Chicken Soup (Boney M Goes Club) - Who The Fuck Is #Wikileaks - #Anonymous #AntiSec #CableGate #Revolution #NP
[edit: a needed re-post!]
Source: youtube.com
The U.N. Declares Internet Access a Human Right
Getty
The U.N. Declares Internet Access a Human Right
The United Nations counts internet access as a basic human right in a report that bears implications both to on-going events in the Arab Spring and to the Obama administration’s war on whistleblowers. Acting as special rapporteur, a human rights watchdog role appointed by the UN Secretary General, Frank La Rue takes a hard line on the importance of the internet as ”an indispensable tool for realizing a range of human rights, combating inequality, and accelerating development and human progress.” Presented to the General Assembly on Friday, La Rue’s report comes as the capstone of a year’s worth of meetings held between La Rue and local human rights organizations around the world, from Cairo to Bangkok. The report’s introduction points to the impact of online collaboration in the Arab Spring and says that “facilitating access to the Internet for all individuals, with as little restriction to online content as possible, should be a priority for all States.”
The UN report overwhelmingly supports the internet as a communication platform, a boon to all democratic societies, but it also warns how the internet’s unique architecture threatens power brokers in those societies:
The vast potential and benefits of the Internet are rooted in its unique characteristics, such as its speed, worldwide reach and relative anonymity. At the same time, these distinctive features of the Internet that enable individuals to disseminate information in “real time” and to mobilize people has also created fear amongst Governments and the powerful. This has led to increased restrictions on the Internet through the use of increasingly sophisticated technologies to block content, monitor and identify activists and critics, criminalization of legitimate expression, and adoption of restrictive legislation to justify such measures.
La Rue’s mention of reach and anonymity celebrates Twitter and Facebook role in Egypt as much as it validates WikiLeaks in the United States. The Electronic Freedom Foundation says that the UN’s support for anonymous expression and the protection it affords should inform how governments regulate security and surveillance. Forms of online surveillance—be it Facebook’s privacy policy or the United States government’s expanding treason law to document leaks—“often [take] place for political, rather than security reasons in an arbitrary and covert manner,” La Rue argues. In short, broad surveillance powers or the erosion of privacy online endanger anonymity’s ability to protect dissenters and journalists alike when they speak out.
Stacked against the administration’s assault on whistleblowers, La Rue’s warnings are condemning:
The Special Rapporteur remains concerned that legitimate online expression is being criminalized in contravention of States’ international human rights obligations, whether it is through the application of existing criminal laws to online expression, or through the creation of new laws specifically designed to criminalize expression on the Internet. Such laws are often justified as being necessary to protect individuals’ reputation, national security or to counter terrorism. However, in practice, they are frequently used to censor content that the Government and other powerful entities do not like or agree with.
La Rue acknowledges the logistical barriers that some nations face when it comes to delivering internet service. Without the proper infrastructure, some nations simply can’t engage the internet as the “revolutionary” and “interactive medium” it’s proven itself to be. However, all nations should make plans to offer universal access and also maintain policy that won’t limit access for political purposes. In doing so, La Rue calls on governments to decriminalize defamation, do away with real-name registration systems—including the parameters in Facebook’s terms and conditions that allows governments to collect users’ names and passwords—and restrict rights only in the face of an imminent threat.
The United Nations’ strong position on anonymity online reads like a hat tip to WikiLeaks and its campaign for transparency, but it also sounds scolding towards governments like the United States’ that have waged wars against transparency. Likening the Obama administration’s increasing number of convictions using old treason laws against information leakers is censorship in no uncertain terms, the UN seems to say. And the government’s bad track record of protecting this type of free expression is ideologically just as bad as shutting the internet down altogether.
Sources
- United Nations report: Internet access is a human right, Nathan Olivarez-Giles, Los Angeles Times
- U.N. Special Rapporteur Calls Upon States to Protect Anonymous Speakers Online, Katitza Rodriguez, Electronic Freedom Foundation
2011-04-29: White House Punishing Press for Reporting on #FreeBradley #FreeManning
Reports have emerged over efforts by the Obama administration to chastise the San Francisco Chronicle, and in particular its reporter, Carla Marinucci, for reporting on a protest staged during an Obama fundraiser in support of incarcerated whistleblower, Bradley Manning.
Marinucci was present during the San Francisco fundraiser on April 21st when several Obama supporters stood to address the president with a protest song written specially for such occasions.
Along with other attendees at the event, the SF Chronicle reporter used her video-capable phone to record the event. She later posted the video in her report on the episode.
