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'War on Whistleblowers' Film Highlights Dangers of Crackdown

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Rolling Stone - By John Knefel - Apr. 17 (Review) - A still from Robert Greenwald's film 'War on Whistleblowers' Greenwald describes the philosophical underpinnings of the national security state as two-fold. The first is an ideological belief that extreme secrecy results in increased security – "a notion

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"The Kissinger Cables": Three Years After "Collateral Murder," WikiLeaks Explores U.S. Diplomacy

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Apr. 08 (News Report) - The whistleblowing website WikiLeaks has just published "the Kissinger Cables," 1.7 million U.S. diplomatic and intelligence documents from 1973 to 1976 that include many once-secret memos written by former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. While the documents have been available to the public at the National Archives, WikiLeaks has created a searchable online database to allow anyone in the world to quickly search them.

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Organization Releases 1.7 Million U.S. Diplomatic Records Comprising 'The Kissinger Cables'

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Adam Goldberg - Apr. 08 (News Report) - The trove of more than 1.7 million documents contains "205,901 records relating to former US Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger." The massive data collection is part of the launch of the WikiLeaks Public Library of US Diplomacy, or PlusD, which a press release describes as holding "the world's largest searchable collection of United States confidential, or formerly confidential, diplomatic communications."

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The fun-filled ocean resort at Guantánamo Bay |

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Glenn Greenwald - Mar. 28 (Advocacy) - A growing hunger strike among detainees is mocked by gullible journalists spouting familiar Potemkin Village propaganda If you're looking for a fun activity-filled resort to take your family for a summer vacation, you simply cannot do better than Club GTMO, according to a new glossy travel guide just published by Robert Johnson, the Defense Editor of Business Insider, under the guise of a news article. Scrumptious meals. Video games galore for the kids. Outdoor sports. Newspapers from your hometown delivered by smiling bellhops to the front door of your villa. Picturesque Caribbean vistas. All that and more can be yours - provided that you're "compliant". What more could vacationers - or prisoners kept in a cage for more than a decade with no charges thousands of miles away from their family - possibly want? They are, proclaims Johnson, treated "absurdly well". Not just well: absurdly well. They are, he actually writes, lavished with "resort treatment". The context for Johnson's glowing ...

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Brazil Violently Ousts Indigenous Village Ahead of World Cup

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Global Voices - By Elisa Thiago - Mar. 25 (News) - Brazilian police violently evicted a group of indigenous people from a building they had occupied in Rio de Janeiro to make way for a sports museum, the latest in a series of evictions that have drawn criticism from human rights defenders as Brazil prepares to host the 2014 World Cup.

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BBC-Guardian Exposé Uses WikiLeaks to Link Iraq Torture Centers to U.S. Col. Steele & Gen. Petraeus

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Maggie O'Kane - Mar. 22 (Investigative Report) - A shocking new report by The Guardian and BBC Arabic details how the United States armed and trained Iraqi death squads that ran torture centers. It is a story that stretches from the U.S.-backed death squads in Central America during the 1980s to the imprisoned Army whistleblower Bradley Manning.

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Bradley Manning: The Face of Heroism

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0800

AlterNet - By Glenn Greenwald - Mar. 02 (Opinion) - "Manning's motivations in leaking, he said, was to 'spark a domestic debate of the role of the military and foreign policy in general', he said, and 'cause society to reevaluate the need and even desire to engage in counterterrorism and counterinsurgency operations that ignore their effect on people who live in that environment every day.'

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American 'Bloodlust' Led to Secrets Leak, Says Manning

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0800

readersupportednews.org - By Ed Pilkington - Mar. 01 (News Report) - "We were obsessed with capturing and killing human targets on lists and ignoring goals and missions. I believed if the public, particularly the American public, could see this it could spark a debate on the military and our foreign policy in general [that] might cause society to reconsider the need to engage in counter-terrorism while ignoring the human situation of the people we engaged with every day."

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Israel, Palestine and the Oscars

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0800

nationofchange.org - By Amy Goodman - Feb. 21 (Opinion) - What does a Palestinian farmer wear on the red carpet in Hollywood? We were almost prevented from knowing, as Burnat, his wife and 8-year-old son were detained at Los Angeles International Airport and threatened with deportation. Despite his formal invitation from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as an Oscar-nominated filmmaker, it took the intervention of Oscar-winning documentarian Michael Moore, who now sits on the Academy Board of Governors, followed by Academy attorneys, for Burnat and his family to gain entry into the country.

