Almost 250 years ago, in 1777, Jacob Ritter, a member of the Pennsylvania militia, assessed the carnage surrounding him on the battlefield and decided, right then and there, that he would never take up arms again. The rest of Jacob Ritters life was shaped by that moment of conscientious objection, a term invented a century before, reports Chris Lombardi, author of I Aint Marching Anymore: Dissenters, Deserters, and Objectors to Americas Wars.

Whats more, Lombardi notes that while Ritters position was not particularly popular, it was also not unique, and in the centuries since, scores of people have not only opposed war, but have resisted other aspects of militarism, from paltry wages paid to servicemembers, to opposition to the racism, sexism, homophobia, and imperialism that have long been endemic to U.S. policy.

This big-picture overview makes Lombardis meticulously researched text essential reading. Beginning with Ritters revolutionary act of conscience, she covers every armed conflict the US has engaged in and zeroes in on the many principled acts of courage that have turned flag-waving patriots into anti-war activists. The result is both harrowing and inspiring.

That said, there are some odd omissions, among them the sidestepping of Vietnam-era resistors who fled to Canada, choosing to uproot themselves from their friends, families, and communities rather than face imprisonment or ascend into harms way. But this is a small criticism in an otherwise sweeping look at an important piece of under-reported history.

Among the most interesting nuggets in the book is Lombardis deep dive into the role that social classpovertyhas always played in determining who enters military service. Prior to and during the Civil War, for example, Lombardi writes that virtually every recruit had been wooed in advance by promised signing bonuses of three months payMany enlisted for the sake of their families, having no employment, and were promised that they could leave part of their pay for their families to draw in their absence.

Sadly, then, as now, promises made were not promises kept and thousands of men deserted, walking away in fury and despair when the money did not materialize. This, Lombardi notes, was particularly glaring for soldiers of color. The Armys refusal to give Black soldiers equal wages caused some to desert rather than work without pay. A few even chose execution rather than return to duty, she writes.

The author makes a deep dive into the role that social classpovertyhas always played in determining who enters military service.

As enraging as this was, Lombardi adds that not every desertion was motivated by principle, with some warriors going AWOL because they were too psychologically damaged to continue fighting, suffering from what was then called nostalgia or soldiers heart. We now know this condition as Post- Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD. In fact, between 1861 and 1866, she writes, government reports acknowledged 5,213 cases and 58 deaths attributed to nostalgia among white troops, with 334 and 16 deaths among colored troops.

The Civil War is where the emotional damage of war became an area of medicine, Lombardi explains. The War also created the first generation of writers for whom that damage yielded dissent, including Marine veteran Herman Melville and Army nurse Walt Whitman.

In subsequent generations, writers Kurt Vonnegut, Howard Zinn and Ron Kovic; filmmakers John Houston and Oliver Stone; and cartoonist Bill Mauldin used their military experience to create art with an explicitly antiwar message, finding in creative expression a way to affirm that war is hell.

Not surprisingly, this message is repeatedly hammered in I Aint Marching Anymore, but Lombardi also tackles voluntary enlistment and interviews dozens of soldiers who signed up only to later discover that theyd made a huge mistake. The many organizations that assist themfrom Veterans for Peace to the War Resisters League to the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectorsare showcased and Lombardi paints an ardent portrait of their day-to-day efforts. In addition, our eras most prominent resistersDaniel K. Choi, Stephen Funk, Chelsea Manning, and Reality Winner are introduced as exemplars of bravery and integrity, committed veterans-turned-activists who are willing to speak truth to power and assert that peace is possible.

I Aint Marching Anymore: Dissenters, Deserters, and Objectors to Americas WarsChris LombardiThe New Press, 2019304 pages

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War No More: 250 Years of Military Dissenters and Deserters Celebrated in New Book - The Indypendent

The shocking double standard with respect to violations of federal law committed by members of the national security bureaucracy compared to similar offenses by whistleblowers is on display once again. In late January, federal judge James Boasberg sentenced former FBI assistant general counsel Kevin Clinesmith, who admitted falsifying evidence submitted to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court for a warrant to spy on Carter Pageaonetimeforeign-policy adviser to former President Donald Trump. Boasberg sentenced Clinesmith to a mere twelve months probation and four hundred hours of community service. The judge said the evidence persuaded him that Mr. Clinesmith likely believed that what he said about Mr. Page was true.

A Wall Street Journal editorial points out just how much that excuse lacks credibility since prosecutors made clear that evidence of Mr. Clinesmiths animus toward Donald Trump is considerable. As for being an honest mistake, remember that Mr. Clinesmith changed an email confirming Mr. Page had been a CIA source to one that said the exact opposite, explicitly adding the words not a source before he forwarded it.

Moreover, his forgery was only the most egregious abuse that he and other officials committed in the FBIs handling of the Page case and the rest of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation into Russia collusion allegations. The Dec. 9, 2019 report by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz identified seventeen major instances of improper behavior, including violations of standard procedures and safeguards for the rights of individuals targeted in an investigation.

Boasbergs decision to give Clinesmith the proverbial slap on the wrist is typical of how the courts have treated loyalist national security bureaucrats even when theyre caught red-handed committing crimes. Two other cases stand out as especially outrageous examples: the plea deals given to Bill Clintons former national security adviser, Samuel R. Sandy Berger, and Barack Obamas former CIA director, David Petraeus.

Evidence emerged that in 2000 Berger had illegally removed classified documents on two separate occasions from the National Archivesreportedly by stuffing them down his pants before exiting a secure reading room. After months of negotiations with federal prosecutors, he entered a guilty plea to a misdemeanor charge of mishandling classified material. It was, to put it mildly, an extremely generous offer by the government, since Bergers theft of highly classified materials was so brazen.

Treating such a violation of law as a mere misdemeanor was the operational definition of a sweetheart deal, but the penalty phase of the plea bargain was even worse. Not only did Berger avoid having to serve any jail time, the penalties he did experience was little more than a cynical joke. He had to pay a $50,000 fine and relinquish his security clearance for three years. The court also sentenced him to one hundred hours of community service. Someone with Bergers economic means probably could pay $50,000 out of the familys petty cash account.

