1. Reports on the climate collapse have stopped in some cases the nonsense talk about needing the United States to lead, and even gone beyond urging it to get out of last place, and begun demanding that it do its fair share to undo its share of the damage. Thats the same thing we need on militarism, when U.S. weapons are on both sides of most wars, almost all foreign bases are U.S. bases, and most people in the U.S. cant begin to name its current wars, drone murders, or nations with U.S. troops in them. We saw this past year that moving even 10% out of militarism, even explicitly to address a health crisis killing huge numbers of people in the United States, was too great a blasphemy. The biggest chance of reducing militarism, winding back the nuclear doomsday clock, and funding a serious Green New Deal is to make demilitarization part of a Green New Deal. That means telling your misrepresentative and senators that, and telling every environmental organization that. Here are some resources to help:https://worldbeyondwar.org/environment

2. At the time of the failure to move 10% out of militarism, Congress Members Lee and Pocan announced the formation of a so-called Defense budget reduction caucus. Heres a petition encouraging them to follow through on that. Sign and share it:https://moneyforhumanneeds.org/letter-to-u-s-representatives-lee-and-pocan

3. The biggest enemy of the Pentagon is not some foreign nation spending 8% what it does on militarism. The biggest enemy is free college, or the inclusion of college in public education. Demanding that the United States join other wealthy nations in making education accessible to its residents is a tremendous good in itself. Many organizations will be promoting this in the coming months. It starts with ending student debt. One group working on this is: https://rootsaction.org

4. During the four years of Trump, Congress for the first time used the War Powers Resolution to end a war the war on Yemen but Trump vetoed the bill. Congress also for the first time adopted the practice of forbidding a president to end a war or a post-war occupation specifically the war on Afghanistan, the Korean War, and World War II. Senator Rand Paul raised hell about this a couple of days ago, and the war supporters said little, while liberals denounced him for recklessly suggesting that Trump could be permitted to end the war on Afghanistan in under two decades. We need to put everything we can into getting a repeat vote of the ending of the war on Yemen, and into undoing and ending the practice of allowing presidents to start dozens of wars but forbidding them to end them. Many groups will be working on at least part of this, including: https://rootsaction.org https://worldbeyondwar.org

5. Building on ending the war on Yemen, we should insist that Congress end additional wars, starting with the war on Afghanistan. And we should insist on an end to weapons sales, military training, military funding, and military basing in Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates. We should, in fact, extend that to support the reintroduction of Congresswoman Omars Stop Arming Human Rights Abusers Act, and eventually end the trading of weapons that cannot actually be used without abusing human rights.Contact your Congress Members at https://actionnetwork.org/letters/pass-the-stop-arming-human-rights-abusers-act

6. We should organize a major coalition to support the reintroduction of all of Rep. Omars peace bills, including the Global Peacebuilding Act, the Global Migration Agreement Act, the Congressional Oversight of Sanctions Act, the Youthbuild International Act, the Resolution on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the Resolution on the International Criminal Court. See: https://omar.house.gov/media/press-releases/rep-omar-introduces-pathway-peace-bold-foreign-policy-vision-united-states

7. Sign and share the petition asking President-Elect Biden to end Trumps sanctions against the International Criminal Court:https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/ask-biden-to-end-trumps-coercive-measures-against-the-international-criminal-court/

8. Peace activists stopped a particularly egregious contender for Secretary of so-called Defense in Michle Flournoy. Review what worked and get ready for the next one here: https://rootsaction.org/news-a-views/2378-2020-12-08-13-01-24

9. Make sure everyone you know is on board with what is coming at us in a Biden regime that had no foreign policy on the campaign website and no foreign policy task force, but made a top-priority for the transition to nominate numerous warmongers from the boards of weapons companies, with an inauguration being funded by weapons companies. We should see if we cant shame the shameless over the inauguration funding of yet another presidency brough to you by the war profiteers.https://www.businessinsider.com/boeing-biden-inauguration-donors-corporations-2020-12

10. Make sure everyone you know understands what happened in the Trump regime now ending, that Trump started no big new wars other than a cold war with Russia, but escalated existing wars, moved them more to the air, increased civilian casualties, increased drone murders, built more bases and weapons, tore up key disarmament treaties, openly threatened to use nuclear weapons, and dramatically increased military spending. Trump both bragged about selling weapons to brutal dictatorships and denounced anyone bowing before the military industrial complex. No other presidents will do either of those things. But they will follow in the footsteps of his actions, which followed those of his predecessor unless we change things. That means undoing much Trump damage (including policies on Iran, Cuba, Russia, etc.), even while insisting on following through on a few things Trump suggested (such as withdrawing a few troops from Afghanistan and Germany).Email your Congress Member about Afghanistan here:https://act.rootsaction.org/p/dia/action4/common/public/?action_KEY=14013

11. There is a brief opening to undo the Trump damage and the damage of decades of U.S. conduct on Iran, before the Iranian elections in June 2021. Learn more, sign the petition to Biden, and inform others here:https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/end-sanctions-on-iran/

12. Biden has committed to restoring at least somewhat better relations on Cuba. Lets hold him to that and insist on an end to the whole blockade. Lets even build on that to demand an end to deadly and illegal sanctions against other nations. Use these fact sheets on the sanctions now imposed on various countries:https://worldbeyondwar.org/flyers/#fact

13. Another novelty in the Trump years is corporate media outlets calling a president a liar and fact-checking him. Sometimes their own facts are wrong too. Sometimes they still fail to call the president on lies. But if this new policy were upheld consistently, war would be over. Take a look and spread around my book, War Is A Lie. Also check out the debunking of war myths and the case for war abolition on the homepage of World BEYOND War.https://warisalie.orghttps://worldbeyondwar.org

14. Another novelty is military officials proudly bragging about having tricked a president into thinking he was withdrawing more troops from a war (Syria) than he was. This is just as dangerous a power-balance development as Congress forbidding presidents from ending wars. We need to be prepared to spot this maneuver the minute it next happens.

