The Need for a Truth Commission

Now that the whole world is aware that the whole Afghan war has been nothing more than a huge money suck, a deliberate orgy of violence with the sole purpose of enriching weapons contractors, isn’t it about time that Julian Assange was released from prison, Edward Snowden welcomed home from exile, and Chelsea Manning vindicated?
After all, they were right. The information they released, about war crimes and skullduggery, is information that might have saved lives if anybody in government had listened to it.
In fact, isn’t it about time that there was a truth commission to go through all U.S. classified information (of which there is a huge amount, to be sure, but it pales compared to actually trying to monitor the internet), and declassify anything that is obviously classified just to cover somebody’s ass, or which poses no threat at all to U.S. military security. You know, all those studies, going back years, which show that global warming is a threat to our species, that marijuana is totally harmless and has scads of medicinal uses, and that most legislation is written by lobbyists. They could release all of the information about the Kennedy assassination, the other Kennedy assassination, the Martin Luther King assassination, and 9/11.
It would be an eye-opener, for sure. But, who could we trust on such a commission? Nobody in congress, for sure. We are likely to find out bad things about them, and they would be spending all their time figuring out how to keep their own stuff classified. The military, I trust even less. The Supreme Court? Hah.
It should be a fairly large number of people, so each flagged document could be checked two or three times, it should be people who can read fast and understand big words, and of course they will have to have some security clearance: over 18, no felonies, no known affiliations with terrorist groups or hostile nations, that sort of thing. I would suggest law students, of whom there are thousands at American Universities, and they could get extra credit, maybe based on how many documents reviewed, or their success rate. Maybe add some journalists into the mix, but nobody needs to get paid, they would be looking for the big scoop as their reward. You should have a few scientists involved, too. Surely there are some selfless, altruistic types among them who could contribute a few hours each week. Maybe add in some retired people or others who are just bored and home alone all day with nothing better to do.
Of course, with a few thousand people reading classified documents, there is a risk that someone might see something that was better left unseen. (I don’t think that’s likely, because I tend to the philosophy that anything that had to be done in secret was something that shouldn’t have been done) In any case, it’s better that a few government secrets be revealed that that they should be allowed to continue in secrecy, starting more wars, polluting the environment, and making themselves rich by destroying everything, for everybody, forever.
The government is supposed to represent the people. The idea that they can keep secrets from the people is absolute bullshit.