Germany: Poitras praises courage of whistleblowers
American documentary film director and producer Laura Poitras praised the courage of whistleblowers, such as Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning, during a key...
By: RuptlyTV
Here is the original post:
Germany: Poitras praises courage of whistleblowers - Video
WASHINGTON Insiders like Edward Snowden who leak secrets about sensitive U.S. intelligence programs pose a potentially greater danger to national security than terrorists, America's spy chiefs warned Wednesday in their annual report to Congress on global security risks.
For the first time, the risk of unauthorized disclosures of classified material and state-sponsored theft of data was listed as the second-greatest potential threat to America in a review of global perils prepared by the U.S. intelligence community. The risk followed cyber attacks on crucial infrastructure but was listed ahead of international terrorism.
U.S. officials previously have said it will cost billions of dollars to repair or revamp communications surveillance systems in the wake of the disclosures by Snowden, a former contract employee at a National Security Agency listening post in Hawaii who began leaking classified documents to the media in June and who later fled to Russia.
Appearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee, James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, said the leaks represent the "most damaging theft of intelligence information in our history." He urged Snowden to return the material, saying he made "the nation less safe and its people less secure."
"We've lost critical foreign intelligence collection sources, including some shared with us by valued partners," Clapper said. "Terrorists and other adversaries of this country are going to school on U.S. intelligence sources, methods and tradecraft, and the insights that they are gaining are making our job much, much harder."
Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who directs the Defense Intelligence Agency, said the leaks had endangered the lives of intelligence operatives and troops. Matt Olsen, heads of the National Counterterrorism Center, said they had made it tougher to track Al Qaeda and its affiliates.
"What we've seen in the last six to eight months is an awareness by these groups of our ability to monitor communications and specific instances where they've changed the ways in which they communicate to avoid being surveilled," Olsen said.
Investigators believe Snowden copied 1.7 million documents from NSA servers, the largest breach of classified material in U.S. history, although only a fraction have been disclosed so far. Last summer, a military judge sentenced Army Pvt. Chelsea Manning, who was born Bradley Manning, to 35 years in prison for sending 750,000 classified diplomatic cables, military field reports and other material to WikiLeaks.
Both Snowden and Manning have been condemned by critics as traitors and hailed by supporters as whistle-blowers who exposed government wrongdoing.
Only critics spoke at the hearing. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), said the classified documents Snowden downloaded, if printed out, would form a stack more than three miles high.
Read more here:
Report puts Snowden-like leaks as the No. 2 threat to U.S. security
@CassandraRules - Fullerton City Council about Kelly Thomas
Here is the full video of the amazing @CassandraRules speaking to the Fullerton City Council about the murder of Kelly Thomas by 6 Fullerton police officers,...
By: Free Chelsea Manning SoCal
View post:
@CassandraRules - Fullerton City Council about Kelly Thomas - Video
If you had free reign over classified networks and you saw incredible things, awful things things that belonged in the public domain, and not on some server stored in a dark room in Washington DC what would you do?
God knows what happens now. Hopefully worldwide discussion, debates, and reforms I want people to see the truth because without information, you cannot make informed decisions as a public.
-Quotes from an online chat attributed to PVT Manning
The trial of military whistle-blower and democracy advocate PVT Chelsea Manning (known as Bradley Manning untilher Aug 22, 2013 announcement)finished on August 21st. After a prosecution which starkly showcased US government officials misplaced priorities when it comes to human rights, Army whistleblower PVT Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison. This case sets a dangerous precedent for the first amendment, opening whistle-blowers and those who help them to extreme prosecution. However, as we enter the appeals process, [Chelsea] Mannings story is far from over.
The information that Manning gave to the public exposed the unjust detainment of innocent people at Guantanamo Bay, shown us the true human cost of our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and changed journalism forever. There is no evidence that anyone died as a result of the leaked information. Through WikiLeaks Manning revealed:
Read more about what was revealed in these documents.