This action, by staunch supporters of the president, all of whom payed at least the minimum of $5000 to attend the event, was a stark indicator of how the administration’s inhumane treatment of Bradley Manning is beginning to alienate the president’s base, as he faces into his reelection campaign.
Marinucci’s footage was not the only footage that made it online. It was apparently, however, the only footage released by an official news outlet. The SF Chronicle was present at the event as part of the “print pool” - a common arrangement used by the White House when the full press corps is not able to attend. The conditions for this arrangement are that reports on the event remain textual, and that the report is submitted to the White House for redistribution to reporters who were not able to attend.
These conditions are now being used as a pretext to exclude Carla Marinucci from the ‘print pool’ for further events in the Bay Area. This is a clear demonstration of how authorities exert control over the media through the use of soft power - under the threat of removal of access and privileges when journalists start doing journalism.
Besides encroaching on the freedom of the press to report on matters of high public interest embarrassing to the president, the move would appear to be redundant, since Marinucci was not the only party to the event who recorded footage, nor was she the only person to post that video on the internet.
ABC 7.30 Interview with Julian Assange (April 2011) (by ffourfingerzz)
ABC 7.30 speaks to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
http://LeakSource.wordpress.com
Source: youtube.com
#Anonymous - #OpWant - #SPREADTHIS !
April 8, 2011
Hello Citizens of the World
This is a message from Anonymous Operation Want.
It has come to our attention that many people including journalists, wish to understand the relationship between the attacks on Julian Assange, publisher of Wikileaks, and the knowledge that Operation Want (Op Want) has recently provided to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (U.S. SEC) on April 1st, 2011 concerning the Wallenberg family and NASDAQ OMX.
Let us first note, we are aware that our information may be considered by some as mere coincidence. However, when coincidences pile up in numbers, patterns form that evolve into circumstantial evidence, thus making it difficult to deny the machinations of the rich and powerful are at play.
When it comes to the issues surrounding Assange and Wikileaks providing free and accurate information to the citizens of the world about wars, war crimes, government and banking corruption and the lack of said transparency, one must understand the opponents include some of the most wealthy and politically powerful players of the military industrial complex. This is where Sweden’s Wallenberg family comes into play. The Wallenbergs have an immense vested interest in the global war machine.
Anonymous independent researchers worldwide assembled data over the past four months for Operation Want. Examination of the Op Want data was based primarily on who in Sweden has the means and motives to bring Assange to Sweden from the U.K. via a smear campaign against him and Wikileaks, then ultimately extradite Assange to the United States for possibly the prosecution of alleged espionage. The Anonymous Want letter to the U.S. SEC is in opposition to their creating a new board seat for Sweden’s Wallenberg cartel on NASDAQ. The new seat would help give the Wallenberg’s further control over NASDAQ OMX, what appears to be in exchange for Assange’s extradition to the U.S.
Anonymous use of legal advice was for review, editing and filing the letter to the U.S. SEC. Therefore, this letter did not get into the issue of Assange and WikiLeaks, because that is not the issue before the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The letter to the SEC is about seven pages with twenty pages of backing exhibits.
Furthermore, below are dates associated with Assange which may help to understand the Wallenberg motivations in using their influence to extradite Assange to Sweden, then to the U.S. for questioning and prosecution. Each time Julian Assange was detained, and his personal freedom to travel taken away, Wallenberg’s received something that they really wanted from the U.S. Department of Justice and Government of Dubai.
If the U.S. SEC approves the requirement by NASDAQ OMX to change laws to benefit Sweden’s Wallenberg business cartel, it will be one more gift from the United States Government. And what does Sweden have that the US wants in return?
Dates:
December 8, 2010
· As arranged with UK authorities Assange gives himself up to London police and is taken to an extradition hearing at a Westminster court. He is remanded in custody pending another hearing on 14 December.
· ABB and Baldor Electric Company announced today that ABBs subsidiary, Brock Acquisition Corporation, is commencing the previously announced cash tender offer for all of the outstanding shares of common stock of Baldor.
December 16, 2010
· Assange has an electronic monitor put on him and, his freedom to travel taken away.
· Ruler of Dubai (Borse Dubai) releases over eight million shares of NASDAQ OMX to Wallenberg (Investor AB) through an agreement with Nomura.
January 11-12, 2011
· Wallenberg’s ”ABB,” a core business under Investor AB, has been trying to get the US Department of Justice (DoJ) to approve the acquisition of Baldor. The DoJ had launched an investigation into Anti-Trust matters and twice the DoJ gave ABB extensions. The last extension was scheduled to be over at midnight on January 11th.
