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Whistleblowers

What Did NSA Leaks Change About Public Opinion?

June 13, 2015 David Sirota, www.ibtimes.com , , ,
By David Sirota in IB Times - Two years ago this month, a 29-year-old government contractor named Edward Snowden became the Daniel Ellsberg of his generation, delivering to journalists a tranche of secret documents shedding light on the government’s national security apparatus. But while Ellsberg released the Pentagon Papers detailing one specific military conflict in Southeast Asia, Snowden released details of the U.S. government’s sprawling surveillance machine that operates around the globe. In the years since Snowden’s historic act of civil disobedience, the politics of surveillance have evolved. For much of the early 2000s, politicians of both parties competed to show who could be a bigger booster of the National Security Agency’s operations, fearing that any focus on civil liberties might make them look soft on terrorism.

Two Years Ago Today, Snowden Was In Hong Kong

June 5, 2015 Edward Snowden, www.ACLU.org , , , , ,
By Edward Snowden for ACLU Action. Two years ago today, in a Hong Kong hotel room, three journalists and I waited nervously to see how the world would react to the revelation that the National Security Agency had been collecting records of nearly every phone call in the United States. Though we have come a long way, the right to privacy remains under attack. Last month, the NSA’s invasive call-tracking program was declared unlawful by a federal appeals court in ACLU v. Clapper, and it was disowned by Congress. And, after a White House investigation found that the program never stopped a single terrorist attack, even President Obama ordered it terminated. This is because of you. This is the power of an informed public.

Sweden’s Top Court Will Hear Assange Appeal Over Arrest Warrant

April 29, 2015 Al Jazeera, www.america.aljazeera.com , ,
Sweden's Supreme Court said Tuesday it would hear an appeal by WikiLeaks founder Julian to lift the arrest warrant against him issued by prosecutors who want to question him over allegations of sexual assault. Assange, 43, an Australian citizen, has been staying in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since June 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning over allegations of sexual assault against two women in 2010. He denies the accusations. Prosecutors first insisted he go to Sweden for questioning but in a U-turn in March agreed to conduct the interview in London. Assange has said he fears that if Britain extradites him to Sweden, he could then be extradited to the United States, where he would be tried for one of the largest leaks of classified information in U.S. history.

Chelsea Manning Joins Twitter, Gets 1,000+ Followers Before Posting

April 4, 2015 Ed Pilkington, www.theguardian.com , ,
Chelsea Manning, the US soldier serving 35 years in military prison for leaking state secrets to WikiLeaks, has joined the social media site Twitter. The army private has secured the handle @xychelsea and will begin posting tweets from noon ET on Friday. Given the conditions of her custody – which do not extend to internet access – she will dictate comments by phone to supporters who will then post on her behalf. The new Twitter feed had by 5.30pm ET on Thursday already attracted more than 1,000 followers, even before the soldier had uttered a word or followed any other accounts.

Accused WikiLeaks Courier Tortured, Extradited

March 8, 2015 Staff, www.couragefound.org , , , , ,
Matt DeHart is a 30-year-old former US National Guard drone team member and alleged WikiLeaks courier who worked with the hactivist group Anonymous. He has been deported/extradited from Canada to the United States to face charges that judges in two countries (the US and Canada) have found to lack credibility. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said: “Canada’s actions are shameful. It may as well not have a border.” A few minutes ago Matt DeHart appeared before a judge in Buffalo and was ordered to be transferred to Tennessee for arraignment. For the past five years, Matt DeHart has been at the centre of a US national security investigation and has experienced extraordinary hardship as a result. In 2010, Matt was detained at the US–Canadian border by FBI agents, who administered an IV (intravenous line) to Matt against his will. They questioned him over several days regarding his military unit, his involvement with Anonymous and WikiLeaks. They denied him access to his lawyer, deprived him of sleep, food and water, and tortured him during this time.

How To Leak To The Intercept

January 29, 2015 Micah Lee, www.firstlook.org , ,
This publication was created in part as a platform for journalism arising from unauthorized disclosures by NSA contractor Edward Snowden. Our founders and editors are strongly committed to publishing stories based on leaked material when that material is newsworthy and serves the public interest. So ever since The Intercept launched, our staff has tried to put the best technology in place to protect our sources. Our website has been protected with HTTPS encryption from the beginning. All of our journalists publish their PGP keys on their staff profiles so that readers can send them encrypted email. And we’ve been running a SecureDrop server, an open source whistleblower submission system, to make it simpler and more secure for anonymous sources to get in touch with us.