For her actions, PVT Manning has received the following honors and awards:Sam Adams Award (2014) Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence Sean Macbride Peace Prize(2013) International Peace Bureau In His Footsteps Award (2013)- Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club Nobel Peace Prize nominee (2014, 2013 & 2012) Movement of the Icelandic Parliament, Oklahoma Center for Conscience and Peace Research, and former Nobel Laureate Mairead Maguire Person of the Year (2012)- UK Guardian 2013 Peace Prize US Peace Memorial Foundation Peacemaker of the Year (2013) The Peace & Justice Center of Sonoma County Hero of Peace Award (2013) Eisenhower Chapter of Veterans for Peace SF Trans March Award (2013) San Francisco Trans March SF Pride Grand Marshal Runner-Up (2013) SF LGBT Pride former Grand Marshals Peoples Choice Human Rights Award (2012)- Global Exchange
More About the Trial On July 30, 2013, PVT Manning was found not guilty of the most serious charge against her, that of Aiding the Enemy. However, she was convicted of 20 offenses, including 6 under the Espionage Act. On August 21, 2013 she was sentenced by military judge Col. Denise Lind to 35 years in prison -less than the 60 years requested by the government, yet still an unusually harsh sentence for a non-violent crime. The New York Times Editorial Board published the following in response:
35 years is far too long a sentence by any standard. In more than two weeks of hearings, government lawyers presented vague and largely speculative claims that Private Mannings leaks had endangered lives and chilled diplomatic relations. On the other hand, much of what Private Manning released was of public value
Human Rights Watch general council Dinah PoKempner stated that:
Continued here:
» About PVT. Manning Private Manning Support Network
Chelsea Manning We three Spies
moronolympics #39;s shared video file.
By: Gerald Manning
Read the original:
Chelsea Manning In April 2012 when known as PFCBradleyManning Born Bradley Edward Manning (1987-12-17) December 17, 1987 (age26) Crescent, Oklahoma, U.S. Knownfor Release of classified U.S. government documents to Wikileaks
Criminal charge
Criminal penalty
Chelsea Elizabeth Manning[4] (born Bradley Edward Manning, December 17, 1987) is a United States Army soldier who was convicted in July 2013 of violations of the Espionage Act and other offenses, after releasing the largest set of classified documents ever leaked to the public. Manning was sentenced in August 2013 to 35 years confinement with the possibility of parole in eight years, and to be dishonorably discharged from the Army.[2] Manning is a trans woman and in a statement the day after sentencing said she had felt female since childhood, wanted to be known as Chelsea, and desired to begin hormone replacement therapy.[4] From early life through much of Army life, Manning was known as Bradley, and was diagnosed with gender identity disorder while in the Army.[5]
Assigned in 2009 to an Army unit in Iraq as an intelligence analyst, Manning had access to classified databases. In early 2010 she leaked classified information to WikiLeaks and confided this to Adrian Lamo, an online acquaintance. Lamo informed Army Counterintelligence, and Manning was arrested in May that same year. The material included videos of the July 12, 2007 Baghdad airstrike, and the 2009 Granai airstrike in Afghanistan; 250,000 U.S. diplomatic cables; and 500,000 Army reports that came to be known as the Iraq War logs and Afghan War logs. Much of the material was published by WikiLeaks or its media partners between April and November 2010.[6]
Manning was ultimately charged with 22 offenses, including aiding the enemy, which was the most serious charge and could have resulted in a death sentence.[7] She was held at the Marine Corps Brig, Quantico in Virginia, from July 2010 to April 2011 under Prevention of Injury statuswhich entailed de facto solitary confinement and other restrictions that caused domestic and international concernbefore being transferred to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where she could interact with other detainees.[8] She pleaded guilty in February 2013 to 10 of the charges.[9] The trial on the remaining charges began on June 3, 2013, and on July 30 she was convicted of 17 of the original charges and amended versions of four others, but was acquitted of aiding the enemy.[1] She will serve her sentence at the maximum-security U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth.[10]
Reaction to Manning's disclosures, arrest, and sentence was mixed. Denver Nicks, one of her biographers, writes that the leaked material, particularly the diplomatic cables, was widely seen as a catalyst for the Arab Spring that began in December 2010, and that Manning was viewed as both a 21st-century Tiananmen Square Tank Man and an embittered traitor.[11]Reporters Without Borders condemned the length of the sentence, saying that it demonstrated how vulnerable whistleblowers are.[12]
Born Bradley Edward Manning in 1987 in Crescent, Oklahoma, she was the second child of Susan Fox, originally from Wales, and Brian Manning, an American. Brian had joined the United States Navy in 1974 at the age of 19, and served for five years as an intelligence analyst. Brian met Susan in a local Woolworth's while stationed in Wales at Cawdor Barracks. Manning's sister was born in 1976. The couple returned to the United States in 1979, moving first to California, then to a two-story house outside Crescent, with an above-ground swimming pool and 5 acres (2 hectares) of land where they kept pigs and chickens.[13]
Manning's sister Casey, 11 years her senior, told the court-martial that both their parents were alcoholics, and that their mother had drunk continually while pregnant. Captain David Moulton, a Navy psychiatrist, told the court that Manning's facial features showed signs of fetal alcohol syndrome.[14] Casey became Manning's principal caregiver, waking at night to make the baby a bottle. The court heard that Manning was fed only milk and baby food until the age of two, and was always small for her age; as an adult she reached just 5ft 2in (1.57m) and weighed around 105 pounds (47.6kg).[15]
Manning's father took a job as an information technology (IT) manager for a rental car agency, which meant he had to travel. The family lived several miles out of town and Manning's mother was unable to drive. She spent her days drinking, while Manning was left largely to fend for herself, playing with Legos or on the computer. Brian would stock up on food before his trips, and leave pre-signed checks that Casey mailed to pay the bills. A neighbor said that whenever Manning's elementary school went on field trips, she would give her own son extra food or money so he could make sure Manning had something to eat. Friends and neighbors considered the Mannings a troubled family.[16]
Read the rest here:
Published time: January 16, 2014 08:47 Edited time: January 17, 2014 10:44
Chelsea Manning (AFP Photo / Saul Loeb)
The former US Army intelligence analyst who was found guilty of releasing the largest set of classified documents in US history will be honored in absentia for her role in exposing the dark nature of civilian casualties in Iraq.
