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Ralph Nader: Wikileaks and the First Amendment

Ralph Nader: Wikileaks and the First Amendment

By RALPH NADER

Thomas Blanton, the esteemed director of the National Security Archive at George Washington University described Washington's hyper-reaction to Wikileaks' transmission of information to some major media in various countries as "Wikimania."

In testimony before the House Judiciary Committee last Thursday, Blanton urged the Justice Department to cool it. Wikileaks and newspapers like The New Yorks Times and London's Guardian, he said, are publishers protected by the First Amendment. The disclosures are the first small installment of a predicted much larger forthcoming trove of non-public information from both governments and global corporations.

The leakers inside these organizations come under different legal restrictions that those who use their freedom of speech rights to publish the leaked information.

US military defends treatment of WikiLeaks suspect

US military defends treatment of WikiLeaks suspect [straitstimes.com] WASHINGTON - THE US military on Friday said the army private suspected of passing secret documents to WikiLeaks is being treated humanely in prison, despite accusations of harsh conditions. Held at a military brig at the Quantico Marine base, Bradley Manning has been placed under a maximum security regimen because authorities see him as posing a risk to national security, said prison spokesman First Lieutenant Brian Villiard. 'Maximum custody detainees' include 'those whose escape would cause concern of a threat to life, property or national security,' Lt Villiard told AFP. 'What I will tell you is that he is not treated any differently than any other maximum confinement detainee,' he said.

Why I'm Posting Bail Money for Julian Assange | MichaelMoore.com

Why I'm Posting Bail Money for Julian Assange | MichaelMoore.com

By Michael Moore

Yesterday, in the Westminster Magistrates Court in London, the lawyers for WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange presented to the judge a document from me stating that I have put up $20,000 of my own money to help bail Mr. Assange out of jail.

Furthermore, I am publicly offering the assistance of my website, my servers, my domain names and anything else I can do to keep WikiLeaks alive and thriving as it continues its work to expose the crimes that were concocted in secret and carried out in our name and with our tax dollars.

We were taken to war in Iraq on a lie. Hundreds of thousands are now dead. Just imagine if the men who planned this war crime back in 2002 had had a WikiLeaks to deal with. They might not have been able to pull it off. The only reason they thought they could get away with it was because they had a guaranteed cloak of secrecy. That guarantee has now been ripped from them, and I hope they are never able to operate in secret again.

So why is WikiLeaks, after performing such an important public service, under such vicious attack? Because they have outed and embarrassed those who have covered up the truth. The assault on them has been over the top:

Safe World for Women |Free Nasrin Sotoudeh, Human Rights Defence Lawyer on trial in Iran

Safe World for Women |Free Nasrin Sotoudeh, Human Rights Defence Lawyer on trial in Iran - Sign the Petition | Change.org | Change.org

Targeting: Mr. Juan Méndez (UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment), Ms. Margaret Sekaggya (UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights Defenders), and Gabriela Carina Knaul de Albuquerque e Silva (United Nations Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers )

Started by: Safe World for Women

UPDATE: Sunday 12th December: NASRIN'S CONDITION IS DETERIORATING FAST - WITH ALARMING REPORTS THAT SHE MAY NOW HAVE GONE INTO A COMA

Please do all you can to share this petition widely. Thank you.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

"If any government can block the power of a human rights attorney, its hands are free to treat its critics and opponents in any manner it desires. Unfortunately the international community allowed the government to break this barrier."


Reza Khandan, husband of Nasrin Sotoudeh.

Nasrin Sotoudeh is a leading human rights lawyer widely respected for her efforts on behalf of juveniles facing the death penalty and for her defense of prisoners of conscience. 

In 2008, Nasrin won the International Human Rights Award.

On 4th September, 2010, she was arrested by the Iranian authorities, alledgedly on charges of spreading propaganda and threatening state security. She has been held in solitary confinement ever since.

On 25th September, 2010, Nasrin began a hunger strike, which she has recently resumed.

Nasrin's trial, based on charges of spreading propaganda and threatening the State, is ongoing.

"The world should know that all she has done is to earn this punishment is support her clients.

Even when she was threatened with arrest, she continued to support her clients with bravery and determination. The world must support her now.