The Petraeus case was an even clearer example of how the Washington national security establishment protects one of its own. His criminal conduct occurred when he served as the commander of U.S. military forces in Afghanistan, although it did not come to light until later when he was head of the CIA. After a lengthy FBI investigation, Petraeus admitted that he gave highly-classified journals to his lover, Paula Broadwell, who was writing a laudatory biography. He also admitted that he had lied to FBI and CIA investigators about his conduct when first questioned.

Despite such flagrant misconduct, Petraeus only had to plead guilty to a single misdemeanor charge of unauthorized removal and retention of classified information. Moreover, as part of the plea bargain, he did not have to serve a single day behind bars. His sentence consisted of two years of probation and a $100,000 fine. Although the latter might seem a significant financial penalty, it was reportedly less than Petraeus charges for a single speaking engagement.

While national security insiders are routinely given the kid-glove treatment that Berger, Petraeus, and Clinesmith received, the experiences of whistleblowers who dare expose even the most blatant misdeeds by those agencies are very different indeed. Stephen Kim, a former State Department official, pled guilty to one count of violating the 1917 Espionage Act for merely discussing a classified report about North Korea with Fox News reporter James Rosen. Moreover, the report itself was subsequently described in court documents as a nothing burger in terms of its sensitivity. Yet, even with a plea deal, Kim was given a thirteen-month sentence in federal prison.

CIA agent John Kiriakou and Army private Chelsea Manning, who disclosed classified information in the course of blowing the whistle on U.S. government abuses (and in Mannings case, outright war crimes), received even longer sentences. Kiriakou was given thirty months in federal prison. Mannings penalty was the most shocking and draconian of all. She was sentenced to thirty-five years, although Barack Obama commuted her sentence once she had served seven years. One can only imagine what Edward Snowden would face if U.S. authorities ever got their hands on him.

The double standard at play could scarcely be more blatant. The U.S. justice system crucifies whistleblowers and other critics who expose the misdeeds of or otherwise embarrass the mandarins in charge of national security policy. Conversely, high-level members of that governmental club have little to fear even when there is irrefutable evidence of their criminal behavior. The Clinesmith case is the latest confirmation that the corruption and lack of accountability is pervasive.

Ted Galen Carpenter, a senior fellow in security studies at the Cato Institute and a contributing editor at the National Interest, is the author of twelve books and more than nine hundred articles on national security and international affairs.

Image: Reuters

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The National Security State Shields One of Its Own MiscreantsAgain - The National Interest

Roddy Ricch: I dont go looking for happiness in thingsI look for happiness within myself. If you cant nd happiness within yourself, then you dont have happiness. Theres nothing in the world that can give you happiness but something inside of you.

David Lynch: One thing Ive noticed is that many of us, we do what we call work, for a goal, for a result. And in the doing, it's not that much happiness. And yet that's our life going by. If you're transcending every day... it eventually comes to: It doesn't matter what your work is, you just get happy in the work, you get happy in the little things and the big things. And if the result isn't what you dreamed of, it doesn't kill you if you enjoyed the doing of it. It's important that we enjoy the doing of our life.

Samantha Bee: So can a person be too happy? I mean, I think you could conate happiness with being too naive about the world or anything. But I think people who are happy are great. We should learn from them.

Drew Barrymore: [laughs] According to station managers, at the rst week of my show, I was too happy! They were like: Is she going to be this enthusiastic the entire season? Because its too much. I just didnt know what to do with the note. I felt a little embarrassed, you know, and then I kind of just started laughing and I was like, Yeah, no, I see it tooI really am fucking excited, arent I?

Anthony Hopkins: I know nothing. I dont know anything. My favorite story is The Appointment in Samarra. About the servant who goes to the market to get goods for the caliph, and in the marketplace he sees Death. Death beckons to him, so he gets on his horse and he runs back to his master and says, I saw Death in the marketplace. Can you lend me your fastest steed? I must go off to Samarra tonight, to be with my family. Yeah, go, go. So the master himself goes down, and he sees Death in the marketplace and goes up to him and says, You wanted to talk to my servant. What was your message for him? Death says, I just wanted to tell him Im going to meet him tonight in Samarra. [laughs] Enjoy it while it lasts. Enjoy it while it lasts. Because we dont know. We know nothing.

Tracy Morgan: I just forget what made me unhappy, or try to find out where the communication breakdown took place, fix it, and move forward. Keep moving forward. You got tomorrow. And you know what they say about tomorrow, right? [Morgan starts singing down the phone] "The sunll come out...tomorrow! So you got to hang on till tomorrow! There'll be sun..." [Morgan stops singing his Annie showtune, as though he has finished. But then he starts right up again] Just thinking about that tomorrow! Must be able to hang on till tomorrow. There'll be sun..." Know what I told you at the beginning of the conversation that makes me happy? The sun. [Starts singing for a third time] "The sunll come out...!" The sun will come out tomorrow! You want to stay upset? Can't stay upset. At some point that sun's gonna come out, regardless.

Roxane Gay: I think happiness is extraordinarily important. And I also think its incredibly elusive.

Jeremy O. Harris: I think Ive gotten more comfortable being unhappy as Ive gotten older.

David Lynch: Bliss is our nature. Were supposed to be happy. Were not supposed to be sad. Were not supposed to be suffering. Were supposed to be happy campers enjoying life and being kind to one another, and getting along, and making sure that were all happy and were all together on this beautiful trip.

Roddy Ricch: Being happy, its all just about perspective.

Chelsea Manning: Its the absence of feeling overwhelmed.

Tracy Morgan: Im looking to make people feel happy. Thats why I do what I do.

Samantha Bee: I guess were all striving to achieve it. Isnt that what were all trying to do?

Drew Barrymore: Even though I dont know what it is exactly, its what I wish for everyone.

Chris Heath is a GQ correspondent.

What else inspires happiness for our 12 interviewees? Read more about the music, the art, and the fashion that they discussed with Chris Heath.

A version of this story originally appears in the February 2021 issue with the title "The Happiness Project."