Chelsea Manning (formerly Bradley Manning), currently incarcerated at Leavenworth Prison, will be recognized at a ceremony in absentia at Oxford University's prestigious Oxford Union Society for casting much-needed daylight on the true toll and cause of civilian casualties in Iraq; human rights abuses by U.S. and coalition forces, mercenaries, and contractors; and the roles that spying and bribery play in international diplomacy, according to the press release, published by activist and author David Swanson.
The award ceremony will be held on February 19, 2014, according to the statement.
The Sam Adams Award acknowledged Chelsea Manning, 26, for revealing to the world some of the atrocities of the Iraq War, including the "Collateral Murder" video footage taken in July 2007 from inside the cockpit of a US Apache helicopter as US troops onboard cut down 12 unarmed civilians, including two Reuters reporters.
The video footage, together with some 500,000 Army documents that are now known as the Iraq War logs and Afghan War logs, was turned over to Wikileaks in early 2010.
Manning was sentenced in August 2013 to 35 years imprisonment.
Former senior NSA executive and SAAII Awardee Emeritus Thomas Drake commented that Manning "exposed the dark side shadows of our national security regime and foreign policy follies."
Drake writes that Manning's "acts of civil disobedience strike at the very core of the critical issues surrounding our national security, public and foreign policy, openness and transparency, as well as the unprecedented and relentless campaign by this Administration to snuff out and silence truth tellers and whistleblowers in a deliberate and premeditated assault on the 1st Amendment."
More:
Chelsea Manning awarded 2014 Sam Adams Prize for Integrity ...
January 22, 2014. By the Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence (SAAII). Chelsea Manning has been awarded this years's Integrity in Intelligence award for "casting much-needed daylight on the true toll and cause of civilian casualties in Iraq; human rights abuses by U.S. and coalition forces, mercenaries, and contractors; and the roles that spying and bribery play in international diplomacy." Read more
January 10, 2014. By the Private Manning Support Network. Last week, the New York Times editorial board thrilled government transparency advocates worldwide when they released an article calling on President Obama to grant clemency to Edward Snowden. The same criteria all apply equally to Chelsea Manning.Read more
January 8, 2014. By the Private Manning Support Network. A new letter from Chelsea thanks supporters for all their birthday and holiday wishes! "I just wanted to share my gratitude for all of those who have been so generous to me by sending your well wishes for my birthday and the holidays" she writes. Read more
December 21, 2013. By the Private Manning Support Network. Read about ongoing projects we are working on to support Chelsea while we fight for her immediate release, and consider donating to the defense fund so that we can continue our efforts through 2014! We have raised $26,000 so far of the $40,000 needed to sustain these projects. Read more
December 13, 2013. By the Private Manning Support Network. Last week we hosted three exclusive events with Pvt. Chelsea Manning's lead civilian attorney, David Coombs. Drawing hundreds in attendance, these events provided a personal, in-depth report back of this past summer's historic trial as well as a look forward to the next phase in the fight to win justice for Manning.Read more
Read the original:
U.S. Army / AP
Im usually hesitant to celebrate Thanksgiving Day. After all, the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony systematically terrorized and slaughtered the very same Pequot tribe that assisted the first English refugees to arrive at Plymouth Rock. So, perhaps ironically, Im thankful that I know that, and Im also thankful that there are people who seek out, and usually find, such truths. Im thankful for people who, even surrounded by millions of Americans eating turkey during regularly scheduled commercial breaks in the Green Bay and Detroit football game; who, despite having been taught, often as early as five and six years old, that the helpful natives selflessly assisted the poor helpless Pilgrims and lived happily ever after, dare to ask probing, even dangerous, questions.