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Israelis puzzle over mysterious death of Mossad’s ‘Prisoner X’ Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/02/13/182979/israelis-puzzle-over-mysterious.html#storylink=cpy

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0800

McClatchy - By Frenkel - Feb. 15 (News Report) - Zygier was kept in a cell known as Wing 15 that had been designed for Yigal Amir, the man who assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Ari Shamay, a lawyer for Amir who visited him once in the cell, described it as a "four-by-four room, with next to nothing inside but a bed, shower and toilet." Cameras were fixed on the room and monitored 24 hours a day. Reports in Israeli newspapers have said the room had special sensors that monitored temperature and even heartbeat, though Israeli officials wouldn’t confirm those details. Israeli human rights groups have begun asking how, under those conditions, a prisoner manages to fashion a noose and hang himself before guards are able to intervene. On Wednesday, Israeli blogs speculated that the story of Zygier’s suicide was yet another cover-up, designed to disguise a more gruesome death

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Shocking: Reporting Factory Farm Abuses to be Considered "Act of Terrorism" If New Laws Pass

Sat, 26 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0800

AlterNet - By Katherine Paul, Ronnie Cummins - Jan. 26 (News) - How do you keep consumers in the dark about the horrors of factory farms? By making it an “act of terrorism” for anyone to investigate animal cruelty, food safety or environmental violations on the corporate-controlled farms that produce the bulk of our meat, eggs and dairy products. And who better to write the Animal and Ecological Terrorism Act, designed to protect Big Ag and Big Energy, than the lawyers on the Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force at the corporate-funded and infamous American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

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What Is an Assange?

Sat, 19 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0800

truth-out.org - By John Cusack, Jonathan Turley - Jan. 19 (Interview) - the material released by WikiLeaks ticked off the US government primarily because it showed that the government had been routinely lying to the American people. That produced tremendous anger from government officials who are not used to being exposed in this way, including members of Congress. These are people who tightly control what the public knows and what information is allowed out of the government.

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Bradley Manning Tells His Story

Sun, 02 Dec 2012 00:00:00 -0800

readersupportednews.org - By Ed Pilkington, - Dec. 02 (News Report) - In his first publicly spoken words since his arrest in May 2010, delivered at a pre-trial hearing at Fort Meade in Maryland, the soldier painted a picture of a Kafkaesque world into which he was sucked and in which he would languish for almost one excruciating year.

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Accused WikiLeaks Whistleblower Bradley Manning Testifies He Thought He Would “Die in Custody”

Sun, 02 Dec 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman, Michael Ratner, Juan Gonzalez - Dec. 02 (News Report) - Democracy Now: Accused WikiLeaks Whistleblower Bradley Manning Testifies He Thought He Would “Die in Custody” … Bradley Manning, the U.S. Army private accused of leaking hundreds of thousands of classified documents to the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks, has testified for the first time since he was arrested in May 2010.

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Julian Assange on WikiLeaks, Bradley Manning, Cypherpunks, Surveillance State

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Nov. 29 (Interview) - Assange vowed WikiLeaks would persevere despite attacks against it. On Tuesday, the European Commission announced that the credit card company Visa did not break the European Union’s antitrust rules by blocking donations to WikiLeaks. "Since the blockade was erected in December 2010, WikiLeaks has lost 95 percent of the donations that were attempted to be transferred to us over that period. ... Our rightful and natural growth, our ability to publish as much as we would like, our ability to defend ourselves and our sources, has been diminished by that blockade."

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Bradley Manning deserves Americans' support for military whistleblowing

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - By Desmond Tutu, Mairead Corrigan-Maguire, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel - Nov. 16 (Opinion) - Thanks to WikiLeaks, US citizens are better informed about wars prosecuted in their name. We owe Manning honour, not jail time Last week, PFC Bradley Manning offered to accept responsibility for releasing classified documents as an act of conscience – not as charged by the US military. As people who have worked for decades against the increased militarization of societies and for international cooperation to end war, we have been deeply dismayed by his treatment. The military under the Obama administration has displayed a desire to over-prosecute whistleblowing with life-in-prison charges including espionage and "aiding the enemy", a disturbing decision which is no doubt intended to set an example. We have dedicated our lives to working for peace because we have seen many faces of armed conflict and violence, and we understand that no matter the cause of war, civilians always bear the brunt of the cost. With today's advanced military technology and the continued ability of business and ...

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Shell Blocks Employee Access to Activist Website

Tue, 02 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0700

yeslab.org - By Mary - Oct. 02 (Opinion) - Early Monday morning, 71,010 Shell employees received an email from the company's "Grassroots Employee Empowerment Division" providing information on Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum, a pivotal human rights case being argued in the U.S. Supreme Court. The email contained links to news stories, as well as a tool to help employees tweet their feelings about the case at key US news anchors (and Oprah Winfrey). The only thing is, Shell has no "Grassroots Employee Empowerment Division," and they don't want publicity for the case.