· Julian Assange goes to court that day and is told that he still does not have his freedom.
· Wallenberg’s ABB get’s a third extension of time by the US DoJ to February 7th. Assange goes back to court and Wallenberg’s get the ABB Baldor purchase approved by DoJ.
February 3, 2011
· NASDAQ OMX sends a proposal to the US SEC requesting permission to have laws changed for Wallenberg’s Investor AB to acquire a seat on the NASDAQ OMX board of directors.
February 23, 2011
· NASDAQ OMX press release announcing Borje Ekholm, CEO of Investor AB, as a new board member, before the end of public comment and US SEC approval.
February 24, 2011
· District Judge Riddle ordered that Julian be extradited to Sweden.
April 1, 2011
· Attorney for Anonymous Operation Want, World Citizens for Truth and Freedom of Information, and the Prosperity Agenda file complaints against the NASDAQ OMX Group and Wallenbergs with the US SEC.
We are Anonymous.
Anonymous is Everyone.
Anonymous is Everywhere.
We do not forget.
We do not forgive.
Anonymous is Legion.
Expect us.
4.1.11 Letter of opposition sent to the SEC https://wikispooks.com/w/images/0/09/Anonymous-Operation_Want.pdf
4.3.11 Press Release
http://open.salon.com/blog/anonymous_operation_want/2011/04/04/4311_anonymous_news_release
Hello Poker, Husky and Juju.
Would you like to have OMX back under your control?
We understand more than you think. It appears more than a coincidence that the U.S. Department of Justice gave ABB all thoses extensions on the Baldor acquisition during the same time of the Swedish EAW and London court dates. Certainly looks like ABB got out of some Anti-Trust matters?
December 16th! Jacob,What happened on that day?
Julian Assange had an electronic monitor placed on him and his freedom to travel stolen.
Jacob Wallenberg,
What did you get? You got the Ruler of Dubai to give you over 8 millions shares of NASDAQ OMX at half price. Did you think nobody would notice these arrangements?
Then before the public has commented on the NASDAQ OMX proposal to have the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission change laws to your benefit and put your INVESTOR AB on the Board, it is announced in the press that it has already been done.
Why are you so sure that the U.S. SEC is going to change laws just for your benefit? Do you see Julian Assange as a trade commodity? Have you made a transfer deal with the U.S.? Is the Hillary and Holder helping you get your OMX baby back, so long as you can give them Julian Assange?
We are Anonymous.
Anonymous is Everyone.
Anonymous is Everywhere.
We do not forget.
We do not forgive.
We are Legion.
Expect us.
Friday, April 1st, 2011 -
Anonymous Operation Want, World Citizens for Truth and Freedom of Information, and the Prosperity Agenda took on NASDAQ OMX Group and Sweden’s elite Wallenberg Family.
Press Release from Anonymous http://issuu.com/ophiomorphos/docs/opwant
Copy of the legal opposition letter filed with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission
http://issuu.com/anonopwant/docs/anonopwants?mode=a_p
Video????.? Introduction to Anonymous Operation Want http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNgJsTIbIDA
#Pentagon fears #Anonymous attack, re: #WikiLeaks, #BradleyManning
Tuesday the Pentagon acknowledged fears of an attack by the Internet activist group Anonymous. The Pentagon is worried about what has been dubbed “Operation Bradical” - threats made in the name of the hactivist group Anonymous against the Quantico Virgina base where suspected Wikileaks whistle-blower Private Bradley Manning is currently being held.
The Pentagon fears the loose Internet collective known as Anonymous will stage some sort of cyber attack (Operation Bradical) against those responsible for detaining Manning in a Quantico military brig, keeping him in solitary confinement and forcing him to strip nightly and stand at attention naked each morning.
Private Bradley Manning is a US soldier suspected of giving documents to WikiLeaks. Manning is charged with stealing classified files and is suspected as the source for numerous secret documents published on the WikiLeaks website in recent months.
The WikiLeaks incident has infuriated and embarrassed US officials. Many feel Manning is being treated in a cruel and inhumane way by U.S. authorities because of the embarrassing and damning revelations made possible by Manning’s alleged contributions to WikiLeaks
Andy Greenberg at Forbes reports:
In a crowdsourced document used to coordinate the group’s actions, Anonymous hackers name Department of Defense Press Secretary Geoff Morell and chief warrant officer Denise Barnes as targets and call on members to dig up personal information on both, including phone numbers, personal histories and home addresses. The goal of the operation, for now, is to “dox” the two officials, the typical Anonymous method of publishing personal information of victims and using it for mass harassment.
