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    The Leaky Hourglass
    The Leaky Hourglass
    The Leaky Hourglass
    Ebook85 pages2 hours

    The Leaky Hourglass

    By Peter Higgins

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    About this ebook

    Whistleblowers have become a new phenomenon these days yet so few know about what motivates them to gather classified information and publish online for the sake of transparency. The most notorious whistleblower has remained behind locked doors for more than five years yet so few have delved into the mind of this man who single-handedly held the world captive as he published document after document in a filthy display of double standards and deception. The world was allowed to witness this doublespeak and see precisely how governments work in order to ensure national security.
    This new work from author Peter Higgins explores the mind of the whistleblower we all know yet don’t know. It is a risky piece - a ghost memoir - written from the perspective of the man himself. What is revealed to the reader is both the unwavering principles and idealism yet also the fragile spiritual predicament it puts him into. Is his idealism worth his incarceration and his restriction of freedoms? Does the world really need to know what governments do or is it better we don’t know? What is the end game for a publisher of classified documents?
    The author of The Leaky Hourglass investigates the background of the world’s most famous whistleblower and explores how this background contributed to how his life unfolded and how it affected his lifelong obsession with transparency. Was it his history as a computer hacker that led his astray or did his time as Mendax - noble liar - give his the inspiration to further expose the real world that lies behind the smoke and mirrors of announcements and press releases?
    If you are at all interested in this new form of reporting then you might find this work fascinating. Short and concise, this work offers an exciting glimpse into the mind of a man determined to follow his destiny no matter the cost. And if the reader enjoys this ghost memoir then they might enjoy the companion piece to this book titled PortalLeaks. Look for it here at Smashwords.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPeter Higgins
    Release dateDec 9, 2017
    ISBN9781370590100
    The Leaky Hourglass
    Author

    Peter Higgins

    Peter Higgins (1967- ) was born in Vancouver, Canada into a family that moved often during his childhood, which included Kelowna, Toronto, Winnipeg and Kingston. Mr. Higgins graduated with a philosophy degree from Queen's University in 1990 followed in 2004 by a masters degree in international relations from the University of Hong Kong. For a decade Mr. Higgins worked as a professional writer in Manila, Taiwan and Hong Kong until 2005 when he returned to Canada to create Wordcarpenter Publishing. He is the author of eight books, including The Hellmantle Testament, Zeitqualia, Visigoths in Tweed and Road Sailors. Mr. Higgins currently lives on Manitoulin Island with his family and border collie named Schopenhauer.

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      Book preview

      The Leaky Hourglass - Peter Higgins

      The Leaky Hourglass

      By Peter Higgins

      Smashwords Edition

      Copyright 2017 Wordcarpenter Publishing

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      This is a work of fiction.

      Table of Contents

      1. Fair Play in Death

      2. The Beginning

      3. I am a Conduit

      4. White Hair

      5. Puppies with Machine Guns

      6. The Leaking Business

      7. Organization of One

      8. The Life of Neo

      9. The Productive Fifth

      10. Unauthorized Biography

      11. The Cold Brick of Jail

      12. Cyber Vikings

      13. Berlin

      14. Censorship

      15. Review of the Legal Stuff

      16. The Thing in Sweden

      17. The Day My World Changed

      18. The Current State of Play

      19. Addressing World Leaders

      20. No More to Say

      - - - -

      1

      Fair Play in Death

      I don’t know how this will end so for the sake of history I will state my story as it happened so that history might judge me for what really happened, and not based on the propaganda of my critics.

      I sit here in the Ecuadorian embassy without much freedom at all, a lukewarm existence that - when compared to how I used to live - is pretty close to being imprisoned. The most important thing is that I’m safe. I trust my friends in the Ecuadorian government and am thankful for their pledge to me. For many years my overriding hope was that the world would become a different place – a place where anyone could communicate unhindered on the information superhighway. The end goal was to have a transparent forum to discuss the most important issues of our day, whether technical innovation or political or economic solutions. I saw it as a citizen government where we all could be earnest in how we created policies and designs to help us all. I wanted to harness direct access to the raw materials of history being written. My aim was (and still is) to help speed up the process of finding solutions so that our greatest thinkers and experts might be able to come closer to a more objective view of the events defining our generation. This vision however was flawed from the beginning, but I only realize that now. And that flaw - I admit now – was mine.

      Hubris was what brought me to where I am now in the embassy. Some might say it was my immature idealism that blinded me from the reality of real-world nation-state power politics, and my ignorance of how entities behave when protecting that power. I failed to take into account how far an organization will go to ensure their power remains undiminished from any troublesome truths that might hinder efficient production of maintaining that power, or inhibit the achievement of quotas within a pertinent timeframe. Fueled with lofty thoughts and occasional wafts of marijuana in my ivory tower, I created a submission platform for those in need of a trumpeting mouthpiece where they remained anonymous and unstained by the burdens of identity so that only the words and not the person might be seen. The idea, as simple as it was, lured those who were exposed to hidden truths and gave them protection to speak out in altruistic bursts so the world could know the real dynamics of events and benefit from rectifying these wrongs. This new type of anonymous whistleblower could expose the half-truths and propaganda spin that so often resulted in the misrepresentation of reality.

      *

      The summer of 2010 was full of fast days and work-filled nights. I spent my time polishing and perfecting the submission platform of the website and made sure the interface was intuitive enough so that anyone could navigate the site and send raw data pockets to us. I sought to generate awareness through chatrooms such as 4Chan that a safe online oasis existed. I wanted people to be better informed and to thus engage in a meaningful debate of the issues because the information from mainstream sources wasn’t precise due to missing facts and misinformation. On the chat at 4Chan it was always the same: smart computer geeks talking about the latest developments, each taking sides like we did when playing online video games. Taking a side against evil was always the beginning point. The point of orientation was to take down and overcome evil, which almost always represented the country that arrogantly played policeman of the world.

      Was the United States too easy a target simply because they actively sought to protect their international interests? Were they not acting rationally as a nation state by ensuring the flow of capital and taxable revenue in order to foster a stronger global security force - a logistical labyrinth requiring secure channels of communication? And with such a labyrinth the sheer volume of communications between parties were bound to have areas that were not secure, and people who thought what they saw were past the bounds of legality. But is this an excuse to not expose the criminal activity of those elected to office? The noble and righteous packets of communications far outweigh the criminal but when there is evidence of serious criminality that reveals government boldfaced lies, how can this not be brought to light? Can these activities be justified by wearing a national security hat?

      But the essential question to ask is: Are we living in a better world now that so many leaks have been published and read by the international online reading body? Have these new truths shocked governments around the world towards revolution and movements for change? Were some of these exposures just like revealing festering wounds that needed sunlight and air? With more great minds now aware of the real operations of the global engine, there should be more contributions of ideas pooled and dissected for the betterment of that engine, making it possible for a hyper-evolution point in world history. Indeed this ‘fifth estate’ will be marked as an "open-source

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