Such people are often nameless and humble, yet no less courageous. Whether carpenters of welders; retail clerks or bank managers; artists or lawyers, they dare to ask tough questions, and seek out the truth, even when the answers they find might not be easy to live with.
Im also grateful for having social and human justice pioneers who lead through action, and by example, as opposed to directing or commanding other people to take action. Often, the achievements of such people transcend political, cultural, and generational boundaries. Unfortunately, such remarkable people often risk their reputations, their livelihood, and, all too often, even their lives.
For instance, the man commonly known as Malcolm X began to openly embrace the idea, after an awakening during his travels to the Middle East and Africa, of an international and unifying effort to achieve equality, and was murdered after a tough, yearlong defection from the Nation of Islam. Martin Luther King Jr., after choosing to embrace the struggles of striking sanitation workers in Memphis over lobbying in Washington, D.C., was murdered by an escaped convict seeking fame and respect from white Southerners. Harvey Milk, the first openly gay politician in the U.S., was murdered by a jealous former colleague. These are only examples; I wouldnt dare to make a claim that they represent an exhaustive list of remarkable pioneers of social justice and equalitycertainly many if not the vast majority are unsung and, sadly, forgotten.
So, this year, and every year, Im thankful for such people, and Im thankful that one dayperhaps not tomorrowbecause of the accomplishments of such truth-seekers and human rights pioneers, we can live together on this tiny pale blue dot of a planet and stop looking inward, at each other, but rather outward, into the space beyond this planet and the future of all of humanity.
Chelsea Manning, formerly named Bradley, is serving a 35-year prison sentence at Fort Leavenworth for leaking hundreds of thousands of classified documents to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks.
Tell us what youre thankful for on Twitter using the hashtag #TIMEthanks
Next Gabrielle Giffords
View original post here:
Details Written by Helen Silvis Published: 16 January 2014
A U.S. Army private, Manning was jailed for 35 years in 2013 for leaking U.S. video and documents that revealed abuses of civilians and other information embarrassing to the U.S. military and government. After her arrest she came out as a transgendered person. She currently is incarcerated in Leavenworth prison.
Manning's treatment in custody was described by Juan E. Mendez, aUnited Nations Special Rapporteuron torture, as cruel, inhuman and degrading. And prompted the resignation of State department official Phillip Crowley.
The award comes from theSam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence, a group of retiredCIAofficers, and goes to someone in the intelligence world who takes a stand for integrityand ethics. It is named aftera Vietnam era CIAwhistleblower Samuel A. Adams.
In the press release, the group says:
A Nobel Peace Prize nominee, U.S. Army Pvt. Manning is the 25 year-old intelligence analyst who in 2010 provided to WikiLeaks the "Collateral Murder" video gun barrel footage from a U.S. Apache helicopter, exposing the reckless murder of 12 unarmed civilians, including two Reuters journalists, during the surge in Iraq. The Pentagon had repeatedly denied the existence of the "Collateral Murder" video and declined to release it despite a request under the Freedom of Information Act by Reuters, which had sought clarity on the circumstances of its journalists' deaths.
Release of this video and other documents sparked a worldwide dialogue about the importance of government accountability for human rights abuses as well as the dangers of excessive secrecy and over-classification of documents.
On February 19, 2014 Pvt. Manning - currently incarcerated at Leavenworth Prison - will be recognized at a ceremony in absentia at Oxford University's prestigious Oxford Union Society for casting much-needed daylight on the true toll and cause of civilian casualties in Iraq; human rights abuses by U.S. and coalition forces, mercenaries, and contractors; and the roles that spying and bribery play in international diplomacy.
On August 21, 2013 Pvt. Manning received an unusually harsh sentence of 35 years in prison for exposing the truth -- a chilling message to those who would call attention to wrongdoing by U.S. and coalition forces.
Under the 1989 Official Secrets Act in the United Kingdom, Pvt. Manning, whose mother is British, would have faced just two years in prison for whistleblowing or 14 years if convicted under the old 1911 Official Secrets Act for espionage.
Read more here:
The Skanner Newspaper - Jailed Chelsea Manning Gets Intelligence Ethics Award