Monthly Archives: December 2014

Snowden receives ‘alternative Nobel Prize’ 2014 (FULL RLA ACCEPTANCE SPEECH) – Video

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Snowden receives #39;alternative Nobel Prize #39; 2014 (FULL RLA ACCEPTANCE SPEECH)
US whistleblower Edward Snowden has been awarded The Right Livelihood Award, commonly known as the Alternative Nobel Prize in Stockholm. His call was met with standing ovation of those ...

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Snowden receives 'alternative Nobel Prize' 2014 (FULL RLA ACCEPTANCE SPEECH) - Video

Snowden wins Swiss award for exposing gov′t spying 정부 폭로한 전 NSA요원 스노든 "대안 – Video

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Snowden wins Swiss award for exposing govt spying NSA "
And finally in Europe. The American fugitive... Edward Snowden has received one of Swedens highest honors... after exposing the extent of government surveillance in the U.S. and its reach...

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Snowden wins Swiss award for exposing gov′t spying 정부 폭로한 전 NSA요원 스노든 "대안 - Video

Edward Snowden wins Swedish human rights award for NSA …

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Snowden, speaking by video from Moscow, said: All the prices weve paid, all the sacrifices we made, I believe we would do again - I know I would.

Whistleblower Edward Snowden received several standing ovations in the Swedish parliament after being given the Right Livelihood award for his revelations of the scale of state surveillance.

Snowden, who is in exile in Russia, addressed the parliament by video from Moscow. In a symbolic gesture, his family and supporters said no one picked up the award on his behalf in the hope that one day he might be free to travel to Sweden to receive it in person.

His father, Lon, who was in the chamber for what was an emotional ceremony, said: I am thankful for the support of the Right Livelihood award and the Swedish parliament. The award will remain here in expectation that some time sooner or later he will come to Stockholm to accept the award.

Snowden is wanted by the US on charges under the Espionage Act. His chances of a deal with the US justice department that would allow him to return home are slim and he may end up spending the rest of his days in Russia.

His supporters hope that a west European country such as Sweden might grant him asylum. Members of the Green party called for him to be given sanctuary in Sweden.

Philanthropist Jakob von Uexkll, who established the award in 1980, told the parliament: So Mr Snowden, your Right Livelihood Award is waiting for you. We trust that Sweden will make it possible for you to collect your award here in Stockholm in person in the very near future.

The awards jury, in its citation, said Snowden was being honoured for his courage and skill in revealing the unprecedented extent of state surveillance violating basic democratic processes and constitutional rights.

The chamber was filled with members of parliament from almost all the parties as well as family and friends of those receiving the award.

The Guardian editor, Alan Rusbridger, was also among the recipients. The jury citation said his award was in celebration of building a global media organisation dedicated to responsible journalism in the public interest, undaunted by the challenge of exposing corporate and government malpractices.

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Amazon’s frightening CIA partnership: Capitalism, corporations and our massive new surveillance state

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When Internet retailer and would-be 21st century overlord Amazon.com kicked WikiLeaks off its servers back in 2010, the decision was not precipitated by men in black suits knocking on the door of one of Jeff Bezos mansions at 3 a.m., nor were any company executives awoken by calls from gruff strangers suggesting they possessed certain information that certain individuals lying next to them asking who is that? would certainly like to know.

Corporations, like those who lead them, are amoral entities, legally bound to maximize quarterly profits. And rich people, oft-observed desiring to become richer, may often be fools, but when it comes to making money even the most foolish executive knows theres more to be made serving the corporate state than giving a platform to those accused of undermining national security.

The whistle-blowing website is putting innocent people in jeopardy, Amazon said ina statement released 24 hours after WikiLeaks first signed up for its Web hosting service. And the company wasnt about to let someone use their servers for securing and storing large quantities of data that isnt rightfully theirs, even if much of that data, leaked by Army private Chelsea Manning, showed that its rightful possessors were covering up crimes, including the murder of innocent civilians from Yemen to Iraq.