See the original post:
The Happiness Project: 12 Culture-Shapers on How to Find Joy in Tough Times - GQ Magazine

Roxane Gay: Hypnotize, by the Notorious B.I.G. It's just a great songgreat lyric, great beat. You know, I'm a Gen X-er, and so 90s hip-hop is really my wheelhouse. And so even though I wasn't necessarily having a great life back then, I still think very fondly of the music. And I know all of the wordsPoppa been smooth since days of Underoos. [laughs] It's just so clever; it's the wordplay of it. You automatically know what he's talking about: He's been smooth since he was a little boy wearing Underoos. So great, just so great.

Anthony Hopkins: There's a wonderful Louis Armstrong...what was that? "What a Wonderful World"? And Tom T. Hall, a great country and Western singer, had a wonderful one: "Old Dogs, Children and Watermelon Wine." I like that contentment: old dogs, little children, watermelon wine.

David Lynch: Oh, man, so many songs just thrill me to the core, so many songs. Music is a huge emotional rush, sometimes a thrill beyond the beyond. Richard Strausss song, the first one of the Four Last Songs, it was in Wild at Heart, I can't remember the name of it [At Sunset (Im Abendrot)]just put that music on loud and I could start crying, it's so beautiful.

Goldie Hawn: The song Happy, by Pharrell. Its not just that its about happiness. It's that he actually created a sound and lyrics, and in every way, shape, or form, the song embodies happiness, and makes you want to dance and fly and feel good and enjoin with others. It embodies exactly what the song says.

Phoebe Bridgers: Tons of songs make me happy. I like "If It Makes You Happy," by Sheryl Crow. It's like just enough of a guilty pleasureI feel like it's as popular as it should be, but ironic enough to make me laugh too. The verses make zero sense, but I feel like I know what it means. Whatever gets you through the day, you know.

Drew Barrymore: Ethel Merman. Let's see, what is the song called? [starts singing] I've got the sun in the morning and the moon at night... Every time I hear that song, I'm happy.

Samantha Bee: There's so many ones that make you feel like you want to cry. I reach for music when I'm sad or alone. Not really when I'm at my peak of happiness. In the car, as a family, we listen to lots of really cheesy pop music. And that really makes me happy. We put on Sirius Hits 1 and just scroll through music. We listen to a lot of BTS.

David Lynch: Adagio for Strings, by Samuel Barber, Andr Previn's version.

Roddy Ricch: Pharrell, "Happy." The fact that Pharrell could make a song like that was crazy. It was mind-blowing to meit showed me that he was far past his years. At the same time, the song is talking about being happy all the time, so how could you not be happy, listening to that?

Phoebe Bridgers: Every Cure song, pretty much. I think it's the idea of a bunch of people who've experienced sadness having kind of a party. "Lovesong" and "Friday I'm in Love" and "Just Like Heavenyou kind of can't be sad and listen to that stuff.

Chelsea Manning: I listen to a lot of melodic trance music from the late 90s and up to the mid-2000s whenever I want to just feel happy: Ibiza beach echoey electronic sounds, like with seagulls making seagull noises. I have these old CDs of trance music from that era, because I've been listening to this stuff since I was a teenager. I'll listen to a set of maybe Armin van Buuren in the early 2000s.

See original here:
12 Culture-Shapers on the Songs That Make Them Happy - GQ Magazine

Donald Trump may have issued more than 200 clemency grants many of them to family and political supporters but the number is far smaller than the thousands of pardons issued by Democratic presidents for nearly a century.

A recent study comparing presidential pardons by the Pew Research Center shows that Trump granted clemency to just 2 percent of the 11,611 who applied, among the lowest for any president in history.

Barack Obama, who granted clemency to 5 percent of those who petitioned him, commuted the sentences of 1,715 prisoners, most of whom had been convicted of low-level, non-violent drug offenses, said Jeffrey Crouch, an expert on presidential pardons at American University in Washington, D.C.

The clemency initiative, which began in 2014, sought to commute the sentences of federal inmates who had served at least 10 years on non-violent drug charges, had demonstrated good conduct in prison and would have received much lower sentences if they had been convicted of the same offense now. The program was discontinued in Obamas second term after a report from the Department of Justices inspector general found that the initiative was poorly planned.

Among the controversial recipients of Obamas acts of clemency was Chelsea Manning, the Army intelligence analyst convicted of leaking US military and diplomatic secrets to Wikileaks in 2010. Mannings 35-year prison sentence was commuted in January, 2017.

But Obamas long list is dwarfed by that of fellow Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who granted more than 3,600 pardons and commutations during his 12 years in office. Many of these were for people who had been convicted for Prohibition-era crimes after the constitutional ban on alcohol was lifted during Roosevelts first year in office in 1933. Roosevelt also offered clemency to hundreds who were serving prison terms for sedition because they opposed the US entrance into World War I in 1917.

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In 1974, Gerald Ford pardoned his predecessor Richard Nixon.

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It was simply unavoidable for Alexis Lafreniere to be compared...

They have paid the penalty that the law imposed on them, wrote Roosevelt in 1933 of the war protestors. The emergency that made it necessary to punish them has long expired.

Roosevelts actions touched on the very essence of presidential pardon power, which is enshrined in Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution. The presidential pardon sought to restore the tranquility of the commonwealth, according to founding father Alexander Hamilton.

Gerald Ford believed he was doing just that when he issued a pardon in 1974 to his predecessor Richard Nixon for all offenses against the United States, a reference to the Watergate scandal that resulted in Nixons resignation. Ford said the pardon was necessary to end the divisions in the country a decision that ultimately ruined the Michigan Republicans political career, historians say.

He got crushed in the 1974 midterms, said Andrew Rudalevige, a professor of government at Bowdoin College in Maine. But Ford felt that the investigation of Nixon was taking up all the oxygen of his presidency and that his administration would not be able to act proactively on anything. At the time, Ford was trying to stem huge inflation and wrap up the war in Vietnam, he said. The Nixon pardon caused an uproar among his political opponents who accused Ford of making a deal with Nixon to pardon him in exchange for the presidency.

In addition to its role in healing divisions, presidential pardons can also address miscarriages of justice, Rudalevige said.