Nasrin has many faces. When she is with the children, she leaves her professional world to be a real mother, and as a professional she gives a new meaning to what professionalism means. She is also a wonderful spouse.

Whenever there is a contact, whether in presence or by phone, we miss her even more."

Reza Khandan.

Please sign this petition to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers and the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights Defenders who, between them, are mandated to 'protect human rights defenders who are lawyers acting in the discharge of their professional duties,' and to inquire into any substantial allegations sent to them. 
Petition Text Action for independence and immediate release of Human Rights Defence Lawyer, Nasrin Sotoudeh Greetings,

I am writing to express my horror and deep concern at the ongoing imprisonment and trial of Nasrin Sotoudeh, Human Rights Defence Lawyer in Iran and winner of the 2008 International Human Rights Award, and the alarming news that her condition is deteriorating rapidly.

In the words of Nasrin's husband, Reza Khandan:

"If any government can block the power of a human rights attorney, its hands are free to treat its critics and opponents in any manner it desires. Unfortunately the international community allowed the government to break this barrier."

Nasrin Sotoudeh, as you will know, is on trial for charges of propaganda against the system and aiming to harm state security. She has been held in solitary confinement since her arrest, has been allowed very little contact with famiily and lawyers and is now back on hunger strike.

I implore you to act with the utmost urgency, according to your respective mandates, and do all within your power to:

1) Inquire into these substantial allegations against Nasrin Sotoudeh
2) Protect the independence of Nasrin Sotoudeh as a defence attourney who was acting in the discharge of her professional duty
3) Cooperate closely with relevant United Nations bodies, mandates and mechanisms and with regional organisations
4) Send an urgent appeal to the Iranian authorities.

Nasrin's condition is deteriorating fast, with extremely alarming reports that she may now have gone into a coma.

Please do all you can to intervene and ensure the immediate and unconditional release of Nasrin Sotoudeh.

With respect,

<input id="Letter_Content" name="Letter_Content" value="I am writing to express my horror and deep concern at the ongoing imprisonment and trial of Nasrin Sotoudeh, Human Rights Defence Lawyer in Iran and winner of the 2008 International Human Rights Award, and the alarming news that her condition is deteriorating rapidly. In the words of Nasrin's husband, Reza Khandan: &quot;If any government can block the power of a human rights attorney, its hands are free to treat its critics and opponents in any manner it desires. Unfortunately the international community allowed the government to break this barrier.&quot; Nasrin Sotoudeh, as you will know, is on trial for charges of propaganda against the system and aiming to harm state security. She has been held in solitary confinement since her arrest, has been allowed very little contact with famiily and lawyers and is now back on hunger strike. I implore you to act with the utmost urgency, according to your respective mandates, and do all within your power to: 1) Inquire into these substantial allegations against Nasrin Sotoudeh 2) Protect the independence of Nasrin Sotoudeh as a defence attourney who was acting in the discharge of her professional duty 3) Cooperate closely with relevant United Nations bodies, mandates and mechanisms and with regional organisations 4) Send an urgent appeal to the Iranian authorities. Nasrin's condition is deteriorating fast, with extremely alarming reports that she may now have gone into a coma. Please do all you can to intervene and ensure the immediate and unconditional release of Nasrin Sotoudeh. With respect, "

PBS Interview; The Redacting and Selection of Wikileaks documents by the Corporate Media

PBS Interview; The Redacting and Selection of Wikileaks documents by the Corporate Media
[globalresearch.ca] GROSS: Were you surprised to hear that Senator Lieberman had suggested the Justice Department investigate the New York Times?

Mr. SANGER: No, in fact, I had suspected that we would probably hear more calls like this at various points in this debate, and I think most people recognized that what the Times was trying to do was make sense of an enormous mass of material that was out in the world anyway.

If we had done nothing, if we had ignored it, I think it would have looked strange. I think that also would have been irresponsible. It is the responsibility of American journalism, back to the founding of this country, to get out and try to grapple with the hardest issues of the day and to do it independently of the government.

And we can argue for a long time whether this material ever should have leaked, and I have a lot of concerns about the leakage of classified information. I've also got a lot of concerns about the over-classification of information. But the fact of the matter was that this information's out there.