The statement was over the top try as it might, not even the government has been able to point to a single life lost due to Mannings disclosures but, nonetheless, Amazons capitalist apologists on the libertarian right claimed the big corporation had just been victimized by big bad government. David Henderson, a research fellow at Stanford Universitys Hoover Institution, explained that those calling for a boycott of Amazon were out of line, as the real enemy was megalomaniacal Senator Joe Lieberman, who had earlier called on Amazon to drop WikiLeaks (and is, admittedly, a rock-solid choice for a villain).

The simple fact is that we live in a society whose governments are so big, so powerful, so intrusive, and so arbitrary, that we have to be very careful in dealing with them, Henderson wrote. That Amazon itself cited a purported violation of its terms of service to kick WikiLeaks off its cloud was a lie, according to Henderson, meant to further protect Amazon from state retribution. Did it make him happy? No, of course not. But boycotting one of the governments many victims? No way.

But Amazon was no victim. Henderson, like many a libertarian, fundamentally misreads the relationship between corporations and the state, creating a distinction between the two that doesnt really exist outside of an intro-to-economics textbook. The state draws up the charter that gives corporations life, granting them the same rights as people more rights, in fact, as a corporate person can do what would land an actual person in prison with impunity or close to it, as when Big Banana was caught paying labor organizer-killing, right-wing death squads in Colombia and got off with a fine.

Corporations are more properly understood not as victims of the state, but its for-profit accomplices. Indeed, Amazon was eager to help the U.S. governments campaign against a website that thanks almost entirely to Chelsea Manning had exposedmany embarrassing acts of U.S. criminality across the globe: the condoning of torture by U.S. allies in Iraq; the sexual abuse of young boys by U.S. contractors in Afghanistan; the cover-up of U.S. airstrikes in Yemen, including one that killed 41 civilians, 21 of them children. The decision to boot WikiLeaks was, in fact, one that was made internally, no pressure from the deep state required.

I consulted people I knew fairly high up in the State Department off the record, and they said that they did not have to put pressure on Amazon for that to happen, said Robert McChesney, a professor of communication at the University of Illinois, in an appearance on Democracy Now!.It was not a difficult sell.

And it paid off. A little more than a year later, Amazon was awarded a generous $600 million contract from the CIA to build a cloud computing service that willreportedly provide all 17 [U.S.] intelligence agencies unprecedented access to an untold number of computers for various on-demand computing, analytic, storage, collaboration and other services. As The Atlanticnoted, and as former NSA contractor Edward Snowden revealed, these same agencies collect billions and perhaps trillions of pieces of metadata, phone and Internet records, and other various bits of information on an annual basis.

That is to say: On Amazons servers will be information on millions of people that the intelligence community has no right to possess Director of National Intelligence James Clapperinitially denied the intelligence community was collecting such data for a reason which is used to facilitate corporate espionage anddrone strikes that dont just jeopardize innocent lives, but have demonstrably endedhundreds of them.

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Amazon’s frightening CIA partnership: Capitalism, corporations and our massive new surveillance state

Snowden calls on UN to protect privacy and human rights

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Edward Snowden received the Right Livelihood prize in the Swedish parliament in absentia. The awards founder Jakob von Uexkull said: "Snowden was prevented from participating because of the risk it involves for him to leave Russia at the moment."

The former CIA analyst is now in Russia on asylum and faces arrest in the US on charges of espionage and for exposing telephone and data collection programs used by the National Security Agency (NSA). If found guilty, he faces up to 30 years imprisonment.

The whistleblower received a standing ovation from the delegates as he addressed the gathering through a video link. The Right Livelihood award, also known as the "alternative Nobel," recognized the "work of so many people," Snowden said.

In his speech on Monday, the former CIA employee acknowledged that journalists, publishers and activists were among those who had put themselves in danger and could not go home because they feared arrest, just like he did.

"These are things that are unlikely to change soon. But they're worth itAll the prices we paid, all the sacrifices we made, I believe we'd do it again," Snowden said, calling upon the United Nations to propose new measures that would help secure the rights of individuals and the rights of all human beings.