“Targets established,” reads the document, before naming Morell and Barnes. “We’re in the ruining business. And business is good.”
The Forgotten Man - 45 Min Documentary (via journeymanpictures) #BradleyManning
Watch Full Film Here: http://vodsite.journeyman.tv/store?p=4487
Second only to Julian Assange, Bradley Manning is the most important figure in the Wikileaks controversy; his is alleged to have handed over hundreds of thousands of secret US war files and diplomatic cables. But, while the world watches Assange’s trial with baited breath, Manning is already wasting away in solitary confinement; this is the story of his daring intelligence heist. We hear the only recording of Bradley Manning’s voice and we listen to the logs of alleged conversations with the man who ultimately betrayed him.
Manning, a US army private, claims that he released the cables because, “I was actively involved in something I was completely against”. That is according to the Internet chat room logs that are the basis for his imprisonment. Manning’s exact relationship with Wikileaks remains unclear and the source that uncovered him to the US government has been called into question.
That source is Adrian Lamo. In an extraordinary interview he reveals how he came to know Bradley Manning, claiming the young soldier openly confessed to him his role in the WikiLeaks scandal. “I’m a high profile source … and I’ve developed a relationship with Assange”. Yet one of Lamo’s old friends Kevin Mitnick is suspicious of his evidence and his motives, “I call into question the authenticity of the chat logs, because I know his (Lamo) personality”.
Manning’s alleged emphasis on his relationship with Assange takes on greater importance as we explore the disputes that have erupted inside WikiLeaks. A former insider tells how he held deep reservations about Julian Assange’s determination to keep releasing material that might compromise his source. Yet when these accusations are put to the WikiLeaks boss he maintains to have not known Manning’s identity, “I never heard the name Bradley Manning before I saw media reports”.
There is little doubt America wants to punish Julian Assange and he, for his part, seems determined to persevere with his battle against the superpower. But to bring a case against him vital questions must be answered: How did Private Bradley Manning steal the classified material? How did he relay it to WikiLeaks? Did he do this of his own accord or did Julian Assange conspire with him to take the information? It all becomes even murkier when you take into account that the informant is an attention-seeking hacker of questionable morals.
Meanwhile Bradley Manning is wasting away in jail. David House is one of the few civilians allowed to visit him. He describes the young soldier’s mental deterioration and his struggle to deal with long hours of confinement, “…the US Government is just trying to put immense pressure on him in order to get him to crack open”.
Source: youtube.com
Bradley Manning Now "Catatonic"; Obama ENOUGH! :: www.uruknet.info :: informazione dal medio oriente :: information from middle east :: [vs-1]
As Obama’s crime of the destruction of Bradley Manning continues to unfold before our very eyes, Manning friend David House now tells us that over 8 months in isolation with movement and sleep restrictions placed on him have been having their intended effect. House has told MSNBC that by the end of January Manning appeared “catatonic” and that he had “severe problems communicating,” with it having taken House nearly 45 minutes on a recent visit to engage in any meaningful way (video below.) House said Manning’s demeanor was as “if he had just woken up and didn’t know what was going on around him.” Manning was “utterly exhausted physically and mentally…it was difficult to have any kind of social engagement.”
Also, a full month after Congressman Dennis Kucinich formally requested a visit, the Army has stalled on the request.
All for the crime of reporting war crimes and criminal behavior even among the highest-ranking military officials in Iraq.
In 2005, General Peter Pace, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said: “It is absolutely the responsibility of every U.S. service member [in Iraq], if they see inhumane treatment being conducted, to try to stop it.”
Chase Mader writes in HuffPo that soon after deployment to Iraq, Manning:
“soon found himself helping the Iraqi authorities detain civilians for distributing “anti-Iraqi literature” — which turned out to be an investigative report into financial corruption in their own government entitled “Where does the money go?” The penalty for this “crime” in Iraq was not a slap on the wrist. Imprisonment and torture, as well as systematic abuse of prisoners, are widespread in the new Iraq. From the military’s own Sigacts (Significant Actions) reports, we have a multitude of credible accounts of Iraqi police and soldiers shooting prisoners, beating them to death, pulling out fingernails or teeth, cutting off fingers, burning with acid, torturing with electric shocks or the use of suffocation, and various kinds of sexual abuse including sodomization with gun barrels and forcing prisoners to perform sexual acts on guards and each other…
Like any good soldier, Manning immediately took these concerns up the chain of command. And how did his superiors respond? His commanding officer told him to “shut up” and get back to rounding up more prisoners for the Iraqi Federal Police to treat however they cared to…”
Manning also found a video and an official report on American air strikes on the village of Granai in Afghanistan’s Farah Province (also known as “the Granai massacre”). According to the Afghan government, 140 civilians, including women and a large number of children, died in those strikes.