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It was simply unavoidable for Alexis Lafreniere to be compared...

In his first full day as president in 1977, Democrat Jimmy Carter issued a blanket amnesty to more than 200,000 draft dodgers who fled the country or failed to register for the draft during the Vietnam War. Before leaving office, he issued 566 pardons, including the commutation of the sentence for heiress Patty Hearst, who robbed a bank after she was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army terrorist group. She was later pardoned by President Clinton.

At its heart, the pardon is a check on the judicial branch, said Rudalevige. Hamilton used it to restore the tranquility of the commonwealth, but the other normal mechanism is to use it for a prisoner who is very old, and finally to address miscarriages of justice.

Some presidents have drawn criticism for issuing pardons for family members and political allies what Rudalevige called a failure to drain the swamp. In his two terms in office, Clinton issued 459 pardons, including one to his half-brother Roger Clinton who served a year in prison on a drug conviction, and another to fugitive businessman and longtime supporter Marc Rich, indicted on tax evasion and for busting sanctions against Iran.

While Republican George H. W. Bush issued only 77 pardons during his four years in office, 1989 to 1993, he closed the chapter on the Iran-Contra scandal, in which the US sold weapons to Iran and financed the Contra rebels in Central America, by pardoning many of its key players, including his own aide Elliott Abrams and former secretary of defense Caspar Weinberger.

For his part, Trump largely used his pardon power to help his political supporters. He pardoned Charles Kushner, the father of son-in-law Jared Kushner, for tax evasion and retaliating against a witness in 2004. He also used his pardon power to help former political advisors such as Paul Manafort, Roger Stone and Stephen Bannon.

But some of Trumps pardons also extended to those serving sentences for non-violent drug convictions. He commuted the life sentence of Alice Marie Johnson, whose case was brought to his attention by reality TV star Kim Kardashian West. He gave Johnson a full pardon on Aug. 28, 2019. Trump also issued a pardon to Michael Harry-O Harris, an initial backer of Death Row Records, who served 30 years of a life sentence for conspiracy to commit murder. Harris petitioned for release in 2019 after contracting the coronavirus while also suffering from an auto-immune disorder in prison.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt 3,687

Harry S. Truman 2,004

Dwight D. Eisenhower 1,157

John F. Kennedy 575

Lyndon B. Johnson 1,187

Richard Nixon 926

Gerald Ford 409

Jimmy Carter 566

Ronald Reagan 406

George H.W. Bush 77

Bill Clinton 459

George W. Bush 200

Barack Obama 1,927

Donald Trump 237

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Comparing presidential pardons through the years - New York Post

Edward Snowden will be taking a sabbatical from Twitter. The whistleblower who went unpardoned by former President Donald Trump, took to the social media platform saying he would be off it for a while. "Taking a Twitter sabbatical. Stay free," was his short and crisp message.

Snowden, along with Julian Assange, was not issued a pardon despite netizens calling out for his freedom. Snowden caused quite a stir with his tweet on Trump's final days as the President. He tweeted about Alexei Navalny's arrest. The 44-year-old opposition leader was detained after his flight from Germany landed in Moscow on Sunday. Navalny was almost killed in a nerve agent attack he blamed on the Kremlin.

For those unaware, Navalny is an anti-corruption campaigner and a renowned face in Russia as one of President Vladimir Putin's key opposition. However, with his recent tweet, it is all but clear that Snowden will be off social media, at least for some time.

Assange, the WikiLeaks founder had been charged with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion, alleging that he aided former intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to crack a password stored on the US Department of Defense computers.

Although there was no official reason listed behind the hiatus announcement, Twitterati was of the opinion that he needed some downtime with his family and his newborn. "Stay safe and enjoy the baby Ed," read one of the tweets.

This was seconded by a few more thoughts that said it was a good call to make. "A year is a long time.. Enjoy your kid, wife, & life. I take great joy in being able to follow your feed. I look forward to your return. I dont know you personally, but take care, my friend. I'll be wishing & praying the best for your family. You're an amazing hero in my eyes!" one comment read.

Snowden leaked classified documents about the National Security Agency's (NSA) surveillance operations when he was an employee with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). In 2013, Snowden fled to Hong Kong, and then Russia as the United States filed charges on two counts of violating the Espionage Act of 1917 and theft of government property.

The support continued to flow. "Staying free these days is becoming more and more of a challenge. Stay safe out there and come back soon," one person remarked. "Understandable. Enjoy the extra free time. In freedom!!! Thank you for having the courage to tell you the truth, Mr. Snowden."

Stay safe and enjoy the baby Ed.

A year is a long time.. Enjoy your kid, wife, & life. I take great joy in being able to follow your feed. I look forward to your return. I dont know you personally, but take care my friend. I'll be wishing & praying the best for your family. You're an amazing hero in my eyes!

Staying free these days is becoming more and more of a challenge. Stay safe out there and come back soon.

In December, Snowden and his wife Lindsay Mills have announced the birth of their first child, a baby boy. 'Merry Christmas Baby. selfportrait. the greatest gift of all is the love we share. Happy Holidays from our newly expanded family,' Mills wrote on social media.

It was a similar message on Snowden's Twitter account: "The greatest gift is the love we share," he wrote together with a photo of Mills and the baby. The announcement was made just two months after the 37-year-old was granted permanent residency in Russia.

Excerpt from:
Why is Edward Snowden taking a Twitter sabbatical? Internet approves of his downtime plan: 'Enjoy the baby' - MEAWW

Some establishment journalists in the U.S. consider Julian Assange to be a criminal whose work doesn't fit into the same category as their own.

In April 2019, police dragged the WikiLeaks founder out of the Ecuadorian embassy where he'd lived for seven years after the U.S. government indicted him for allegedly helping Chelsea Manning access government databases. The New York Times editorial board applauded the move, writing that it "could help draw a sharp line between legitimate journalism and dangerous cybercrime," and that, "The [Trump] administration has begun well by charging Mr. Assange with an indisputable crime."

"Julian Assange is not a free-press hero," The Washington Posteditorial board opined, "And he is long overdue for personal accountability."