Snowden was named an honorary award-winner alongside Alan Rusbridger, editor of the British newspaper, Guardian, which published several reports based on documents leaked by the CIA analyst. As honorary winners, Snowden and Rusbridge did not receive any prize money.

Three other prominent activists were awarded with nearly 70,000 dollars for their contributions to society. These included Pakistani human rights activist Asma Jahangir, Basil Fernando of the Asian Human Rights Commission and US environmentalist Bill McKibben.

Coincidentally, Glenn Greenwald, who played an important role in getting Snowden's documents published, was honored with the Geschwister Scholl prize in Germany for his book "No place to hide." The bestseller documents Greenwald's meetings with Snowden and the global consequences of the US' surveillance program.

mg/sb (dpa, AP)

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Snowden calls on UN to protect privacy and human rights

Edward Snowden calls on UN to protect privacy, rights

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HELSINKI: Edward Snowden, co-winner of the Right Livelihood Award, has called on the United Nations to propose new measures to protect individual privacy and human rights.

The prize, also known as the ``alternative Nobel,'' recognizes ``the work of so many people ... not just over recent years'' but over decades, the former NSA systems analyst told the award ceremony Monday in Swedish Parliament by video link.

``I hope despite all we have accomplished in the last year, we all recognize that this is only the beginning,'' Snowden said, adding that he could only accept the award collectively.

Snowden, who remains exiled in Russia after leaking NSA documents to journalists in 2013 and faces charges in the US that could land him in prison for up to 30 years, said he has no regrets about his actions.

He said journalists, publishers and activists were among those who had put ``so much on the line'' and many couldn't go home because they feared arrest, including himself who has been in exile for 18 months.

``These are things that are unlikely to change soon. But they're worth it,'' he said. ``All the prices we paid, all the sacrifices we made, I believe we'd do it again.''

``There is so much more to do ... and together we will achieve it,'' Snowden said, receiving a standing ovation.

Snowden split the honorary portion of the award with Alan Rusbridger, editor of the Guardian, which has published a series of articles on government surveillance based on documents leaked by Snowden.

The 1.5 million kronor ($210,000) cash portion of the award _ was shared by Pakistani human rights activist Asma Jahangir, Basil Fernando of the Asian Human Rights Commission and US environmentalist Bill McKibben.

The Right Livelihood Award foundation typically honors grass-roots activists.

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Edward Snowden calls on UN to protect privacy, rights

Snowden awarded ‘Alternative Nobel Prize’

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Edward Snowden. Photo: The Guardian/TT

US whistleblower Edward Snowden has been awarded The Right Livelihood Award, commonly known as the Alternative Nobel Prize in Stockholm. The ceremony began after a top Green Party politician said the American should be granted asylum in Sweden, sparking a global debate.

"Edward Snowden has provided a huge service to the citizens of this planet," said Jakob von Uexkll, who announced the award.

"Mr. Snowden, your Right Livelihood Award is waiting for you! We trust that Sweden will make it possible for you to collect your award here in Stockholm in person!" he added.

Snowden has been holed up in Russia since June 2013, after he leaked top secret NSA documents to journalists. He faces up to three decades in prison.

"Edward Snowdens actions have led to an intense global debate on appropriate limits of government surveillance and a reaffirmation of the right to privacy in the digital age. In many countries, laws are now being proposed to restrain mass surveillance, and companies look into implementing new technologies and routines to better protect their customers data," saud Uexkll on behalf of the Right Livelihood Award's committee.

Snowden gave his reaction to the award in a video as well as a written statement.

The whistleblower said he recognised the importance of the Right Livelihood Award as "a vindication for everyone who came before to raise awareness to issues" of privacy and mass surveillance.

The Right Livelihood Award honours those who work to improve the lives of others and is traditionally handed out at Stockholm's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

When Snowden was announced as this year's winner the Swedish foreign ministrysaid it was banningthe civil rights group from making the announcement at their department in the capital.

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Snowden awarded 'Alternative Nobel Prize'