War crimes? What war crimes? This is the point of view of the Pentagon as it destroys Bradley Manning.
On the Haditha killings (found to be “collateral damage” by the Army despite an American officer’s unearthing and handing up the chain of command a video showing close up bullet wounds) a recent Counterpunch article by Medea Benjamin and Charles Davis recounts:
” Consider what happened to the U.S. soldiers who, over a period of hours – not minutes – went house to house in the Iraqi town of Haditha and executed 24 men, women and children in retaliation for a roadside bombing. I watched them shoot my grandfather, first in the chest and then in the head,” said one of the two surviving eyewitnesses to the massacre, nine-year-old Eman Waleed. “Then they killed my granny.” Almost five years later, not one of the men involved in the incident is behind bars. And despite an Army investigation revealing that statements made by the chain of command “suggest that Iraqi civilian lives are not as important as U.S. lives,” with the murder of brown-skinned innocents considered “just the cost of doing business,” none of their superiors are behind bars either.”
Massacres of civilians in retaliation for IEDs seems to have been standard fare in Iraq. Ethan McCord says his unit was ordered to engage in “360 rotational” fireand “kill every mother&* in the street” in the event of an IED. The officer who gave the order was Col. Ralph Kauzlarich, “the lost Kauz” who is featured in David Finkel’s book “The Good Soldiers.” Col. K is also the executive officer who led the first investigation into the death of Pat Tillman.
Josh Stieber, a McCord unit-mate who also witnessed the order, said the logic was to get residents to be “pro-active” in preventing the planting of roadside bombs. Brass knew that the people in the houses nearest probably saw it planted and didn’t say anything.
“Yeah, it was an order that came from Kauzlarich himself, and it had the philosophy that, you know, as Finkel does describe in the book, that we were under pretty constant threat, and what he leaves out is the response to that threat. But the philosophy was that if each time one of these roadside bombs went off where you don’t know who set it … the way we were told to respond was to open fire on anyone in the area, with the philosophy that that would intimidate them, to be proactive in stopping people from making these bombs …”
Now nine Afghan children have been killed after what the Army says was mistaken identity after a nearby rocket attack on American forces. These boys could have been the boys some on this site got to know well in the New Year’s Global Call for Peace (they weren’t, but they were just as precious.)
Defense Secretary Robert Gates once said people like Bradley Manning have “blood on their hands” for releasing documents which might identify Afghan informants. But look down Robert, and don’t flinch. They are dripping.
Commander-in-Chief Obama, order Bradley Manning released!
The White House
Phone Numbers
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
FAX: 202-456-2461
Webform for email: www.whitehouse.gov/contact
You can also comment on the WH FaceBook page.
Also demand your congressman speak up and castigate this administration for the treatment of Bradley Manning, leave a voicemail if it is after-hours (24/7):
Capitol switchboard: 202-224-3121
FreeBradley.org * Be An Army Of One For #BradleyManning
PFC Bradley Manning is a 23-year-old US Army soldier accused of leaking classified information while serving as an intelligence analyst in Iraq. Manning has been in custody since May of 2010, and is currently facing multiple charges, including one that potentially carries the death penalty, “aiding the enemy.”
Specifically, Manning is suspected of leaking the “Collateral Murder” video to the whistleblower web site WikiLeaks, which shows a US helicopter killing unarmed Iraqi civilians and Reuters journalists. He has also been charged with leaking classified Department of State cables, and is considered a person of interest in WikiLeaks’ “Afghan War Diary”.
The case has garnered much public debate, both supporters and detractors. Daniel Ellsberg, who released the infamous Pentagon Papers in 1971, has been quoted as saying, “If [Manning] has done what he is alleged to have done, I congratulate him.” On the other side, a Republican US congressman has been calling for Manning to be executed if found guilty, and he has been smeared by anti-gay groups like the Family Research Council as proof that allowing gays to serve in the military undermines America’s safety.
As of March 2011, Manning remains in solitary confinement at a military brig in Quantico, Virginia. He has been cut off from his family and friends, unable to even receive letters from his supporters around the world. Any prison is a frightening, lonely place- and Manning likely has a long ordeal ahead of him.