GROSS: Let me quote something that Julian Assange just wrote in an op-ed piece that was published in Australia, and he is an Australian citizen. He wrote: WikiLeaks is not the only publisher of the U.S. embassy cables. Other media outlets, including Britain's The Guardian, the New York Times, El Pais in Spain and Der Spiegel in Germany have published the same redacted cables, yet it is WikiLeaks, as the coordinator of these other groups, that has copped the most vicious attacks and accusations from the U.S. government and its acolytes.

The Australian Prime Minister Gillard and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have not had a word of criticism for the other media organizations. That is because the Guardian, the New York Times and Der Spiegel are old and large, while WikiLeaks is as yet young and small.

Do you consider Julian Assange a journalist?

Mr. SANGER: I don't, and the reason is that I believe what journalists do is not only dig out information but filter it, explain it, put it in context, do those things that you've come to expect of the New York Times and other great American newspapers and other media organizations for many decades. That's a very different thing from simply downloading a computer system and throwing it out onto the World Wide Web.

He's coming to this with a political motivation. As journalists at the Times and elsewhere, we are not. We are coming at this to explain the world. He was trying, as - just to use his own words, to embarrass the United States and make clear that America's actions are different than its rhetoric.

Well, in fact when you look through these documents, America's actions are pretty consistent with its rhetoric.

The American civil war re-enactment society | Diane Roberts

The American civil war re-enactment society | Diane Roberts | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

About five minutes after Lee surrendered at Appomattox courthouse in 1865, the white south got busy rewriting history, rebranding slavery as either benign paternalism or an accident that wasn't their fault: after all, the English brought the first slaves from Africa to the southern colonies. Those marketing geniuses of the "lost cause" renamed the carnage of 1861-65 the "war of northern aggression" and cast the Confederacy as a doomed but romantic collection of patriots: Saxons resisting Norman hegemony, Jacobites risking all for Bonnie Prince Charlie, or some other pseudo-history cadged from the novels of Sir Walter Scott.

These days, conservatives are the new Confederates. They may not all dress up and play Scarlett and Rhett, but their politics are at least 150 years old. Since Barack Obama was elected president, Fox News apocalypticist Glenn Beck has predicted a new civil war is coming. Senator-elect Rand Paul has expressed distaste for the Civil Rights Act. "Tenthers" – those who believe that the 10th Amendment gives states sovereignty – are increasing in number in state legislatures and in Washington. Recently, a Tea Party leader in North Carolina wrote in his newsletter, "Washington DC has become destructive of our economy and liberty. It is our right and our duty to throw off such a government."

VOA | Analysts: WikiLeaks Following New Strategy in Document Release

VOA | Analysts: WikiLeaks Following New Strategy in Document Release | News | English

Former Washington Post managing editor Phil Bennett, who now teaches journalism at Duke University, says Assange is parceling the documents out because he was dissatisfied that stories about the previous documents fell from public attention relatively quickly.

"He was unhappy about the way those stayed in the news and wanted 'more bang for the buck' [more attention over a longer period of time]," said Bennett. "And I think there's no doubt that they're parceling out the information in a way to keep the story alive and sustain interest in it."

This piecemeal release of classified cables has troubled U.S. officials.

Former CIA deputy director John McLaughlin says officials do not like surprises, and they are getting new ones every day.

"The fact that this is dribbling out, if you're in government now you have to wonder, 'What's next, and what am I going to have to cope with?' And it's likely to come at a bad time when you already have your hands full," said McLaughlin. "So it's another volatile factor in a world that's already too volatile."

Johnny Logan Spencer Sentenced To Nearly 3 Years In Prison For Threatening Obama In Poem

It seems like every threat goes unnoticed when it comes to the far right against President Barack Obama.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

21 year-old poor Tamil lady hanged and beaten in the Busa Army Camp-srilankaguardian.org

Sri Lanka Guardian: 21 year-old poor Tamil lady hanged and beaten in the Busa Army Camp

(December 04, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) A Tamil lady from Badulla in the plantation sector, working as domestic servant was arrested in Colombo following a complaint by her master and his wife that she is associated with the LTTE.