Then in May 2019, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) unsealed a second set of charges against Assange that, if they were to result in a conviction, could set a dangerous legal precedent that would put all investigative journalists who expose state secrets at risk of going to prison. Whether the media considers Assange one of their own, his fate could have a profound impact on the future of their profession.

The DOJ charged Assange with violating the Espionage Act of 1917 by publishing the information leaked by Chelsea Manning. If convicted, he could face up to 175 years in prison.

Edward Snowden, a former government contractor, has also been charged under the Espionage Act for leaking information to the media, which is how it's more commonly used. What's different about Assange's case is that the government is claiming that an individual unaffiliated with the government is guilty of a criminal violation for seeking out and publishing classified information, which is exactly what journalists do on a routine basis.

Even many of his biggest media critics are concerned by the additional charges.

"The Trump administration has just put every journalistic institution in this country on Julian Assange's side of the ledger, which, I know, is unimaginable," MSNBC's Rachel Maddow said on her show after the government revealed the Espionage Act charges. A little more than a month earlier, Maddow had devoted a segment to explaining why Assange's alleged offer to assist Chelsea Manning in cracking a password violated the rules of journalism.

"Really anybody who is concerned about press freedom should be deeply concerned about the prosecution of Julian Assange by the Trump administration," says Freedom of the Press Foundation co-founder Trevor Timm, who testified in Assange's U.K. extradition hearing. He says that Assange's conviction under the Espionage Act would set a precedent that could endanger any journalist publishing leaked information about the U.S. government.

"Maybe [some] journalists don't like Julian Assange, or they have criticizedhis actions over the years. And that's all well and good, but what really matters [are] the acts which the Justice Department is trying to criminalize here," says Timm.

Timm says that a journalist like Bob Woodward, who's made a career publishing government secrets, would be endangered by such a precedent, pointing to Woodward's 2011 book Obama's Wars as an example. "[That book] is page after page of highly classified informationbasically the most sensitive information that you could possibly imagine at a far higher classification level than anything WikiLeaks published."

Even the Watergate stories that Woodward published for theWashington Postwith Carl Bernstein might be illegal if the Assange standard were applied, argues Timm, because Woodward and Bernstein sought out secret information from grand jurors during their reporting.

"Richard Nixon may never have had to resign," says Timm. "And [Woodward and Bernstein] quite possibly could have gone to jail."

The government claims that WikiLeaks crossed a legal line by posting a list of "Most Wanted" classified documents and providing the encrypted dropbox that Manning would use to submit the Iraq and Afghanistan war logs. But Timm says this too is standard journalistic practice.

"Major newspapers around the country and around the world are constantly asking sources to leak them information," says Timm, who points out that the New York Timestook out a full-page advertisement for their SecureDrop box soliciting submissions, and that Timm himself published an article intheGuardianasking for leakers to release the classified CIA torture report in 2014.

One of the key accusations in the case against Assange is that he violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act by allegedly offering to help Chelsea Manning crack a password to a government database in an effort to cover her tracks.

On this count, many journalists have sided squarely with the government. But Timm says there's not much to the charge, and that it's not even clear Manning ever successfully cracked the password.

"I think this charge is potentially a sideshow trying to convince the judge that Assange is some sort of hacker and that [his case] doesn't relate to journalism," says Timm.

While recognizing that Assange's case is vital to the cause of press freedom, many journalists have treated him with disdain, often portraying his years-long confinement in the Ecuadorian embassy as "self-imposed," a ploy to dodge sex crime charges in Sweden, which were dropped in November 2019.

Assange defended himself by claiming his reason for seeking asylum wasn't to avoid facing the sex crime charges but to avoid extradition to the U.S. where he would be indicted on Espionage Act charges that would seek to deny him First Amendment protectionsa prediction that's been borne out.

The years of confinement have taken a toll on his mental and physical health. In 2018, doctors determined that Assange's condition was deteriorating after years of confinement and asked that he be allowed safe passage to a hospital. That request was denied.

In 2019, Nils Melzer, the U.N. special rapporteur on torture, described the conditions Assange has been subjected to as "psychological torture."

A decade ago, Assange was well-regarded in establishment circles. The standing ovation he received at a 2010 TED Talk is inconceivable today.

Assange created WikiLeaks in 2006 and leaked documents about the inner workings of Guantanamo Bay, vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's emails, and bank fraud in Iceland.

The organization first grabbed widespread public attention with a video WikiLeaks would title "Collateral Murder." It showed footage from a U.S. Army Apache helicopter of soldiers gunning down more than a dozen people in Baghdad who weren't engaged in active combat, including two Reuters reporters.

The video generated international press and controversy. Assange told journalist John Pilger in 2010 that his intention in releasing the video was to expose to the American public "the 'another day at the office' [attitude of the soldiers], how routine it was."

The Iraq war logs, which followed, was the largest military leak in history, revealing that more than 15,000 civilian deaths hadn't been publicly reported. And it exposed the fact that the US military had ignored reports of torture, rape, and murder by Iraqi authorities and soldiers.

Then in November 2010, there was a leak of more than 3 million U.S. diplomatic cables, revealing corruption among various Arab governments, which helped inspire the Tunisian revolution that began the Arab Spring.

WikiLeaks also released thousands of pages of both CIA and Russian state surveillance techniques, exposed Saudi support for ISIS and undisclosed U.S. training of soldiers in Yemen, and helped provide Edward Snowden safe passage out of Hong Kong.

Assange says his guiding principle has been to grant regular citizens access to the information that powerful governments, corporations, and media gatekeepers wanted nobody to see.

"Someone's right to speak and someone's right to know create a right to communicate," Assange told Democracy Now journalist Amy Goodman at the Frontline Club in July 2011. "That is the grounding structure for all that we treasure about civilized life."

The 2016 leaks, which were damaging to the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic Party, found Assange new allies on the political right and new critics on the left. NowPresident Donald Trump declared, "I love WikiLeaks!" in October 2016, and MSNBC host Chris Matthews wondered in April 2019 whether Robert Mueller's report might reveal Assange to be a Russian intelligence asset.