Whether ultimately found innocent or convicted of his charges, Bradley Manning is a brave young man who needs our support, and deserves to be freed. If he’s innocent of all charges, he’s a casualty in the Obama administration’s war on whistleblowers, and if convicted, he’s a hero for exposing war crimes and the true civilian costs of our wars in the Middle East.
This project was initiated by someone who has over a decade of experience with prisoner support and watching activist legal cases unfold, and the site has gained interest and input from other experienced organizers and activists. This site was set up specifically to provide people with real, tangible, individual ways in which they can personally get involved in helping Bradley Manning. This site is about getting active and creating a real, widespread movement of solidarity. No need to wait around for a protest to happen in your city- be the change you want to see!
If you would like to get in touch with this support site, email freebradley at freebradley dot org. If you would like to keep up on any important developments or be notified of new ways in which you can help, follow @FREEBRADLEYorg on Twitter.
If you would like to make a donation to the printing of “Free Bradley” stickers, you can send concealed cash or blank money orders to: FreeBradley.org, PO Box 20144, Seattle WA 98102. Every cent received will go directly to this outreach campaign, no “operational overhead” for a nonprofit foundation, no paid staff, no credit card processing fees. Plus, your donation to FreeBradley.org is anonymous, if that’s a concern for you. If more money is collected than gets spent on campaign materials, it will be donated directly to Bradley Manning’s prison commissary fund, directly to his attorney (if he ends up retaining paid counsel), or directly to Bradley himself if he is found innocent of his charges.
US probes hacker threat over #WikiLeaks soldier #Anonymous #BradleyManning
The image of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is seen on the whistleblowing website. The Pentagon said Tuesday it had requested an investigation into a hack group’s reported threat against a military base that is being used to hold a US soldier suspected of giving documents to WikiLeaks.
The Pentagon said Tuesday it had requested an investigation into a hacker group’s reported cyber threat against a military base that is being used to hold a US soldier suspected of giving documents to WikiLeaks.
Pentagon spokesman Colonel David Lapan said the probe was requested after news that the hacker group called Anonymous was seeking to disrupt online activities at the Quantico, Virginia, base where Private Bradley Manning is incarcerated.
“The base at Quantico, including the brig, are aware of that and they have made law enforcement agencies aware of that as well,” Lapan said.
The Financial Times reported that hackers known as “Anonymous,” which had claimed credit for attacks supporting WikiLeaks in recent months, was seeking to disrupt communications at the US Marine base.
Manning, 23, has been held at the prison since July under a maximum security regimen because authorities say his escape would pose a risk to national security.
The army private faces numerous charges of stealing classified files and is suspected as the source of a trove of secret documents published on the WikiLeaks website in recent months, which have infuriated and embarrassed US officials.
US military authorities brought additional charges against Manning last week, accusing him of illegally downloading vast numbers of secret government files and “aiding the enemy.”
His defense lawyers have filed a legal complaint over the conditions of his detention at Quantico, which include a “prevention of injury” watch, which his lawyer said includes being forced to sleep naked.
His supporters say the regimen is inhumane and has been deemed unnecessary by psychiatric experts.
The WikiLeaks website has yet to disclose its source for the US military and diplomatic documents published in recent months, but suspicion has focused on Manning, who worked as a low-ranking army intelligence analyst in Iraq.
Manning was arrested in May and authorities have yet to say when he will be put on trial. If found guilty, Manning faces up to 52 years in prison.
In December, the loose-knit group of hackers known as Anonymous staged cyber attacks on the websites of Visa, Mastercard, PayPal and others accusing them of withdrawing services to WikiLeaks.
#Anonymous Hackers Target Alleged WikiLeaker #BradleyManning’s Jailers
The emblem of hacker group Anonymous and Bradley Manning (right)
-
As army private Bradley Manning suffers for his alleged megaleak of secret documents to WikiLeaks, one group of hackers seems determined to make sure that others feel his pain.
Over the weekend, the loose hacker collective Anonymous declared that it will go on the offensive against those who are currently detaining Manning in a Quantico military brig, keeping him in solitary confinement and forcing him to strip nightly and stand at attention naked each morning.
In a crowdsourced document used to coordinate the group’s actions, Anonymous hackers name Department of Defense Press Secretary Geoff Morell and chief warrant officer Denise Barnes as targets and call on members to dig up personal information on both, including phone numbers, personal histories and home addresses. The goal of the operation, for now, is to “dox” the two officials, the typical Anonymous method of publishing personal information of victims and using it for mass harassment.