Sadashivam Krishnameni came to Colombo to earn a living and help ease her parents’ financial difficulties. She found a job as a domestic servant in a house in Seeduwa in the suburb of Colombo. The head of the house is an employee of the Sri Lanka national airways ‘Sri Lankan’ and his wife is employed with the Sri Lanka Air Force.
Krishnameni was working there for about a week, when the police from the Seeduwa police station came to the house and checked her national identity card. The policemen ordered her to report at the police station to record a confession.
Her master and wife accompanied her to the police station. Instead of recording her confession as told, the police detained her in the police station for two months without producing her before the Court.

"Who You Are Have Made Me Possible"; An Open Letter to Joseph,Marlon& Essex on World AIDS Day

Selah: An Online Meditation Journal - "Who You Are Have Made Me Possible"; An Open Letter to Joseph,Marlon& Essex on World AIDS Day

I remember when I first came across “In The Life” and watched “Tongues Untied”. I cried both nights after. I cried because I had lived too long to never know you.

I was 23 then, struggling with my own sexuality and politics, working at AID Atlanta as an organizer, taking Women’s studies & African American studies courses at Georgia State University; unknowingly continuing the work each of you were apart of.

But before then.. ..

I didn’t know you existed ; and it hurt me…


I went to high school in rural Georgia, my home less than 4 miles from the high school you attended Marlon. When my same sex desires arose within me there were no models around me to know how to navigate the slurs. I didn’t know how to dodge the dangerous desires of homophobes or how to circumvent the chaos of conundrums which would become my identity. I thought I was the only one.


I didn’t know you existed Marlon; and it hurt me….

West Papua: KNPB Congress: West Papua Must Unite For Referendum

West Papua: KNPB Congress: West Papua Must Unite For Referendum - Indigenous Peoples Issues and Resources

KOMITE NASIONAL PAPUA BARAT [KNPB]
WEST PAPUA NATIONAL COMMITTEE


We inform to all the international media, the international community and to all the observers of the West Papua problem that KNPB (the West Papua National Committee) has held the I Congress in the Kampung Harapan, Jayapura on 19 untill November 22 2010. This congress was attended by delegation from territories and the consulate from various elements that were combined in KNPB.


The first Kongres of KNPB produced the resolution that became the attitude and the commitment of all the participant, that: the Focus of the KNPB Program was to finish up the status of West Papua through the process of politics and the law. To push the process of the resolution legally and politics, KNPB nationally reduced the political program and the organisation. Firstly, the Political program of KNPB is to achieve the goal of the West Papua, that is Independent in a manner Politics went through the most democratic rout that is the Referendum. Secondly, the Organisation program that is KNPB as the media pushed the formation of the Nasional of West Papua Council as the body representative, at the same time as the symbol of the association in driving the struggle through to the formation of the temporary Government post the referendum.


Better scrutinised and understood the discussions whole in the congress that was held, the forum for the congress of the I Komite Nasional Papua Barat [KNPB] produced resolutions that were unity of the attitude and the resolve from all over delegation of the Papua people from the committee's territories and delegations of the organisation of the struggle, that is:


1. Immediately to finish up the West Papua politics status through the referendum route as the most democratic solution and
2. Immediately carried out the internal strengthening of the struggle for the nation of West Papua through the association and the repairing in the defence of the military, civil and the International diplomat in the political and organisation program of KNPB.
3. We urge the defence of the military to immediately unite and carry out the repairing in order to pushes the agenda towards the referendum.
4. We urge to all the elements of the struggle to immediately pushed the formation of the Nasional Council as the symbol of the national association towards the solution to the referendum in the problem resolution of West Papua.
5. Immediately stopped the debate and mutual conflicts between the foreign diplomat and immediately to unite in works of the campaign and diplomacy in order to pushes the process of the resolution through the law and politic route.


This congress also succeeded in choosing the central management for, where Buchtar Tabuni was chosen again with the unanimous vote to continue to become General Chairman of KNPB, whereas Mako Tabuni became Vice Chairman of KNPB. General Secretary was filled up by Agus Trapen and Danny Wenda. Whereas the national Spokesperson was Jefri Tabuni and Victor F. Yeimo was chosen to be the Internasional Spokesperson.


This this resolution was passed towards organised internal the struggle headed the nation goal of West Papua namely nation independence of West Papua.


“We Must End”

Sinceraly,


Victor F. Yeimo
International spokesperson (+6281384553160)