But Assange, who once said he viewed the choice between Clinton and Trump as a choice between cholera and gonorrhea and who denies any connection to the Russian government, maintains that his commitment is to bringing to light true information regardless of which political regime it might damage.

"[WikiLeaks believes] that the best kind of government comes from a government that is scrutinized by the people when they have true information about how governments and corporations and other power actors in society actually behave," Assange told Fox News' Sean Hannity in January 2017.

Timm says WikiLeaks' early work, which went a long way towards revealing the nature of 21st century American warfare and surveillance and exposing corrupt authoritarian governments, is what even those who dislike Assange should remember as he faces life in prison.

"[WikiLeaks] did a lot of good for the world, especially in their early days when they were releasing all sorts of really important stories and really important investigations. I think people kind of forget because their mind is clouded by 2016," says Timm.

Assange remains in a London prison, confined to his cell for 23 hours a day, according to WikiLeaks Editor in Chief Kristinn Hrafnsson.

He's awaiting a ruling from the British extradition court, which is scheduled for January 4. Government whistleblowers such as Edward Snowden, Daniel Ellsberg, John Kiriakou, and William Binney, along with more than 7,600 co-signers to an open letter, have called for Trump to drop all charges.

Throughout his career, however, Assange has been cynical about the notion that the democratic and judicial process can truly constrain government power and protect individual rights. People need to take matters into their own hands and protect themselves using encryption and other freedom-preserving tools.

"We will end up in a global, totalitarian surveillance society," Assange said on a 2012 episode of his online show. "Perhaps there will just be the last free-living peoplethose people who understand how to use cryptography to defend themselves against this complete, total surveillance."

Produced by Zach Weissmueller. Opening graphic by Lex Villena

Photos: Tolga Akmen/ZUMA Press/Newscom; JAE/WENN/Newscom; Ray Tang/ZUMA Press/Newscom; Mark Chew/ZUMA Press/Newscom; Dinendra Haria/ZUMA Press/Newscom; MAAA/ZDS/Wheatley/WENN/Newscom; Ole Spata/dpa/picture-alliance/Newscom; Andrew Parsons/i-Images / Polaris/Newscom; Dominic Lipinski/ZUMA Press/Newscom; Richard Ellis/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom; John Barrett/PHOTOlink.net PHOTOlink/Newscom; Mark Makela/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom; GARY CAMERON/Reuters/Newscom; Michal Fludra/ZUMA Press/Newscom; National News/ZUMA Press/Newscom; Euan Cherry/Photoshot/Newscom; Simon Webster/Atlas Photo Archive/Photoshot/Newscom; Victoria Jones/ZUMA Press/Newscom; News Licensing / MEGA / Newscom; tHuman Rights Watch/EyePress EPN/Newscom; DDAA/ZOB/WENN/Newscom; Chris Winter/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom; Andrew Parsons/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom; Jay Shaw Baker/ZUMA Press/Newscom; Steve Maisey/Photoshot/Newscom.

Music: "Reel," Melancholy," "Singularity," "Days Pass," and "Fall" by ANBR licensed through Artlist.io.

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The Prosecution of Julian Assange Is an Assault on the First Amendment - Reason

The former Baywatch star shared a picture of herself in a bikini alongside the words smart move @POTUS and #JulianAssange.

It isnt the first time the former Baywatch star has made such an appeal, but it comes amid growing speculation that the president could use his final days in office to intervene in the Assange case. The Wikileaks founder was jailed in London for skipping bail and fleeing inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in 2012, and is also wanted in the US on espionage charges.

Anderson has previously dismissed rumours of a romantic relationship with Assange, but told 60 Minutes in 2018 that I feel very close to him and he trusts me.

The pair met when Assange was staying at the embassy from 2012 to 2019, where he fled to avoid both the espionage charges in the US and an allegation of rape in Sweden, which was eventually dropped before he left the embassy and was immediately arrested in April last year.

In recent days a number of unofficial sources, including journalists, have taken to social media claiming the president is set to pardon the journalist imminently. However, some of the tweets were later deleted or retracted due to "faulty sourcing".

In April 2019, Assange was arrested in London and has been jailed at Belmarsh prison for the past 19 months as he fights extradition to the US. Anderson visited him in the prison alongside the Wikileaks editor-in-chief in May 2019, and described him as the worlds most innocent man.

Assange co-founded the whistleblower site Wikileaks in 2006 but rose to prominence in 2010 when he released material passed to him by then US army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning.

Assange said the material showed the US and its allies were committing war crimes during its occupation of Iraq.

One of the leaks showed disturbing video footage of two US AH-64 Apache helicopters attacking buildings in Baghdad in 2007, and then closing in on a group of people. Among the people were children and journalists.

Assange faces a maximum sentence of 175 years in prison if convicted in the US.

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Pamela Anderson tells Trump to be a hero and pardon Assange amid rumours president may intervene - The Independent

The Socialist Equality Party condemns the fascistic police raid on the home of data scientist Rebekah Jones, which came in response to her work exposing the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in Florida and in schools across the US.

Florida state police barged into Jones home Monday with guns aimed at her and her family. They seized her phone, computer and several hard drives, preventing her from continuing to publish data on COVID-19 outbreaks.After the raid Jones tweeted: "They pointed a gun in my face. They pointed guns at my kids... This was DeSantis. He sent the gestapo."

Jones tweeted Friday that she has learned that Circuit Judge Joshua Hawkes was appointed by Floridas Republican Governor Ron DeSantis in September, and one of his first acts as a judge was to sign the search warrant that led to the seizure of her technology. DeSantis is among the most prominent backers of US President Donald Trump, who has spearheaded the ruling class policy of herd immunity through the opening of non-essential businesses and schools.

Jones told CNN that flash drives seized by the police contained proof that Florida officials were lying in January about things like internal reports and notices from the CDC, as well as evidence of illegal activities by the state.

This brazen act of suppression of the rights to free speech and access to information must be opposed! The working class in the US and internationally must come to the defense of Jones and all whistleblowers, and fight for the full transparency and reporting of all data on COVID-19!