15. Another odd twist in these past 4 years is the development of great liberal affection for a new cold war with Russia, for building up NATO, for keeping troops in Germany and Korea and Afghanistan, and for supporting the CIA and the so-called intelligence so-called community. When Trump talked this week of stripping the CIA of support from the military, good liberals were outraged. The world is now seen as unsafe if it lacks sufficient hostility toward Russia and blind support for militarism and lawless secret agencies. I really cannot gauge how long this will last or how hard it will be to undo the damage, but we have to try. We have to confront true believers with all of Trumps anti-Russian behavior, with the U.S. governments longstanding support for most of the worlds oppressive governments, with the abuses and counterproductive activities of the spies and killers on whom is bestowed the euphemistic label intelligence.

16. When nuclear weapons become illegal in over 50 countries on January 22, 2021, we need to celebrate globally, hold events, put up billboards, petition the nuclear nations, etc. A whole toolkit of resources is online here:https://worldbeyondwar.org/122-2

17. We need to get organized, build community, build power, win local victories, and connect local allies and individuals with a global movement. One way to do that is to form a World BEYOND War chapter. Try it here:https://worldbeyondwar.org/findchapter

18. We need to take advantage of the fact that real-world events no longer compete with online events, and create larger, more global, more effective and persuasive webinars and actionars. World BEYOND War can help with this. Here are numerous upcoming webinars already planned, and videos of many that have already happened:https://worldbeyondwar.org/eventshttps://worldbeyondwar.org/webinars

19. Campaigns we can work on locally with likely success and global support, with educational and organization benefits, include divestment, base closures, and demilitarization of police. With even the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff talking about closing foreign bases, we darn well should be. See:https://worldbeyondwar.org/divesthttps://worldbeyondwar.org/baseshttps://worldbeyondwar.org/policing

20. Take advantage of the existence of tons of great books. Read them. Get them into libraries. Give them to elected officials. Organize reading clubs. Invite authors to speak. Check out these lists of books, films, powerpoints, and other resources for events, and this list of available speakers:https://worldbeyondwar.org/resourceshttps://davidswanson.org/bookshttps://worldbeyondwar.org/speakers

21. Take advantage of online courses, for yourself, and to recommend to others:https://worldbeyondwar.org/education/#onlinecourses

22. Make use of this collection of resources to celebrate and educate about the Christmas Truces:https://worldbeyondwar.org/christmastruce

23. Nip in the bud this insane idea that extending draft registration to women is feminist progress. Overcome the twisted idea that a draft is good for peace. And join the coalition working to abolish the so-called selective so-called service:https://worldbeyondwar.org/repeal

24. Help halt the extradition of Julian Assange and the criminalization of journalism, despite all your completely justified complaints with Assange:https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/fight-for-peace-and-free-press

25. Email Congress to stop impeding peace-making in Korea:https://actionnetwork.org/letters/peace-in-korea-email-your-representative-and-senators

26. Those of you Im talking to on December 12 from Ohio, elect Nina Turner!

27. Wear your damn mask!

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27 Things You Can Do to Let There Be Peace on Earth - PRESSENZA International News Agency

12.12.2020 - Pressenza Athens

This post is also available in: French, Greek

A snapshot from the video of Manu Chao on Twitter #FreeAssange is flooding social media while calls for the release of Julian Assange and against his extradition to the USA multiply. Ordinary people who are calling for the protection of free journalism and of Julian Assange raise their voices every day together with journalists, artists, lawyers, politicians and academics.

Manu Chao posted his appeal on his Twitter account by singing:

In a desperate plea, Edward Snowden, the NSA public interest whistleblower, who himself is being persecuted by the USA but who has been granted asylum in Russia and lives there, called upon President Trump to release Assange. He writes on Twitter: Mr. President, if you grant only one act of clemency during your time in office, please free Julian Assange. You alone can save his life.

In his turn, Oliver Stone, the award-winning American film director, in a photograph of himself holding the slogan I am Julian Assange calls for a halt to the censorship of journalists. The next court hearing in London for the case of Assanges extradition to the USA is scheduled to take place on December 11, while the decision is expected to be announced in one months time, on 4 January 2021.

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Juan Branco: The Greek people to apply pressure for the granting of asylum to Julian Assange.

Julian Assange is being held in severe conditions according to a report by the UN Rapporteur

A call to protest for Julian Assange the court hearing for his extradition starts on 24/2.

Translation by Jeannette A. Arduino, from the voluntary Pressenza translation team. We are looking for volunteers!

Originally posted here:
Appeals for the Release of Julian Assange: Manu Chao, Snowden, Oliver Stone - PRESSENZA International News Agency

WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE: A war of words has erupted between Vivienne Westwoods son Joe Corr and Richard Hillgrove, his former p.r. man and activist organizer.

Most recently, the two worked together on a publicity stunt in July aimed at drawing attention to the plight of Julian Assange, who was charged in the U.S. in 2019 for publishing classified documents linked to U.S. military action in Iraq and Afghanistan.

As reported, Westwood, dressed in a sharp-shouldered canary yellow trouser suit and black combat boots, voiced her support for Assange from inside a giant birdcage suspended 10 feet off the ground in front of Londons Old Bailey criminal court.

It was Westwoods first public appearance after quarantining for 16 weeks during the U.K.s COVID-19 lockdown earlier this year. Megaphone in hand, she decried the illegal U.S. extradition of Julian Assange for telling the truth about American war crimes.