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You Can't Ever Stop Being Vigilant: The Role of Alternative Media in Protecting Democracy

Sun, 09 Sep 2012 00:00:00 -0700

truth-out.org - By Beverly bell - Sep. 09 (Interview) - I would define alternative media as media not controlled by mega-corporations or big business or very wealthy people. It is not necessarily progressive. Probably there are some AstroTurf alternative media out there, outlets that appear to be independent but are funded by the people who fund right-wing think tanks and other ideological ventures.

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Don't Let'em Persecute Wikileaks, It'll Make Journalists Criminals Around the Globe

Sat, 25 Aug 2012 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Michael Moore, Oliver Stone - Aug. 25 (Opinion) - We have spent our careers as filmmakers making the case that the news media in the United States often fail to inform Americans about the uglier actions of our own government. We therefore have been deeply grateful for the accomplishments of WikiLeaks, and applaud Ecuador's decision to grant diplomatic asylum to its founder, Julian Assange, who is now living in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London.

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Tariq Ali, Ex-U.K. Ambassador Craig Murray Praise Ecuador for Granting Asylum to Julian Assange

Mon, 20 Aug 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman, Tariq Ali, Craig Murray - Aug. 20 (News Report) - Shortly before Julian Assange spoke on Sunday, a number of his supporters spoke outside the Ecuadorean embassy. Speakers included writer and activist Tariq Ali, as well as Craig Murray, the former British ambassador to Uzbekistan. Murray, a whistleblower himself, was removed from office in 2004 after he exposed how the United States and Britain supported torture by the Uzbek regime. "The fact that [British Foreign Secretary] William Hague now openly threatens the Ecuadoreans with the invasion of their sovereign premises is one further example of a total abandonment of the very concept of international law by the neoconservative juntas that are currently ruling the former Western democracies," Murray says. [includes rush transcript]

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Julian Assange Attacks U.S Over 'Witch Hunt' Against Wikileaks

Sun, 19 Aug 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Alana Horowitz - Aug. 19 (News Report) - Julian Assange spoke in public on Sunday for the first time in months. He addressed a large crowd of supporters from the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he has been granted asylum. Assange called on the U.S. to end its "witch hunt" against Wikileaks. He also said that Obama needs to "do the right thing" and release Bradley Manning, the U.S. soldier charged with leaking classified information to Wikileaks.

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Ecuador Grants Julian Assange Asylum; U.S. Seen as "Hidden Hand" Behind U.K. Threat to Raid Embassy

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Aug. 16 (News Report) - As Ecuador prepared to announce its decision on granting asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, Britain threatened to raid the Ecuadorean embassy in London where Assange has taken refuge for the past two months. Britain told Ecuador that giving Julian Assange asylum would not change a thing and that it might still revoke the diplomatic status of Quito’s embassy in London to allow the extradition of the WikiLeaks founder to Sweden to face questioning over alleged sexual misconduct

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How WikiLeaks Transformed Brazil's Media

Wed, 08 Aug 2012 00:00:00 -0700

The Nation - By Natalia Viana - Aug. 08 (Special Report) - Beyond the revelations themselves, “Cablegate” in Brazil would have a significant impact on the profession of journalism and strengthen the culture of transparency even as the country was starting to revisit the legacy of its military dictatorship. Brazil was the first South American country to receive the cables—thanks to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s strategic dissemination plan, and to that little pen drive.

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WikiLeaks in Latin America: Online Whistleblower's Wide Impact in Region Where Assange Seeks Asylum

Fri, 03 Aug 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Peter Kornbluh, Amy Goodman - Aug. 03 (News Report) - If Julian Assange is granted asylum in Ecuador, he will become a resident of Latin America, where the trove of classified U.S. State Department cables he strategically disseminated through WikiLeaks has generated hundreds of headlines, from Mexico to Chile. A year after thousands of cables on Latin America were first released, the revelations have had different results -- in two countries it led to the forced departure of the U.S. ambassador; in another it helped change the course of a presidential election. We're joined by Peter Kornbluh, guest editor of "WikiLeaks: Latin America," a recent edition of The Nation magazine devoted to exploring the impact of Wikileaks across the region. Kornbluh is a senior analyst on Latin America at the National Security Archives. [Transcript to come. Check back soon.]

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Glenn Greenwald: As WikiLeaks Reveals Syria Files, Assange Remains in Ecuador Embassy Seeking Asylum

Thu, 05 Jul 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Glenn Greenwald, Juan Gonzalez - Jul. 05 (News Report) - WikiLeaks announced today it has begun publishing the Syria Files – more than two million emails from Syrian political figures, ministries and associated companies, dating from August 2006 to March 2012. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange could not attend today’s press conference announcing the release of the data trove because he is still inside the Ecuadorean embassy in London in an attempt to avoid extradition to Sweden. According to WikiLeaks,

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