A former employee at the Florida Department of Health, Jones is among the most prominent data scientists in the US. Using advanced geographic information system (GIS) technology, Jones helped create Floridas COVID-19 dashboard to carefully track the spread of the pandemic in the state. Shortly thereafter, she was fired in May for refusing to manipulate data to support DeSantis escalating back-to-work and back-to-school campaigns.

After being fired from her position, Jones went on to help create and oversee Florida COVID Action and The COVID Monitor, the most comprehensive databases for tracking COVID-19 infections and deaths in Florida and in K-12 schools across the US, respectively.

Jones was targeted due to her role with these projects, and for being an outspoken critic of DeSantis and Trump. She has consistently warned against the reckless policy of reopening schools amid the raging pandemic.

The specific allegation made against Jones that led to Mondays police raid was that she was responsible for an email being sent to Floridas Department of Health employees imploring them to speak up before another 17,000 people are dead, which Jones denies having sent. She asserts that, in part, officials seized her devices to determine what contacts she has within the Department of Health, who will in turn likely be victimized in the near future.

The raid on Jones home is intended to facilitate the homicidal policies of keeping schools and nonessential businesses open while the pandemic rages out of control. It is meant to intimidate critical and outspoken scientists who warn against the dangers facing workers and youth.

Jones and two colleagues at The COVID Monitor published an article in US News on December 2 titled, Should Schools Stay Open? Not So Fast. They noted the fact that over 1 million children have been infected with COVID-19, concluding, Our data demonstrates that schools are not the safe havens or silos some believed they would be, and that they in fact contribute to the spread of COVID-19 in a number of ways... In our opinion, the data suggests schools are NOT safe and DO contribute to the spread of the virusboth within schools and within their surrounding communities.

The COVID Monitor documents that at least 187,351 students and 80,689 educators have been infected in K-12 schools across the US. Florida COVID Action reports 1,178,703 total cases and 19,716 deaths in Florida, including 101,264 cases and nine deaths among children.

The police raid took place on the same day that schools reopened in New York City, the largest school district in the US. This reckless reopening was promoted relentlessly by the New York Timesand spearheaded by Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio and United Federation of Teachers (UFT) President Michael Mulgrew, exemplifying the bipartisan and union-backed character of the back-to-school drive.

As with the nationwide campaign to reopen schools spearheaded by the Trump administration, the drive to open New York City schools is not based on science but rather the profit interests of the financial oligarchy.

Opening schools is central to the strategy of the ruling class. In order to compel parents to return to unsafe workplaces where they face brutal exploitation, schools must be opened as holding pens for their children. The Democrats, a party of Wall Street and finance capital, are as equally culpable as the Republicans in reopening schools.

President-elect Joe Biden has issued no statement in defense of Jones or the right of access to data on the spread of the pandemic. Instead, in a speech Tuesday, Biden stated, It should be a national priority to get our kids back into school and keep them in school, adding that he will work to see that the majority of our schools can be open by the end of my first 100 days.

Roughly half of all K-12 students in the US presently attend schools that offer only online learning, 32.5 percent attend schools with fully in-person learning, and nearly 17 percent attended hybrid schools. If Biden succeeds in his goal, tens of millions more students will return to unsafe classrooms by the end of April, well before the population is fully vaccinated.

In his speech, Biden promoted the lie that schools can be safely reopened in the coming months simply by providing some additional funding for cosmetic safety measures. American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten, a member of the Democratic National Committee and potential pick for secretary of education, gave her fulsome support to this fraud, tweeting, Hallelujah! Unlike Trump, President-Elect Biden gets what we need to reopen schools safely.

The seizure of Jones equipment and attempts to censor her reporting of COVID-19 infections and deaths is the latest in the decades-long war against whistleblowers by the American political establishment.

The COVID Monitor compiles data on K-12 school outbreaks through anonymous submissions, akin to the cables provided to WikiLeaks that have exposed countless crimes by American and world imperialism. When Chelsea Manning was uncovered as the source of nearly 750,000 cables on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, she was imprisoned for seven years, where she was psychologically tortured. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been relentlessly hounded for the past decade and is presently locked up in Londons Belmarsh prison awaiting a verdict on his extradition to the US, where he likely faces a 175-year prison sentence.

Both of these courageous whistleblowers, along with Edward Snowden and many others, were equally persecuted under the Obama-Biden administration as under the Trump administration, and the incoming Biden-Harris administration will only deepen the assault on free speech.

The ruling class strategy of developing herd immunity without a vaccine has been predicated on the suppression of data and the falsification of science. It is a policy that can be implemented only through police state measures such as the raid on Jones home.

The only social force capable of defending basic democratic rights, and whose objective interests demand full transparency on COVID-19 cases, is the international working class.

The SEP calls on all workers and youth to oppose the assault on Jones and all whistleblowers, and to fight for a comprehensive plan to contain the pandemic.

Non-essential businesses and schools must be closed immediately. All workers must be provided with full income protection, housing, medical care and high quality food until the pandemic is contained and the population is safely inoculated, as determined by trusted medical experts. To fund these social programs requires the expropriation of the vast wealth hoarded by the ruling elites, who have amassed over $1 trillion since the start of the pandemic and trillions more in recent decades.

The fight to defend democratic rights and contain the pandemic requires a revolutionary struggle against capitalism and the fight for socialism. The pandemic has laid bare the need for a complete reorganization of society to meet the needs of the vast majority, based on the principle of social equality. Those who support this program and recognize the need to fight for its realization should make the decision today to join and help build the SEP.

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Stop government attack on COVID-19 whistleblower Rebekah Jones! - WSWS

Written by Rahel Philipose, Edited by Explained Desk | New Delhi | December 10, 2020 12:53:35 amUS President Donald Trump has insisted that he has the absolute right to pardon even himself. (File/AP Photo/Evan Vucci

With weeks to go before he officially exits the White House and hands over the reins to his successor Joe Biden, US President Donald Trump is expected to make full use of the outgoing presidential tradition of granting pardons. In fact, Trump has insisted that he has the absolute right to pardon even himself.

But while President Trump has widely been criticised for several of the pardons and commutations he has passed since assuming office in 2016, he is most certainly not the first President in US history to issue controversial or self-serving pardons. All modern presidents of the United States have had the constitutional right to pardon individuals for nearly any federal crime committed in the country. They are not answerable for their pardons, and in most cases dont even have to provide a reason for issuing one.

