The controversial Russian president is one of 278 nominees for the honor, a list that includes Pope Francis and whistleblowers Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning.

Vladimir Putin

Vladimir Putin has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. The Russian president, who has generated worldwide controversy in past months by signing antigay laws and seizing the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine, is one of 231 individuals and 47 organizations nominated for the 2014 prize, which in past years has been awarded to Nelson Mandela and Elie Wiesel for their contributions to humanity.

The Committee reports this year as having the highest number of candidates ever, according to NPR. It must narrow this pool of 278 nominees to about 12 candidates by April.

In addition to Putin, whistleblowers Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning (the imprisoned trangender veteran) were among the nominees, as well as Pope Francis, whom The Advocate titled Person of the Year for his evolving views on gays and lesbians.

Geir Lundestad, the director of the Nobel Committee, told Reuters that recent events would be taken into consideration when selecting a winner, which is set to be announced on October 10, 2014. The prize will be officially conferred on December 10, the date of founder Alfred Nobels death.

"Part of the purpose of the committee's first meeting is to take into account recent events, and committee members try to anticipate what could be the potential developments in political hotspots," Lundestad said.

Anyone can be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, but only those approved by the Nobel Committee have the power to nominate, reports the Peace Research Institute Oslo, which monitors the Nobel Committee. Thousands, including members of national assemblies and government worldwide, are eligible to submit candidates for consideration.

According to the will of Alfred Nobel, the Peace Prize should be awarded to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.

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Putin Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

politics Nobel Shortlist: Putin, Snowden, Manning Posted by George Prentice on Wed, Mar 5, 2014 at 9:04 AM

Forget the Oscars. The real who's who is the list of 278 people and organizations nominated for the 2014 Nobel Peace Prizea record number of candidates.

The Nobel selection committee met for the first time March 4 to narrow their prospects. They have their work cut out for them before revealing the winner of the $1.24 million award on Oct. 10 in Oslo, Norway.

Each year, the Peace Research Institute Oslo creates its own shortlist for the prize. Among 2014's prospects are Russian President Vladimir Putin, master leaker Edward Snowden, Pope Francis, Chelsea Manning (the former Bradley Manning who leaked U.S. military documents), Uruguay President Jose Mujica, the International Space Station Partnership and 16-year-old Malala Yousafazi, the young Pakistani girl who survived a Taliban assassination attempt only to become a global advocate for education opportunities and human rights.

Last year, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons won the Nobel Peace Prize. This year, 47 organizations are nominated

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Nobel Shortlist: Putin, Snowden, Manning

US Press Freedom Ranking Fail
The United States has plummeted in the Global Press Freedom rankings this year, down from #33 to #46 in the wake of the Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning, and ...

By: TheLipTV

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US Press Freedom Ranking Fail - Video

Published time: February 21, 2014 14:31

Chelsea Manning, formerly known as Bradley (Reuters/Gary Cameron)

The US governments pursuit of secrecy and power lends itself to unilateralism which the Founding Fathers feared, Chelsea Manning has said. The whistleblower spoke out after being awarded the Sam Adams prize for Integrity in Intelligence.

In a written statement posted on the Pvt. Manning Support Network, Chelsea Manning said the US is moving towards what the American constitution was written to prevent. Following the attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, the American government has been pursuing an unprecedented amount of secrecy and power consolidation in the Executive branch, under the President and the Cabinet, Manning wrote.

Referencing a recent Freedom of Information case, when the US government declined to release documents on targeted killings that it deemed harmful to national security, Manning called the White Houses approach seemingly Orwellian.

In the case, the New York Times and the American Civil Liberties Union argued that the practice of targeted killing of US citizens was a matter of public interest, and information pertaining to it should be available.

However, the court concluded the American government had not violated the FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) by refusing to turn over the documents sought in the FOIA requests, and [could not] be compelled . . . to explain in detail the reasons why [the Government's] actions do not violate the Constitution and laws of the United States.

According to Manning, such cases represent a critical problem in US society and raise the issue of the level of secrecy, obfuscation, and classification or protective marking. He argues that although the American government claims it is trying to protect the citizens of their nation, it is breeding a unilateralism that the founders feared, and deliberately tried to prevent when drafting the American Constitution.

When the public lacks the ability to access what its government is doing, it ceases to be involved in the governing process, said Manning, highlighting there is a line to be drawn between tyranny and freedom.

Chelsea Manning (formerly Bradley Manning) was sentenced in August 2013 to 35 years in prison for 20 charges including espionage, theft and violating computer regulations. The charges relate to the 700,000-odd Iraq and Afghanistan battle reports he released to whistleblowing website, WikiLeaks, in 2010 while he was working as an intelligence analyst in Iraq.