Since then Corr, an activist and clothing entrepreneur who has inherited his mothers flair for drama, has fallen out with his longtime ally Hillgrove, with whom he had worked since 2014, staging a number of protests.

The two have not worked together since September, after Hillgrove quit his job. Hillgrove said he gave Corr a months notice that he was leaving, which he said Corr rejected.

Since then, Corr has been sending Hillgrove e-mails so venomous they could turn a man to stone.

In one of them, seen by WWD, Corr tells Hillgrove to never get in touch with him, Vivienne Westwood, or Ben Westwood (Joes half-brother) again.

Your behavior has been disgusting, I have supported you so much in the past to the point where I would have taken a bullet for you. You havent even had the decency to explain or discuss your decision to cut your relationship with me after everything we have been through, wrote Corr in one of the e-mails.

Corr then went on to insult Hillgroves wife Lois Perry, a broadcaster, in words that cannot be reprinted here.

Hillgrove also accused Corr of using women hate speechandreligious hate speechagainst Perry.

Hillgrove confirmed that he has not gone to the police or taken legal action, although that might be a possibility in the future.

Asked to comment Corr said: Richard is an idiot, and his desire to let everyone know that he is one by sending out press releases on this non-story just proves that he is one. We worked very successfully together as a team, but when he is left to his own devices he is a car crash. Goodbye Richard!

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High Anxiety in London as Joe Corr and a Former Ally Lock Horns - WWD

Despite losing his U.K. libel case against The Sun at the beginning of November over being called a wife beater, Johnny Depp isnt done with the judicial system just yet. Not only has he decided to appeal that verdict, but the actor is also simultaneously pursuing a whole other $50 million defamation case against his ex-wife Amber Heard in Virginia. And in case this legal battle wasnt already high-profile enough, as part of the case, Depp is reportedly going to have to turn over communications with all of his former romantic partners, which apparently includes about half of Hollywoods A-list actresses.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the actors next court battle is shaping up to be even more revelatory than the last, as it threatens to pull a number of other big-name celebrities into the fray. Depp is reportedly obligated to produce for the court all responsive communications with his former romantic partners, which THR reports includes Angelina Jolie, Keira Knightley, and Marion Cotillard. Ellen Barkin has also already given a deposition in the U.K. case, claiming that Depp threw a wine bottle in her direction when they were dating. However, according to the Daily Mail, Depp said Barkin is simply holding a grudge against him.

When Cotillard filmed Public Enemies with Depp in 2008, there were rumors that the pair flirted heavily on set and that their chemistry was palpable, despite neither confessing to a relationship, especially as Depp may have still been in a relationship with Vanessa Paradis at the time. Likewise, while there have been rumors about Jolie and Depps relationship for years, neither has ever confirmed anything romantic happened between them after meeting on the set of The Tourist, when Jolie was married. In fact, during filming, In Touch Weekly reported that the pair actually couldnt stand each other. But in an interview that year, Depp also said of his costar, Shes everything. Shes kind of a walking poem, Angelina is. Shes this perfect beauty but at the same time very deep, very smart, very quick, very clever, very funny, and also has a very perverse sense of humor.

Knightley has also never confirmed a relationship with the actor, but they did work on the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise together over the course of a decade. If the two stars did date, youd certainly never know it from Depps Evening Standard interview during which he said, Kissing someone you are not romantically involved with is always awkward, but the fact that Keira is 20-something years younger than me made it infinitely more awkward. Still, she was a good sport about it and we did what we had to do. As a side note, Heard is actually one year younger than Knightley.

And its not just dragging all of his famous exes into the trial thats going to make this case more difficult than the last. THR points out that unlike the U.K. case, in this one, the burden of proof will be entirely Depps responsibility. To further complicate matters, Depps attorney Adam Waldmanwhose former clients include Russian oligarchs and Julian Assangehas already been removed from the case for leaking confidential information to the press. The lawyer has since stepped away from his Twitter account as well, last tweeting on October 16, when he seemed to call out media bias against his client by conspiratorially connecting positive articles written by the same author about both Heard and Elon Musks current girlfriend, Grimes.

Depps defamation case is expected to go to trial in early 2021.

Representatives for Jolie, Cotillard, and Knightley did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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Johnny Depp Will Reportedly Have to Turn Over His Communications With Every Famous Actress Hes Dated - Vanity Fair

On Monday, Florida state police forcefully entered the home of Rebekah Jones with guns drawn at her and her family. Jones is a data scientist and whistleblower who has faced backlash from the political establishment for aggregating and publishing data on the spread of COVID-19 throughout the country, including The COVID Monitor, the most comprehensive tracker of outbreaks in schools. Police took Jones phone, computer and several hard drives in an effort to prevent her from continuing to publish data on COVID-19 outbreaks.

Video footage of the fascistic police raid has gone viral on social media and has been met with mass outrage by the public. Floridas Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, loathed by workers across the state for his criminal response to the pandemic and indifference to the suffering of masses, has been widely denounced for orchestrating the raid against Jones.

During a mental health roundtable in Tampa, Florida yesterday, a news reporter asked DeSantis if he knew about the Rebekah Jones raid before it happened. DeSantis fumed at this characterization, shouting, It's not a raid! I'm not gonna let you get away with it. These people did their jobs. They've been smeared as the Gestapo for doing their jobs.

DeSantis and Florida police have sought to justify the raid by claiming that Jones was responsible for sending an email to 1,700 Department of Health employees urging them to speak out and try to prevent future deaths. Jones denies being responsible for this email. It came to light this week that the username and password used was publicly available, meaning that anyone could have sent the email.