A presidents pardoning power is virtually unlimited, which also makes it one of the most disputed and dividing provisions of the Constitution. But not all pardons are murky as many presidents have wielded this power to right historical wrongs and diffuse political crises.

Here are some of the notable presidential pardons in US history

George Washington pardoned the Whiskey Rebels (1795)

One of the first and most historic pardons granted by the US first president George Washington was when he granted clemency to John Mitchell and Philip Weigel, who had been sentenced to death in 1795 for their role in the Whiskey Rebellion.

The insurrection broke out in western Pennsylvania after Washington imposed a costly federal tax on distilled spirits to reduce the national debt following the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783). Poor farmers in the state refused to pay the tax and staged a series of violent protests.

Despite his advisors urging him to crack down on the protestors, Washington chose to use pardons in an attempt to quell the civic disruptions.

Brigham Young and the Mormon War in Utah (1857)

Brigham Young, the former Governor Utah and head of the Mormon Church, is widely blamed for the brief but bloody Mormon War. He famously founded Salt Lake City in 1850 and was known to resist federal authority. These tendencies caught the attention of then-President James Buchanan, who feared that the Mormon community led by Young would turn Utah into a theocracy.

And so, one of Buchanans first acts as president was to dispatch a troop of army soldiers to reclaim control of the territory in 1857. What followed was what is also commonly known as the Utah War which was a one-year standoff between Youngs followers and the US Army.

Despite an incident where a group of Mormons killed over 100 civilians in a California-bound caravan, Buchanan later granted all the Utah mormons, including Young, pardons on the condition that they accept the sovereignty of the US.

Andrew Johnson pardoned every soldier in the Confederate Army (1868)

On Christmas Day in 1868, former President Andrew Johnson granted pardons to every soldier who fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War, absolving them of their activities against the United States.

The blanket pardon only exempted the soldiers who had personally contributed to orchestrating the secession of the South and the war against the Union. But eventually, even those who were not covered by the pardon were granted clemency. Johnson was said to have issued pardons to around 90 per cent of applicants, several of whom were high-ranking Confederate officials.

Many accused him of being too lenient, but Johnson insisted that this was the only way the country could reconcile and move forward.

Gerald Ford pardoned his predecessor Richard Nixon (1974)

In 1974, newly sworn-in President Gerald Ford made one of the most controversial announcements in US history, when he said he was pardoning his predecessor Richard Nixon for all offences against the United States.

The pardon came just weeks after Nixon resigned from office following the aftershocks of the Watergate Scandal, in which a group of men tied to Nixons re-election campaign broke into the Democratic headquarters in Washington DCs Watergate complex.

After Nixon resigned, Ford who was then serving as his Vice-President ascended to the presidency. Ford claimed he granted the pardon to help the country move on, but many believe the controversial decision cost him a second term in office.

Jimmy Carter pardoned musician Peter Yarrow (1981)

Former President Jimmy Carter granted a controversial pardon to Peter Yarrow, a member of the folk rock group Peter, Paul and Mary, after he was accused of behaving indecently with a 14-year-old fan in 1970. On the day before he left office, Carter pardoned Yarrow, who pleaded guilty in the case over a decade ago.

Ronald Reagan pardoned Yankees owner George Steinbrenner (1989)

On April 5, 1974, the owner of the New York Yankees George Steinbrenner pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and illegally contributing to Richard Nixons re-election campaign. President Ronald Reagan agreed to pardon him in 1989 on the condition that he admitted to the act.

George HW Bush pardoned top aides involved in the Iran-Contra arms scandal (1992)

In 1992, then-President George HW Bush decided to pardon six top officials from the Reagan administration, including former secretary of Defence Caspar Weinberger, thus absolving them from any further punishment for their illegal dealings in the Iran-Contra scandal.

During President Reagans second term in office, some of his top aides facilitated the illegal sale of weapons to Iran, which at the time was under an arms embargo. The administration sought to use the money earned through the arms sale to fund an insurgent group in Nicaragua, called the Contras, who engaged in a guerrilla war against anti-America forces.

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Bill Clinton pardoned his own brother Roger Clinton (2001)

In his final executive act as president, Bill Clinton dramatically pardoned his own half-brother Roger Clinton for drug charges after he had served the entire sentence more than a decade earlier. He also pardoned Marc Rich, the fugitive financier and Clinton supporter who was charged with tax evasion, illegal dealings with Iran and several other crimes. He went on to issue a pardon to Patty Hearst, the daughter of a newspaper tycoon, who was convicted in a 1974 bank robbery.

Obama commuted sentence of Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning (2017)

After spending seven years in prison, Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning walked out of prison in 2017 after her 35-year sentence was commuted by former President Barack Obama. Manning, a former intelligence official in Iraq, was arrested after she had leaked nearly 750,000 military files and cables to Julian Assanges WikiLeaks in 2013. The White House later said that Manning had accepted responsibility, expressed remorse and served enough time, NBC reported.

Trump pardoned former adviser Michael Flynn (2020)

Last month, President Donald Trump pardoned his former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who had twice pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. The pardon effectively ended Flynns prosecution in the Russian election interference probe, which shadowed the Trump administration for years, and which the President tried hard to discredit.

He has also pardoned people like right wing commentator and campaign fraudster Dinesh DSouza, and Michael Milken, a financier convicted of securities fraud. In 2017, he granted a pardon to former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was found guilty of being in contempt of court for ignoring a federal judges order to stop arresting immigrants solely based on the suspicion that they were residing in the US illegally.

But not all of his pardons were problematic. Some were even widely celebrated. Earlier this year, he granted a full pardon to Alice Marie Johnson, who received a life sentence for a first-time drug offence and whose concerns were first raised by businesswoman and reality TV star Kim Kardashian West.

In 2018, he issued a posthumous pardon to boxer Jack Johnson, who was jailed over a hundred years ago for violating the racist White Slave Traffic Act by crossing state lines with a white woman.

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Explained: Why controversial presidential pardons have been a part of US history - The Indian Express