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Chelsea Manning: US secrecy breeds unilateralism that ...

Work, Study, Mail Order Shoes and Junk Mail!

But first London

On Monday 3 February, a group of long-time supporters of Chelsea Manning welcomed her aunt Sharon and uncle Joe to Giuseppe Conlon Catholic Worker House in London. Sharon and Joe were to fly out from Heathrow the next day and would be visiting Chelsea at Fort Leavenworth the following weekend along with Chelseas sister Casey. This was to be the first visit since Chelsea was convicted last August and sentenced to 35 years for telling the truth after over three years in pretrial detention. The Private Manning Family Fund paid for both the Transatlantic and internal flights for this trip along with a contribution to a night in a hotel and other travel expenses. All this came from donations and fundraising events, so a big Thank You to everyone who has given to the fund over the past six months.

Emmy cooked a wonderful lunch for us and we were treated by Razz, John McClean, Dave Turley and Eden Boucher to musical entertainment including solidarity songs that have featured at many of the London vigils for Manning over the past three years. Later the same day Sharon, Joe and Ciaron visited Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy.

As we wished Sharon and Joe a safe journey and a successful visit, we were anxious about how the trip would work out. They had previously been turned away from Quantico Brig and had very nearly been refused entry on their last visit to Leavenworth over documentation requirements they hadnt been told about in advance, resulting in what should have been a visit of several hours after travelling thousands of miles being cut down to just 40 minutes. When Casey called Joe in the middle of the day to say there was a problem this time over documentation that had to be sorted NOW or the visit would be refused, we feared the worst. So it has been a huge relief for us to hear that the visits were a success and everything went smoothly, although right up to the day before the first visit, Sharon and Joe had still not heard for sure that everything was in order.

Chelsea is focused, keeping busy and in good spirits

Sharon and Joe have brought back reassuring news from Fort Leavenworth of Chelseas living conditions, her mood and how shes occupying her time. Chelsea is busy working on her appeal and has a desk and a typewriter in her room that she can use for this purpose. She also spends a lot of time in the prison library and has a job in the kitchens doing a variety of tasks on a fortnightly rota. The Private Manning Support Network has arranged for her to receive the Washington Post and New York Times every day and family members have set up subscriptions to scientific journals Chelsea requested. Emma from PMSN is assisting Chelsea with organising the educational courses she wants to take and is keeping in regular contact by phone.

The visiting arrangements sound relaxed, with all the prisoners and their visitors in a large visiting room, able to make physical contact and with the guards giving them plenty of space. Casey, who had seen Chelsea during the trial, commented that she was now looking much better and had regained a bit of weight. Chelsea acknowledged this and said she had been under a lot of stress during the trial (no surprises there). The visiting room had vending machines but Chelsea refused the offer of anything you like from them, saying that shes now sticking to a healthy diet and has got used to not eating any junk food!

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News from Leavenworth: Chelsea Manning receives a family ...

Snowden: Geheimhaltung, Kriegsverbrechen, Folter - Chelsea Manning/Sam Adams Award
http://www.antikrieg.tv http://youtube.com/antikriegtv Edward Snowden ber Chelsea Manning und ausufernde Geheimhaltung anlsslich der Verleihung des Sam Ada...

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Snowden: Geheimhaltung, Kriege, Kriegsverbrechen, Folter - Chelsea Manning/Sam Adams Award
http://youtu.be/7csI5QF7PCE http://www.antikrieg.tv http://youtube.com/antikriegtv Edward Snowden ber Chelsea Manning und ausufernde Geheimhaltung anlsslic...

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Snowden: Geheimhaltung, Kriege, Kriegsverbrechen, Folter - Chelsea Manning/Sam Adams Award - Video

Whistleblowers must not only face the wrath of powerful and unforgiving opponents, as the cases of Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning illustrate. They also face other trials, of which we know little. There is endless personal hardship, the loss of friends, the swift shrinkage of financial resources, the nightmare of unemployment and unemployability, and crippling legal costs. In short, the prospect of coping with manifestly life-altering circumstances.

The new Whistler Fellowship Alliance, set up by Gavin Mcfayden, Director of the London-based Centre for Investigative Journalism, and Eileen Chubb, a former health care worker who blew the whistle on elderly patient abuse in hospitals and health-care homes in the UK, WFA will provide emotional and legal assistance to those who have or are considering righting a wrong.

If you take up the issue of abuse internally, your employer does not take action. It you decide to go public, you are not employable, and that is happening on a huge scale, said Ms. Chubb at a pre-launch event organised at the City University London on February 18. After she lost her job, and her legal case, Ms. Chubb set up Compassion in Care, a trust that now works with people like her.