In reality, the attacks on Jones coincide with the major bipartisan campaign to reopen the schools, of which she has been an outspoken critic. It also coincides with a massive surge of the pandemic across Tallahassee, Florida, and throughout the US. It is clear that Republican and Democratic officials alike will seek to censor any genuine reporting on the catastrophic rise in cases ripping through communities in the US.

The Socialist Equality Party issued a statement Thursday in defense of Jones, noting:

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.

The SEP has been circulating this statement widely and has received statements of support for Jones from educators and other workers across the US.

Anthony, a Tallahassee, Florida, resident and data analyst, said, Rebekah Jones work is invaluable. Her dedication to accurate, transparent data collection and analysis is the only reason Florida residents have access to any meaningful data on the current conditions of COVID-19 in our communities, workplaces, and our schools.

Reopening K-12 schools during the height of a pandemic was and continues to be a disastrous decision. Any unbiased observer can see this has crippled our state, eroded education and placed a tremendous amount of strain and trauma on parents, teachers, school staff and, most importantly, our children.

The state and individual school districts are engaged in an active coverup of the true nature of the effects of their decision to reopen schools. With Rebekah's work and ethics we are at least provided a glimpse into reality.

Michael, a teacher in Texas and admin of the Facebook group Teachers Against Dying, wrote the following to Jones:

The national educators' resistance group Teachers Against Dying, in conjunction with Rank-and-File Safety Committees across this country, thank you for your brave decision to speak truth to power.

The false narrative of the ruling elite that schools are safe and pose no threat to public health is, in part, contingent on suppressing data that reveals the truth. Namely, that conducting school in the midst of a raging pandemic is unsafe, homicidal, and perpetrated by a government who considers the short term economic outcomes of campaign donors ahead of working Americans.

Your work and your ordeal not only exposes relevant statistical data, but it sheds light on the motives of a corrupt government. Moreover, it contributes to a fight for life, mounted by thousands of educators dedicated to a profession that aims at instilling the character you have displayed in our students. Thank you.

The Pennsylvania Educators Rank and File Safety Committee issued this statement in defense of Jones:

The Pennsylvania Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee condemns the government attack on COVID-19 whistleblower and scientist Rebekah Jones. Fired by Floridas Republican Governor Ron DeSantis for refusing to doctor data on the States coronavirus dashboard, Jones continued to publish the data on her own website and alert the population to the growing danger. For this courageous action, she and her children endured a brutal police raid, with guns pointed at them, and the seizure of her data.

The attack on Ms. Jones is a deliberate attempt to prevent the full extent of the pandemic from being known, so that the policy of herd immunity pursued by both Democrats and Republicans continues. It is meant to intimidate critical and outspoken scientists who warn against the dangers facing the working class. Finally, it is part of the growing violence by extreme right-wing forces being built up against workers. In Pennsylvania, Senator Kim Ward this week reported that the congressional delegation is under intense pressure by Trump to override the vote of the Commonwealth and make their own electoral college choices, noting, If I would say to you, I don't want to do it, I'd get my house bombed tonight. We urge all workers to defend Jones and all whistleblowers, while fighting for a comprehensive mobilization to fight the pandemic and save lives.

Elizabeth, a nurse from Lakewood, California, told the WSWS, We saw this with Julian Assange and Edward Snowden. Our government silences whistleblowers. I even saw it happening at the job I worked at, in the hospital. Corporations do it to their own employees. They say, You cant show us in a bad light.

I dont agree with it. I think people have to start speaking up. They have to start standing up. Look at whats happening to Assange and its been going on for years.

I have a lot of anger and frustration inside of me, seeing people suffer. Its scary. Long Beach Memorial Hospitals COVID-19 patients have increased, especially in ICU, and more people are on ventilators. I think they even have a few pediatric patients with that inflammatory syndrome. One child died yesterday at Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles.

Adriana, a college student at San Diego State University said, It is an honor to state my defense of Rebekah Jones. I am completely appalled by the way in which she has been treated and how guns were held to her and her children after the outcry against police brutality. She is being treated like Edward Snowden and Julian Assange, who revealed the truth to the public. Her story was in the media for a second and now nothing is being said about her in major sources.

The work Jones is doing is bringing science and the truth to the public which is hidden by government officials. I know many students who have to keep working in this pandemic and risking their lives, nothing is being done to stop it. In the Declaration of Independence we gave ourselves the right to overturn a government that no longer serves the people and this is what we face today.

Angela, a teacher in Winkelman, Arizona, spoke with the World Socialist Web Site in defense of Rebekah Jones. Angela has first-hand experience contracting COVID-19 in the classroom, which the WSWS previously discussed with her in August.

Angela said, We need more people in society to stand against these leaders and speak the truth. Any attempts by Florida officials to cover up data on COVID-19 is wrong. Jones should be able to speak her thoughts without her first amendment rights being revoked. The politicians have made COVID-19 political and not humanitarian.

Another Arizona teacher who wished to remain anonymous stated, We should not have to live in fear of our government for speaking and reporting the truth. It would be reckless and devastating for Biden to open schools in January. Look where we are two weeks out from Thanksgiving, and we are heading into the winter holidays.

I appreciate the data that has been exposed by Jones. Peoples lives are at risk. I believe that opening schools has impacted the amount of COVID-19 case increases. I think our government needs to focus instead on funding schools so they can be remote, funding families so they do not have to work.

Liz, a teacher in Hawaii, stated, This is further proof that the state of Florida is intentionally suppressing data in order to maintain the lie that in person school is safe. What this shows is the states utter disregard for human life.

The data exposed by Jones shows that schools are completely unsafe. If data supported the claim that in-person learning is safe, we wouldnt be hearing about public health scientists having their laptops taken by armed police officers for exposing the truth.

A teacher from the Michigan Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee also spoke out in defense of Rebekah Jones, stating, I believe that our committee should defend her. She is the epitome of what we are working towards. She is a worker who is unafraid to go up against the establishment when they told her to do something that was wrong.