Freedom Of The Press: Where’s Pardon For Chelsea Manning

January 20, 2015 Matthew Behrens, www.rabble.ca , ,
When a former U.S. army private awoke in her jail cell just over a week ago -- some 17 months into a 35-year jail sentence -- she could have been forgiven for thinking, in the immediate aftermath of the terrible Paris magazine attacks, that the commutation of her punitive sentence for exercising freedom of speech and conscience was about to be placed on President Obama's desk. Obama, like many world leaders, had just issued stunning, passionate statements about freedom of the press, human dignity, and all the great things that make countries like Canada and the U.S. just so undeniably terrific. For the now 26-year-old Chelsea (previously known as Bradley) Manning, though, it was not to be. She had had the audacity to challenge terrorism by exposing it, not in a manner that humiliated or denigrated her targets, but simply to inform the public, generate discussion, bolster democracy and hold accountable those who had committed atrocities.

Whistleblower Cop Fired For Calling Out Corruption In Her Department

January 3, 2015 Matt Agorist, www.thefreethoughtproject.com , , , ,
A New Albany police officer of 19-years is being fired after she blew the whistle on her department. In May, Officer Laura Schook made several claims against her department including corruption, padded overtime and discrimination. “My supervisors [were] padding their overtime, stealing time from the city, also doing other jobs while they were at work, essentially being paid for two jobs at one time,” Schook said in an interview. After the allegations were made, Chief Sherri Knight and Assistant Chief Greg Pennell both resigned and asked to be reassigned within the police force.

$3.4 Billion Bank Settlement; Will Anyone Go To Jail?

November 12, 2014 Kirstin Ridley and Joshua Franklin, www.reuters.com , ,
Regulators fined five major banks $3.4 billion for failing to stop traders from trying to manipulate the foreign exchange market, the first settlement in a year-long global investigation. UBS (UBSN.VX), HSBC (HSBA.L) and Citigroup (C.N), Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L) and JP Morgan (JPM.N) all face penalties resulting from the probe that has also put the largely unregulated $5 trillion-a-day market on a tighter leash. One regulator gave banks a 30 percent discount for settling early. In the latest scandal to hit the financial services industry, dealers shared confidential information about client orders and coordinated trades to make money from a foreign exchange benchmark used by asset managers and corporate treasurers to value their holdings. Dozens of traders have been fired or suspended.

The $9 Billion Witness: JPMorgan Chase’s Worst Nightmare

November 9, 2014 Matt Taibbi, www.rollingstone.com , , , ,
In today's America, someone like Fleischmann – an honest person caught for a little while in the wrong place at the wrong time – has to be willing to live through an epic ordeal just to get to the point of being able to open her mouth and tell a truth or two. And when she finally gets there, she still has to risk everything to take that last step. "The assumption they make is that I won't blow up my life to do it," Fleischmann says. "But they're wrong about that." Good for her, and great for her that it's finally out. But the big-picture ending still stings. She hopes otherwise, but the likely final verdict is a Pyrrhic victory. Because after all this activity, all these court actions, all these penalties (both real and abortive), even after a fair amount of noise in the press, the target companies remain more ascendant than ever. The people who stole all those billions are still in place. And the bank is more untouchable than ever.

Holder Prosecuted Whistleblowers & Journalists, Not Bankers & Torturers

September 25, 2014 Kevin Zeese, greenshadowcabinet.us , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
We urge President Obama to replace Holder with a public interest not a corporate lawyer; that will put the rule of law before corporate power. This appointment is an opportunity to shut the revolving door between big business and government. We also hope the next attorney general will put rule of law ahead of the security state, prosecute torture and other war crimes, protect privacy from US intelligence agencies and protect Freedom of Speech, Assembly and Press. Finally, we hope to see an attorney general that will confront the war culture that has allowed the president to ignore the constitutional requirement that Congress is responsible for deciding when the US goes to war, not the president; and one who respects international law and requires UN approval before the US attacks another nation.