It was only after I left government could I see with clarity how former colleagues were suborned into manufacturing fraudulent evidence during the Iraq war, said Ray McGovern, a retired Central Intelligence Agency analyst-turned political activist, who returned his Intelligence Commendation Medal in 2006 in protest against CIAs alleged involvement in torture.

A former senior NSA official, Thomas Drake spoke of his horror in the aftermath of 9/11 to discover that the very Constitution that I had taken an oath to defend was being subverted in the name of national security. Little did I know at that time that I would end up being declared an enemy of the state.

According to him, the U.S. government had information that if it shared would have stopped 9/11 itself from happening. Taking the decision to work within the system as long as I could do so, he came up against successive blocks. He even made a detailed presentation before a Congressional Committee on what he calls the dirty secrets of the secret state that had the evidence for 9/11 and chose not to share it before [the event], then covered it all up afterwards.

I had become radioactive, Mr. Drake said. He went to the press in 2005, was indicted under the Espionage Act in April 2010, and faced 35 years in prison. He was declared indigent as he could not pay legal fees. His case was fought by Jesselyn Radack, a former U.S. Department of Justice Ethics Adviser. Eventually, all 10 felony charges against him were dropped.

Ms. Radack, who is also legal adviser to Edward Snowden, was herself blacklisted for exposing a major reconstruction fraud in Iraq. She was put on a no-fly list by the U.S. government. I have dedicated my life to protecting whistleblowers, she said.

Annie Machon, a former MI5 intelligence officer, had to leave the British Security Service in 1997. With her partner David Shayle, Ms. Machon was on the run for several years for exposing illegal intelligence activities.

The formal launch of the organisation is on March 20.

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Whistleblowers unite in London

Whistleblowers must not only face the wrath of powerful and unforgiving opponents, as the cases of Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning illustrate. They also face other trials, of which we know little. There is endless personal hardship, the loss of friends, the swift shrinkage of financial resources, the nightmare of unemployment and unemployability, and crippling legal costs. In short, the prospect of coping with manifestly life-altering circumstances.

The new Whistler Fellowship Alliance, set up by Gavin Mcfayden, Director of the London-based Centre for Investigative Journalism, and Eileen Chubb, a former health care worker who blew the whistle on elderly patient abuse in hospitals and health-care homes in the UK, WFA will provide emotional and legal assistance to those who have or are considering righting a wrong.

If you take up the issue of abuse internally, your employer does not take action. It you decide to go public, you are not employable, and that is happening on a huge scale, said Ms. Chubb at a pre-launch event organised at the City University London on February 18. After she lost her job, and her legal case, Ms. Chubb set up Compassion in Care, a trust that now works with people like her.

It was only after I left government could I see with clarity how former colleagues were suborned into manufacturing fraudulent evidence during the Iraq war, said Ray McGovern, a retired Central Intelligence Agency analyst-turned political activist, who returned his Intelligence Commendation Medal in 2006 in protest against CIAs alleged involvement in torture.

A former senior NSA official, Thomas Drake spoke of his horror in the aftermath of 9/11 to discover that the very Constitution that I had taken an oath to defend was being subverted in the name of national security. Little did I know at that time that I would end up being declared an enemy of the state.

According to him, the U.S. government had information that if it shared would have stopped 9/11 itself from happening. Taking the decision to work within the system as long as I could do so, he came up against successive blocks. He even made a detailed presentation before a Congressional Committee on what he calls the dirty secrets of the secret state that had the evidence for 9/11 and chose not to share it before [the event], then covered it all up afterwards.

I had become radioactive, Mr. Drake said. He went to the press in 2005, was indicted under the Espionage Act in April 2010, and faced 35 years in prison. He was declared indigent as he could not pay legal fees. His case was fought by Jesselyn Radack, a former U.S. Department of Justice Ethics Adviser. Eventually, all 10 felony charges against him were dropped.

Ms. Radack, who is also legal adviser to Edward Snowden, was herself blacklisted for exposing a major reconstruction fraud in Iraq. She was put on a no-fly list by the U.S. government. I have dedicated my life to protecting whistleblowers, she said.

Annie Machon, a former MI5 intelligence officer, had to leave the British Security Service in 1997. With her partner David Shayle, Ms. Machon was on the run for several years for exposing illegal intelligence activities.

The formal launch of the organisation is on March 20.

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Whistleblowers refuse to be hounded, form alliance

Free Chelsea Manning! -- LGBT Wikileaker
21-year-old Chelsea Manning is imprisoned for allegedly leaking the trove of U.S. diplomatic communications published by Wikileaks. These leaks exposed the r...

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