She added, This is why we set up our committee. It is important that injustices such as this should be exposed, and we fight against them. They are all important to our cause. Letting one injustice go unaccounted for is the weakening of the working class.

The whole question of the attack on Rebekah Jones is that workers in general feel the need for protection from government entities and corporations that are targeting them for speaking out. She is incredibly brave. I look at her picture and think of how young she is. I would like to think that if placed in that situation at that age I wouldve done the same.

We call on our readers to send statements of support for Rebekah Jones to the WSWS Educators Newsletter, which will compile and publish these statements to share with the global working class. We are assisting educators, parents, students and the entire working class in forming rank-and-file safety committees to fight to close schools and nonessential business in order to stop the spread of the pandemic. All those who wish to get involved should sign up today at wsws.org/edsafety.

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Workers across the US speak out in defense of COVID-19 whistleblower Rebekah Jones - WSWS

KEY POINTS

Well-known personalities in the cryptocurrency industry are imploring President Donald Trump to grant clemency to Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, editor, publisher and activist Julian Assange, and whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Less than two months before President-elect Joe Bidens inauguration, various prominent figures in thecryptocurrency world implored Trump to do the right thing by pardoning the three controversial figures, Cointelegraphreported.

According to podcaster and analyst Peter McCormack, Trumps legacy as president may be remembered very differently if he pardoned the three people. Humanity would only benefit from this, he said on Twitter.

Morgan Creek Capital Co-founder Jason Williams mentioned Snowden and Ulbricht after news broke out that Trump pardoned Michael Flynn, the presidents former national security adviser. Go out on top. The leader you believe you are and the leader you want people to think you are, he said on Twitter, tagging the president on the tweet. Other personalities like Roger Ver and Anthony Pompliano have also voiced their support.

Ulbricht founded Silk Road in 2011, a black market known as a platform where people could buy and sell illegal drugs and unlawful goods and services online, with Bitcoin being used as a method of payment. In October 2013, the FBI arrested Ulbricht and shut down the darknet market. Ulbrich is now serving two life sentences and cannot be paroled. At this point, he has run out of all legal options, so the only thing that can grant him freedom is a pardon from the U.S. president. His mother, Lyn, champions a petition on change.org, arguing that Ulbricht received an extreme sentence, and hopingenough signature could get the president to issue clemency. As of today, more than 362,000 individuals have signed the petition.

Assange, who founded Wikileaks and in 2019, was charged by the U.S. government with violating the Espionage Act of 1917. He is currently in a prison in the U.K. awaiting a court decision on whetherhe will be extradited to the U.S. to face the charge.

Snowden faced similar charges from the U.S. government. He was granted political asylum in Russia. Still, when the topic of pardon is brought up, Snowden was quick to advocate for Assange to receive clemency instead of himself. Mr. President, if you grant only one act of clemency during your time in office, please: free Julian Assange. You alone can save his life, he wrote in a tweettoTrump.

There is no limit to who the president of the United States can grant pardon to, although questions remain whether the current president might use the pardon to grant clemency to himself. With less than two months in office, it remains to be seen whether Trump will grant more pardons before January 20.

Ross Ulbricht was sentenced to life in prison for operating the online drug marketplace known as the Silk Road. Photo: FreeRoss.org

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Should Trump Pardon Assange, Ulbricht And Snowden? Cryptocurrency Leaders Think So - International Business Times

Protesters including Julian Assanges father march outside Central Criminal Court in London. (Hasan Esen / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

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Julian Assanges extradition trial in London this fall revealed the lengths to which the US government was willing to go to secure the return of the WikiLeaks founder to America. It also threw light on a disturbing abuse of process in the English courts.

Assange was indicted in federal district court in Virginia in 2019 on 17 counts of violating the 1917 Espionage Act by unlawfully obtaining and disclosing classified documents related to the national defense, as well as for conspiring to hack into a Pentagon computer network. If the British court approves Assanges extradition and hes found guilty, he could be sentenced to as much as 175 years in a maximum-security prison under Special Administrative Measures, a particularly cruel version of solitary confinement.

Assange was indicted for spying, but Washington may have engaged in a bit of its own espionage in order to secure his extradition. In the month-long extradition trial, held in Londons Central Criminal Court, anonymous witnesses who had worked for a Spanish security firm testified that the firm, UC Global, bugged Assange when he was living in the Ecuadorean Embassy in Londonand that UC Global passed on the information it gathered to US intelligence.

UC Global had originally been hired by the Ecuadorean government simply to provide security for the Ecuadorean presidents daughters. But the mission changed, said the witnesses, after David Morales, owner of UC Global, traveled to Las Vegas and obtained a contract with a security company owned by American casino magnate Sheldon Adelson. According to the witnesses, Morales then became obsessed with monitoring and recording the lawyers who met with Assange, because, as Morales put it, our American friends were requesting it. The implication was that Adelson, a major Trump donor, was the cutout connecting UC Global to US intelligence through his own security company, which had close connections to US intelligence and security agencies.More on Assange and WikiLeaks

Morales, who has been detained since last year and is on trial in Spain, frequently traveled to New York to deliver filmed material on Assange. Later, he asked his employees to set up a livestream connection from the embassy to an office in the United States. There were even plans to poison Assange, and Morales suggested the embassy door could be left open to kidnap him.

All this and much more was exposed by Gareth Peirce, Assanges lawyer, and by Witness 1 and Witness 2, the former UC Global employees who decided to confess everything as long as their anonymity was maintained, because they fear retaliation from Morales and those associated with him.