James Risen: Obama Is ‘Greatest Enemy To Press Freedom’

August 18, 2014 Katherine Fung, www.huffingtonpost.com , ,
Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter James Risen is not mincing words about President Barack Obama. Risen has been fighting the Obama administration's efforts to get him to testify about his sources for six years. The Department of Justice has ordered him to testify against former CIA agent Jeffrey Sterling, who it believes leaked information about a failed CIA operation in Iran that Risen reported on in his book. Risen recently lost his bid to have the Supreme Court revisit his case. New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd spoke to Risen for her Sunday column "Where’s the Justice at Justice?" "How can he [Obama] use the Espionage Act to throw reporters and whistle-blowers in jail even as he defends the intelligence operatives who 'tortured some folks,' and coddles his C.I.A. chief, John Brennan, who spied on the Senate and then lied to the senators he spied on about it?" Dowd wrote. Risen had one word to describe Obama's actions: "hypocritical."

Journalism Groups Rally To Support James Risen

August 5, 2014 Norman Solomon, www.cjr.org , ,
Ten months after the Committee to Protect Journalists issued its scathing report “The Obama Administration and the Press,” journalists and potential whistleblowers continue to face unprecedented surveillance and legal jeopardy. The report, authored by Leonard Downie Jr., former executive editor of The Washington Post, remains grimly up to date as it describes “the fearful atmosphere surrounding contacts between American journalists and government sources.” The US Department of Justice seems determined to intensify that fearful atmosphere—in part by threatening to jail New York Times reporter James Risen, who refuses to name any source for the disclosure in his 2006 book State of War that the CIA bungled a dumb and dangerous operation with nuclear weapons blueprints in Iran. The government is now prosecuting a former CIA employee, Jeffrey Sterling, for allegedly leaking that information to Risen. Attorney General Eric Holder may soon decide whether he wants to imprison Risen for not capitulating. The Freedom of the Press Foundation calls it “one of the most significant press freedom cases in decades.” Almost a year ago, under the letterhead of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, 46 news organizations sent a letter to Holder urging the Justice Department to withdraw the subpoena issued to Risen. Two months ago, the Committee to Protect Journalists put out a new statement again calling on the Justice Department to cancel the subpoena.

Intelligence Community Contractors Need Protections

July 30, 2014 Keith Wrightson, www.dcmediagroup.us , ,
One year ago today, the Senate passed Resolution 202, establishing National Whistleblower Appreciation Day on July 30. Passage of Resolution 202 was led by Senators Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and was passed by unanimous consent. Truly remarkable in this era of partisan rancor. And it’s not just Congress that sees the importance of this issue. The Obama administration has also been doing its part to increase whistleblower protections for those who disclose waste, fraud and abuse. On November 27, 2012, President Obama signed into law the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (WPEA). The WPEA provides millions of federal workers with the rights they need safely to report government corruption and wrongdoing. President Obama also has issued Presidential Policy Directive 19 (PPD-19), which extends whistleblower protections to the federal government’s intelligence community employees. The directive provides for reinstatement, compensatory damages, restoration of back pay and other remedies in cases where retaliation for whistleblowing is substantiated.

Ellsberg & Snowden: Mutual Respect, Different Approaches

July 23, 2014 Nathan Schneider, www.wagingnonviolence.org , , ,
Just as Snowden claimed Ellsberg as an influence, Ellsberg found common cause with his inheritors today. He made a lengthy and passionate speech denouncing the ongoing evils of the modern U.S. security regime, and calling on more people in the security services to take risks and speak out. “A lot of blood has flowed because people bit their tongues or swallowed their whistles,” he cried. When the floor turned to Snowden after that, he fell quiet at first. “I’m still politically pretty moderate,” he began by saying. (He’d earlier described his political philosophy as “almost Stallman-esque,” referring to the anti-copyright, free-software advocate Richard Stallman.) He stressed that he doesn’t blame fellow contractors who haven’t followed his lead; rather, he put the burden on the hundreds of hackers in the room to create tools that will make whistleblowing easier and safer. Whereas Ellsberg spoke of resistance as a matter of moral urgency and heroic choice, Snowden saw it as an engineering challenge.
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