“Targets established,” reads the document, before naming Morell and Barnes. “We’re in the ruining business. And business is good.”
The group, which is calling its attack “Operation Bradical,” also lists demands as follows:
“Manning must be given sheets, blankets, any religious texts he desires, adequate reading material, clothes, and a ball. One week. Otherwise, we continue to dox and ruin those responsible for keeeping him naked, without bedding, without any of the basic amenities that were provided even to captured Nazis in WWII.”
One member of Anonymous, who tells me he’s not associated with the action, says that doxing will likely include “ruin life tactics” such as “ordering them pizza, sending them thousands of boxes, reporting them to police for drug abuse, sex offenders list, tricking their ISPs into canceling the Internet, messing with their social security numbers, false flag, fax harassment, phone harassment, email bombing, subscriptions to magazines, diapers, tampons.”
Nasty as they may be, those tactics seem relatively harmless in comparison to the attack that Anonymous recently launched against the security firm HBGary Federal in retaliation for one executive’s threats to unmask leaders of the hacker group. HBGary Federal chief executive Aaron Barr had his email archive hacked and published online along with that of his colleagues. HBGary Federal’s website was defaced and Barr’s Twitter account hijacked. After a series of scandals were revealed in the company’s published emails including a plan to launch cyberattacks and misinformation campaigns against WikiLeaks, Barr resigned last week.
Anonymous spokesperson Barrett Brown told the Tech Herald that harassment of Quantico officials will be just the first step in a “media war” against those detaining Manning. “Manning is an absolute hero,” Brown told the news site. “If this means me going to fucking prison, then that’s fine.”
Last week Manning was hit with 22 charges for his alleged role in a massive leak of classified information to WikiLeaks, including a charge of “aiding the enemy” that can carry a penalty of death. Since those charges were filed, Manning has been forced to strip naked nightly in a tactic that Quantico officials say is legal and aims to prevent suicide attempts, but others claim is designed to degrade and punish the young private. According to Manning’s lawyer David Coombs, Quantico officials have declined to state their full reasons for Manning’s stripping publicly to avoid “a violation of PFC Manning’s privacy.”
“The Brig’s treatment of PFC Manning is shameful,” Coombs wrote in a statement Saturday. “It is made even more so by the Brig hiding behind concerns for ‘[PFC] Manning’s privacy.’ There is no justification, and there can be no justification, for treating a detainee in this degrading and humiliating manner.”
#oldnews WikiLeaks will spill the beans on Israel (via infolivetvenglish) (WE’RE STILL WAITING!)
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange told Al-Jazeera on Wednesday, December 22nd that his
website will release hundreds of top secret US diplomatic cables on Israel.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, Assange said that the documents will include information on
Israel’s 2006 war with Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group, and this year’s assassination in
Dubai of a Hamas militant leader.
Assange, who was recently released from a British prison, said that he holds 3,700 more files
related to Israel, and the main source of them is the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv.
Source: youtube.com
#Anonymous plans defense for #BradleyManning
Anonymous plans defense for Bradley Manning - promises a media war
Given his treatment while in confinement, as well as the list of new charges against him, Bradley Manning has gained another set of champions to his dilemma. Anonymous has promised to avenge Manning, and wage a media war with the U.S. military.
The Tech Herald has spoken to one of those involved for a rundown of current events.
“Manning is an absolute hero. If this means me going to fucking prison, then that’s fine,” said Barrett Brown earlier today in an interview.
Brown, best described as a self-styled spokesperson for Anonymous, who enjoys some support from the loosely associative group, but some detraction as well, is well-known to us in the media.
He comes from a military family, and has a deep respect for the fighting troops he said. Yet, Manning’s treatment while in custody at the Quantico Brig has Brown and others working with him outraged.
Earlier today, Brown said that Manning must be given clothes, sheets, blankets, and access to books within the week, adding that Anonymous’ plans for those responsible for his conditions will play out in the public soon.
On the evenings of March 2 and March 3, Bradley Manning was forced to strip naked, remaining under observation in this condition within his cell for seven hours each night. The following mornings, still without any clothing, Manning was forced to stand at attention outside his cell as the Duty Brig Supervisor (DBS) arrived. Manning was later given his clothes.
“This type of degrading treatment is inexcusable and without justification. It is an embarrassment to our military justice system and should not be tolerated…No other detainee at the Brig is forced to endure this type of isolation and humiliation,” commented David Coombs, the lawyer representing Manning, who was once a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army.