The defense showed time and again how the WikiLeaks cables exposed crimes committed by the United States. Unfortunately, revealing government crimes may not be sufficient reason to escape sentencing under the Espionage Act. The act, which has never been used to put a journalist on trial until now, is considered by many legal scholars to raise troubling constitutional issues because it infringes on First Amendment rights to receive and publish information.Current Issue

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What has been put in question with the Assange case is not only his life but also the principles that characterize journalism, which is being likened to criminal activity. If this extradition attempt is successful, no one should feel safe in calling authority to account or in scrutinizing the actions of those who hide behind the veil of power, since the United States will feel empowered to extradite anyone in the world Washington views as an enemy.

Noam Chomsky, one of the numerous defense witnesses, said that Julian Assange, in courageously upholding political beliefs that most of us profess to share, has performed an enormous service to all the people of the world who treasure the values of freedom and democracy.

During the four weeks of the extradition hearing, the prosecutor, James Lewis QC, and his team busied themselves with removing paragraphs from the testimony of Khaled El-Masri, a victim of the CIAs rendition program (El-Masri, a German citizen, was kidnapped by the CIA in Macedonia and secretly transported to a black site in Afghanistan, where he was held and tortured before the agency finally admitted its mistake and released him).

The WikiLeaks cables revealed not only revealed the torture of El-Masri but also the pressure Washington put on the German government to reject extradition of the CIA agents guilty of this act, as requested by the German courts. Unsurprisingly, El-Masri could not connect to the court via the Internet to offer his testimony, so part of it (with redaction) was read in court.

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District Judge Vanessa Baraitser seemed almost to have teamed up with prosecuting attorney Lewis to prevent German journalist John Goetz from giving his account of an allegation against Assange, one that is rooted in a dinner in a London restaurant. During that dinner, Assange allegedly said that he didnt care about the fate of the informants on the WikiLeaks cables that were published without redactionsomething many witnesses, including Goetz, who was present at the dinner, said is not true.

These confessions by Assange are found in the book WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assanges War on Secrecy, by journalists David Leigh and Luke Harding, and they were used by Lewis to depict Assanges allegedly irresponsible and criminal attitude. Strangely, Leigh and Harding werent called to testify in court on this.

Judge Baraitsers decisions have highlighted an abuse of process in the English courts. She denied bail release for Assange and didnt even allow him to sit next to his lawyers in the well of the court. The US militarys court-martial of Chelsea Manning was more humane than this.

The judge also rejected the defense lawyers protest that Assange did not have enough time to respond to new US government accusations, which were introduced at the 11th hour. Baraitser allowed the prosecutors four hours to cross-examine, but the defense was allowed only 30 minutes per witness, and she dismissed its arguments routinely throughout the proceedings.

Baraitsers decisions could arise from an institutional conflict of interest. An investigation by Declassified UK revealed that Baraitsers boss is Senior District Judge Emma Arbuthnot, whose husband, Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom, a former Conservative defense minister, has extensive ties to the British intelligence and military community exposed by WikiLeaks. Her son Alexander Arbuthnot is also linked to an antidata leak company created by the UK intelligence establishment and staffed by officials recruited from US intelligence agencies behind that countrys prosecution of the WikiLeaks founder. In addition, Declassified UK has also revealed that a key Assange prosecution witness is part of an academic cluster that has received millions of pounds from the UK and US militaries.

The world press, with few exceptions, has been absent from the hearing. This was not helped by Judge Baraitsers suspension of access to 40 organizations, including Amnesty International, on the first day of the hearing.

The queen recently announced the appointment of Judge Emma Arbuthnot to the High Court, which takes effect on February 1, 2021. Baraitsers decision is due on January 4, and whatever she decides will certainly be appealedand Arbuthnot will hear those appeals.

Whatever the decision, Assange will be vindicated in the end, because he has the legal, procedural, and moral arguments on his side. But he is a lonely David fighting the Goliath of the US and UK intelligence and military establishments. And even if he wins his extradition fight, he could spend many years in Britains high-security Belmarsh prison. If so, it will be the only punishment the United States will be able to give him for crimes he never committed.

See the article here:

Whats At Stake in Julian Assanges Extradition Trial - The Nation

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Its the friends you can call up at 4 a.m. that matter. Marlene Dietrich

TODAY IS

Today is MONDAY, DEC. 7, the 342nd day of 2020. There are 24 days left in the year.

HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY

FILE In this Dec. 7, 1941, file photo, smoke rises from the battleship USS Arizona as it sinks during a Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Japans aerial attack on the U.S. Naval fleet at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii killed more than 2,300 U.S. service people, propelling the United States into World War II. The Dec. 7, 1941, attack has long been cited by many Americans to justify the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to hasten Japans surrender. (AP Photo/File)

On Dec. 7, 1941, the Empire of Japan launched an air raid on the U.S. Navy base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii as well as targets in Malaya, Hong Kong, Guam, the Philippines and Wake Island; the United States declared war against Japan the next day.

10 YEARS AGO

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange surrendered to authorities in London, where he was jailed for nine days before being freed on bail as he fought extradition to Sweden for questioning in a rape investigation.

ON THIS DATE

In 1909, in his State of the Union address, President William Howard Taft defended the decision to base U.S. naval operations in the Pacific at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, instead of in the Philippines.

In 1972, Americas last moon mission to date was launched as Apollo 17 blasted off from Cape Canaveral. Imelda Marcos, wife of Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos, was stabbed and seriously wounded by an assailant who was shot dead by her bodyguards.

In 1982, convicted murderer Charlie Brooks Jr. became the first U.S. prisoner to be executed by injection, at a prison in Huntsville, Texas.

In 1987, 43 people were killed after a gunman aboard a Pacific Southwest Airlines jetliner in California apparently opened fire on a fellow passenger, the pilots and himself, causing the plane to crash.

