enemy
      
      I’m sure that if that excuse had been offered on behalf of Dubya, you’d have accepted it, right??
      - Antinous / Moderator
        
        The media wouldn’t have printed the story, so I wouldn’t have known.
        
        And I’m not defending him, just describing the mechanism.
millie fink

I’ve long been a fan of this series, so thanks for the reminder. I clicked through in search of posters — they exist!

http://www.americanswhotellthetruth.org/store/posters
John Friend

Interesting….. Presidential pardons Where, other than in a dictatorship, can one leader override the decision of the judicial branch of government. Another one to consider…. Executive Orders. What other form of government, besides a dictatorship, allows one individual to make rulings.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  Well, a simple look at Wikipedia will tell you that it works that way in many democratic countries.
class_enemy

To paraphrase Dorothy Parker, this selection generally runs the whole gamut of ideology all the way from A to B.

But I do give credit to the very few names here who are as vocally anti-war today as they were on January 19, 2009.
EH

SO BRAVE
ChuckTV

So you’re calling Abraham Lincoln a traitor? Interesting…
millie fink

Pfft!!
K Klems

Thank you for your totally unbiased opinion.

http://ronlisazoe.com/