The type of treatment given Manning is something that is a bit of an open secret. It’s used to break the will of the detainee and make them dependent on the interrogator, or the persons holding them. While an effective means of non-lethal coercion, it is frowned upon due to the damaging impact on a detainee’s mental health.
Such acts of isolation and embarrassment, or personal humiliation, have led to suicide attempts and extreme depression. Examples of this type of treatment were well established, as events at Guantanamo Bay prison were made public.
Anonymous’ outrage started after it was learned that Manning was to be charged with 22 additional counts, one of which could carry the death penalty. However, the military has said that the death penalty is off the table.
Manning was initially charged with 12 counts of illegally downloading and sharing a military operations video, as well as diplomatic documents and cables.
The new charges against him, added this week, include aiding the enemy, theft of public property or records, computer fraud, transmitting defense information in violation of the Espionage Act, and wrongfully causing intelligence to be published on the internet knowing it would be accessible to the enemy.
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The Truth Behind Quantico Brig's Decision to Strip PFC Manning
The Brig has stripped PFC Manning of all of his clothing for the past three nights, and they intend to continue this practice indefinitely. Each night, Brig guards force PFC Manning to relinquish all of his clothing. He then lies in a cold jail cell naked until the following morning, when he is required to endure the humiliation of standing naked at attention for the morning roll call. According to Marine spokesperson, First Lieutenant Brian Villiard, the decision to strip him naked every night is for PFC Manning’s own protection. Villiard stated that it would be “inappropriate” to explain what prompted these actions ”because to discuss the details would be a violation of PFC Manning’s privacy.”
The defense communicated with both PFC Manning and the Brig forensic psychiatrist and learned more about the decision to strip PFC Manning of his clothing every night. On Wednesday March 2, 2011, PFC Manning was told that his Article 138 complaint requesting that he be removed from Maximum custody and Prevention of Injury (POI) Watch had been denied by the Quantico commander, Colonel Daniel J. Choike. Understandably frustrated by this decision after enduring over seven months of unduly harsh confinement conditions, PFC Manning inquired of the Brig operations officer what he needed to do in order to be downgraded from Maximum custody and POI. As even Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell has stated, PFC Manning has been nothing short of “exemplary” as a detainee. Additionally, Brig forensic psychiatrists have consistently maintained that there is no mental health justification for the POI Watch imposed on PFC Manning. In response to PFC Manning’s question, he was told that there was nothing he could do to downgrade his detainee status and that the Brig simply considered him a risk of self-harm. PFC Manning then remarked that the POI restrictions were “absurd” and sarcastically stated that if he wanted to harm himself, he could conceivably do so with the elastic waistband of his underwear or with his flip-flops.
Without consulting any Brig mental health provider, Chief Warrant Officer Denise Barnes used PFC’s Manning’s sarcastic quip as justification to increase the restrictions imposed upon him under the guise of being concerned that PFC Manning was a suicide risk. PFC Manning was not, however, placed under the designation of Suicide Risk Watch. This is because Suicide Risk Watch would have required a Brig mental health provider’s recommendation, which the Brig commander did not have. In response to this specific incident, the Brig psychiatrist assessed PFC Manning as “low risk and requiring only routine outpatient followup [with] no need for … closer clinical observation.” In particular, he indicated that PFC Manning’s statement about the waist band of his underwear was in no way prompted by “a psychiatric condition.”
While the commander needed the Brig psychiatrist’s recommendation to place PFC Manning on Suicide Risk Watch, no such recommendation was needed in order to increase his restrictions under POI Watch. The conditions of POI Watch require only psychiatric input, but ultimately remain the decision of the commander.
Given these circumstances, the decision to strip PFC Manning of his clothing every night for an indefinite period of time is clearly punitive in nature. There is no mental health justification for the decision. There is no basis in logic for this decision. PFC Manning is under 24 hour surveillance, with guards never being more than a few feet away from his cell. PFC Manning is permitted to have his underwear and clothing during the day, with no apparent concern that he will harm himself during this time period. Moreover, if Brig officials were genuinely concerned about PFC Manning using either his underwear or flip-flops to harm himself (despite the recommendation of the Brig’s psychiatrist) they could undoubtedly provide him with clothing that would not, in their view, present a risk of self-harm. Indeed, Brig officials have provided him other items such as tear-resistant blankets and a mattress with a built-in pillow due to their purported concerns.
The Brig’s treatment of PFC Manning is shameful. It is made even more so by the Brig hiding behind concerns for “[PFC] Manning’s privacy.” There is no justification, and there can be no justification, for treating a detainee in this degrading and humiliating manner.
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