In 2018, the man who drove his car into counterprotesters at a 2017 white nationalist rally in Virginia was convicted of first-degree murder; a state jury rejected defense arguments that James Alex Fields Jr. acted in self-defense.

CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Larry Bird poses in the press room with the lifetime achievement award at the NBA Awards on Monday, June 24, 2019, at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, Calif. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

Bluegrass singer Bobby Osborne is 89.

Actor Ellen Burstyn is 88.

Baseball Hall of Famer Johnny Bench is 73.

Actor-director-producer James Keach is 73.

Basketball Hall of Famer LARRY BIRD is 64.

Actor Priscilla Barnes is 63.

Former Tonight Show announcer Edd Hall is 62.

Actor C. Thomas Howell is 54.

Former NFL player Terrell Owens is 47.

Singer Aaron Carter is 33.

Continued here:

Today in History: Dec. 7 - The Herald Bulletin

In many jurisdictions, whistleblowers have no legal protection, relying instead on the obligation journalists have to protect and maintain the confidentiality of their sources to prevent the identification of the whistleblower and hence protect them from prosecution. Unfortunately, however, journalists can face prosecution if they refuse to reveal their source in many places around the world.

WikiLeaks' model provides a practical solution: its anonymous submission system was specifically designed to provide protection to journalists and whistleblowers that the law does not provide. Together with its robust publication policy, WikiLeaks provides sources better protection and a promise that their material once verified will be published. And published with maximum global effect: WikiLeaks makes its information available to journalists, citizen journalists, activists and lawyers the world over.

This is why WikiLeaks is so dangerous to those in power with something to hide and why WikiLeaks must be defended and protected.

A supporter of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange during a protest outside the Central Criminal Court in London on September 14.Credit:AP

So when I was approached to defend Julian Assange, I said yes without hesitation. It was September 2010: by then WikiLeaks had published "Collateral Murder", a video showing the US military killing two Reuters employees in Iraq, and the "Afghan War Diary", then "the most significant archive about the reality of war to have ever been released during the course of a war". Chelsea Manning was in a US military prison about to face espionage charges and a possible death penalty for allegedly releasing material to WikiLeaks. But even then, I did not anticipate just how big the story would become.

In Australia, the revelations increased pressure on the government to withdraw from the US coalition of occupation, and in June 2008 prime minister Kevin Rudd announced a drawdown of most Australian combat troops. However, it was a US State Department document later released by WikiLeaks that showed the truth hidden from the Australian public: fulfilling a campaign pledge, Rudd withdrew approximately 515 combat troops from Iraq in June 2008, leaving in place approximately 1000 defence personnel, including a 100-man security detachment for its diplomatic mission in Baghdad, and naval and air patrol assets based in neighbouring countries to support operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Soon after, WikiLeaks published the "Iraq War Logs" the largest leak in US military history. The documents demonstrated there were many thousands more civilian deaths than reported or acknowledged by the US government, as well as the systemic failure to investigate reports of abuse, torture, rape and even murder by Iraqi forces and abuse in US detention facilities.

Days after, Assange told me there was more to come: he had over a quarter of a million US diplomatic cables and he was going to publish them: it would provide the public unprecedented insight into international diplomacy, US foreign policy and, as a result, Australian acquiescence to its ally's demands. Assange was acutely aware of the personal consequences and the persecution that would follow, but felt a duty to the source and to the public to publish the material: "They will chase me to the end of the earth, but I have to do it."

Soon his bank accounts were frozen, WikiLeaks would be cut off from public donations by Mastercard and Visa, the Australian government threatened to cancel his passport and he was wrongfully accused by then prime minister Julia Gillard of unlawful conduct, as part of what was reported to be a co-ordinated international campaign driven by a "WikiLeaks Task Force" in the US.

High-profile US politicians called for him to be killed by drone strike. Assange, busy working on the publication with mainstream media partners, was suddenly the subject of an international manhunt culminating in an Interpol Red Notice and a European Arrest Warrant for a Swedish accusation that had previously been dropped by the Chief Prosecutor in Stockholm because, she said, the evidence "did not disclose any evidence of rape" and that "no crime at all" had been committed.

Assange makes a statement from the Ecuador embassy in 2012.Credit:AP

There were also consequences for me as his lawyer. In the days before "Cablegate" was published, the US State Department leaked to the press a letter it had sent to "Ms Robinson and Mr Assange" accusing us both of putting at risk US national security, military and anti-terrorism operations around the world. The death threats directed at Assange also started being directed at me.

"Cablegate" became known as "the largest set of confidential documents ever to be released into the public domain" and there is no denying the overwhelming public interest in the material. From Tunisia to Tonga, Canberra to Cairo and the West Bank to West Papua, WikiLeaks disclosures revealed corruption, abuse of power and human rights abuse.

WikiLeaks documents were cited in human rights reports about Sri Lankan military operations against the Tamils and in the groundbreaking documentary No Fire Zone, which led to a UN investigation into war crimes. The "Iraq War Logs" were used by lawyers in filing a case against the UK before the International Criminal Court. And in a landmark judgment in early 2018, the UK Supreme Court held that WikiLeaks cables were admissible as evidence before the British courts. This development is likely to be followed in courts around the Commonwealth.

But what of WikiLeaks' founder and editor the person responsible for making all of this possible?

Assange sits in Belmarsh Prison in London, where he has been for over a year-and-a-half, facing US extradition. This, after spending almost seven years in London's Ecuadorian Embassy, to protect himself from US extradition. In 2017 Sweden dropped its criminal investigation, only to re-open and re-close it in 2019.

Women's allegations must always be taken seriously, but so too should due process protections which Assange was denied.

Assange was always willing to face Swedish and British justice, but not at the risk of facing American injustice for publishing information in the public interest.

Throughout that time, successive Australian governments refused to ask for the assurances against extradition he needed to be able to resolve the situation. To the contrary, then foreign minister Bob Carr wrote in Diary of a Foreign Minister that he had been deliberately misleading in his statements to the Australian public inventing his claim that Assange had more consular assistance than any other citizen in order to undermine the campaign that Assange's mother and supporters were trying to start to bring him home. (Carr has more recently written in support of Assange and the need for the Australian government to intervene.)

In 2016, we obtained a ruling from the UN that Assange was being arbitrarily detained and should be immediately permitted to leave the embassy and return home to Australia. Australia took no action.

By 2018, no one could credibly deny the threat of US extradition: US attorney-general Jeff Sessions had said that prosecuting Assange was a priority. Then director of the CIA (and now US Secretary of State) Mike Pompeo declared WikiLeaks a "hostile non-state intelligence agency" and claimed Assange should not benefit from the right to free speech under the US Constitution. Australia took no action.

In 2020, Assange faces 175 years in prison for the 2010 publications for which WikiLeaks won the Walkley Award for Most Outstanding Contribution to Journalism and for which Assange won the Sydney Peace Prize.

Assange's partner, Stella Moris, right, and his lawyer Jennifer Robinson, arrive at the Central Criminal Court, the Old Bailey on September 14.Credit:AP

He is now being held on remand, in a high-security prison in London, having not had a visitor since the outbreak of COVID-19. And still Australia takes no action.

The Australian government claims it is offering consular assistance. But this case requires more: it needs diplomatic and political action.

The treatment of Assange stands in stark contrast to assistance the Australian government has offered others, such as International Criminal Court lawyer Melinda Taylor, who was visited by Carr when he was still foreign minister, had a passport delivered and then was brought out of Libya.

The fact that Assange now faces prosecution under the Espionage Act puts at risk editors and journalists not just in the US but around the world.

Assange is an Australian citizen, not based in the US, who published truthful information about the US, but he is being sought for extradition and prosecution in the US. Imagine if Saudi Arabia was seeking the extradition and prosecution of an Australian journalist for having published the truth about the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, or if China was seeking the extradition of an Australian editor for publishing truthful information about the beginnings of COVID-19. Australia would definitely have something to say about that. Why not when it is about the US?

A Secret Australia: Revealed by the WikiLeaks Exposes (Monash University Publishing).

The US government is trying to claim in the extradition proceedings that Assange put lives at risk with these publications. But during the Chelsea Manning trial in 2013, a US brigadier-general in counter-intelligence was unable to identify one casualty. Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell had said in 2010 "there was no evidence that anyone had been killed because of the leaks".

We must now recognise this case for what it is and has always been about: the persecution of a publisher for robustly publishing what the powerful do not want the public to see evidence of war crimes, human rights abuse and corruption.

As Bob Carr has written following his term as Australia's foreign minister: "Foreign Minister Payne is entitled to courteously remind Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that ... we are a good ally to the point of giddy excess ... We are entitled to one modest request: that in the spirit with which Barack Obama pardoned Chelsea Manning ... it would be better if the extradition of Assange were quietly dropped."

Assange has contributed much to human rights accountability through his work for WikiLeaks and yet he is persecuted for that work. It is time his human rights are respected.

This is an edited extract from A Secret Australia: Revealed by the WikiLeaks Exposs, edited by Felicity Ruby and Peter Cronau, Monash University Publishing.

Jennifer Robinson is an Australian barrister in London. She advises the United Liberation Movement for West Papua.

Read the original:

Silencing dissent: WikiLeaks and the violation of human rights - Sydney Morning Herald

JULIAN Assanges father, John Shipton, will visit Nimbin, Byron Bay and Mullumbimby this month, to discuss his sons situation.

He said coming to the Northern Rivers was like coming home to visit extended family.

The Australian man said each time he visits the area he connects with long-term friends and former schoolmates from his time at boarding school in Bathurst, plus other local acquaintances.

He confirmed Mr Assange went to school in different places in Northern NSW with his mother Christine Ann Hawkins, a visual artist, who still lives in the area.

Mr Shipton recently returned from his sons extradition hearing at the Old Bailey in London.

The Australian activist and builder has called for the Australian government to support his son and bring him to Australia.

Mr Shipton said he was trying to put pressure on the Australian Government to help his son.

It is a task we take on, fighting to bring our speaker of truth home to family and friends. We appeal for your help to Bring Julian Home, he said.

Julian Assange, is an Australian editor, publisher, and activist who founded WikiLeaks in 2006.

WikiLeaks came to international attention in 2010 when it published a series of leaks provided by U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning.

In November 2010, Sweden issued an international arrest warrant for Assange over allegations of sexual assault. Assange said the allegations were a pretext for him to be extradited from Sweden to the United States and took refuge in the Embassy of Ecuador in London in June 2012.

On April 11, 2019, Assanges asylum was withdrawn and he was arrested. He was found guilty of breaching the Bail Act and sentenced to 50 weeks in prison.

Assange is currently incarcerated in HM Prison Belmarsh.

On May 2, 2019, hearings began into the US governments request to extradite him. A decision on extradition is expected on January 4, 2021.

Mr Shipton will speak at the Nimbin Town Hall, 45 Cullen St, Nimbin, on December 8, from 7pm.

He will then appear at the Mullumbimby Civic Hall, 55 Dalley St, Mullumbimby, on December 11 from 7pm, and finally at Marvell Hall, 37 Marvell St, Byron Bay, on December 13 from 7pm.

Mr Shipton said entry to the events was free.

If too many people come along, well speak outside, he said.

More:

Julian Assange's father to speak at 3 Northern Rivers towns - Northern Star