Wired.com hoards, censors Bradley Manning chat logs

The Worsening Journalistic Disgrace At Wired

Hero whistleblower, Bradley Manning, remains in US custody for revealing US government crimes.

By Glenn Greenwald
Salon.com

For more than six months, Wired’s Senior Editor Kevin Poulsen has possessed — but refuses to publish — the key evidence in one of the year’s most significant political stories: the arrest of U.S. Army PFC Bradley Manning for allegedly acting as WikiLeaks’ source. In late May, Adrian Lamo — at the same time he was working with the FBI as a government informant against Manning — gave Poulsen what he purported to be the full chat logs between Manning and Lamo in which the Army Private allegedly confessed to having been the source for the various cables, documents and video that WikiLeaks released throughout this year. In interviews with me in June, both Poulsen and Lamo confirmed that Lamo placed no substantive restrictions on Poulsen with regard to the chat logs: Wired was and remains free to publish the logs in their entirety.

Take a Stand for Peace, Dec. 16, 2010 (video)

By Darren Wolfe
International Libertarian

A great example of how people of diverse views can come together to stand for peace and against the empire. This protest took place at the Whitehouse in Washington, DC.

We met several libertarians there, hopefully more will turn out for future peace rallies. Below are pictures and two videos of the event:

No Act of Rebellion Is Wasted

By Chris Hedges
TruthDig

I stood with hundreds of thousands of rebellious Czechoslovakians in 1989 on a cold winter night in Prague’s Wenceslas Square as the singer Marta Kubišová approached the balcony of the Melantrich building. Kubišová had been banished from the airwaves in 1968 after the Soviet invasion for her anthem of defiance, “Prayer for Marta.” Her entire catalog, including more than 200 singles, had been confiscated and destroyed by the state. She had disappeared from public view. Her voice that night suddenly flooded the square. Pressing around me were throngs of students, most of whom had not been born when she vanished. They began to sing the words of the anthem. There were tears running down their faces. It was then that I understood the power of rebellion. It was then that I knew that no act of rebellion, however futile it appears in the moment, is wasted. It was then that I knew that the Communist regime was finished.

New Facts Call Into Question DOJ Investigations Past and Present

By Andrew Kreig posted by Michael Collins

Four days before Connecticut’s Nora Dannehy was appointed to investigate the Bush administration’s U.S. attorney firing scandal, a team of lawyers she led was found to have illegally suppressed evidence in a major political corruption case.

This previously unreported fact from Dannehy’s past calls into question her entire national investigation. The revelation similarly compromises the pending investigation by her Connecticut colleague, John Durham, who since 2008 has been the nation’s special prosecutor for DOJ and CIA decision-making involving torture.

Here’s the story, which the Justice Integrity Project I lead just broke in Nieman Watchdog:

In September 2008, the Bush Justice Department appointed Connecticut career federal prosecutor Nora Dannehy to investigate allegations that Bush officials in 2006 illegally fired nine U.S. attorneys who wouldn’t politicize official corruption investigations.

But just four days before her appointment, a federal appeals court had ruled that a team of prosecutors led by Dannehy illegally suppressed evidence in a major political corruption case in Connecticut. The prosecutors’ misconduct was so serious that the court vacated seven of the eight convictions in the case.

“No Fly List” Blocks People From Flying without Explanation or Due Process

ACLU July 8, 2010    Late last month, the ACLU filed a first-of-its-kind lawsuit on behalf of 10 U.S. citizens and lawful residents who are prohibited from flying to or from the United States—or over U.S. airspace—because they are on the government’s “No Fly List.”

None of the individuals in the lawsuit, including a disabled U.S. Marine Corps veteran stranded in Egypt and a U.S. Army veteran stuck in Colombia, have been told why they are on the list or given a chance to clear their names.

Thousands of people have been added to the “No Fly List” and barred from commercial air travel without any opportunity to learn about or refute the basis for their inclusion on the list. The result is a vast and growing list of individuals who, on the basis of error or innuendo, have been deemed too dangerous to fly but who are too harmless to arrest.

COTO Report Goes Down Under: An Interview with Maxwell Igan

By Megan ‘Verb’ Kargher

On behalf of COTO Report, I am pleased to present this 68-minute interview with documentary filmmaker, musician and non-violent non-compliance expert, Max Igan.

Canada Provides Safe Haven for Suspected War Criminal

By John Boncore

(March 1, 2010) Calgary – According to legislation enacted in 2000, the Crimes Against Humanity & War Crimes Act bans all who are credibly suspected to have committed war crimes or crimes against humanity from entering Canada or, if they have managed to get in, to arrest them on the spot. This law is supported by international laws to which Canada is signatory.

Yet on March 17th 2009 George W. Bush was in Calgary, Alberta, Canada for a speaking engagement at the Telus Convention Centre which was sponsored by the Calgary Chamber of Commerce.

Rogues gone wild: DEA raids legal medical marijauna dispenseries

By David Sirota

“I am in control here in the White House.” —Secretary of State Alexander Haig, 1981

Ah, the good old days when even a big shot like Gen. Al Haig could get in trouble for such mavericky declarations that defy basic constitutional precedents.

In the 21st century, that’s ancient history. We’ve so idealized cowboy-style rebellion in matters of war and law enforcement that “going Haig” is today honored as “going rogue.” Defiance, irreverence, contempt—these are the moment’s most venerated postures, no matter how destructive or lawless.

The Bush administration’s illegal wiretapping and torture sessions were the most obvious examples of the rogue sensibility on steroids. But then came McCain-Palin, a presidential ticket predicated almost singularly on the rogue brand. And now, even in the Obama era, that brand pervades.

It began re-emerging in September with Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s Afghan escalation plan. McChrystal didn’t just ask President Barack Obama for more troops—protocol-wise, that would have been completely appropriate. No, McChrystal went rogue, pre-emptively leaking his request to the media, then delivering a public address telling Obama to immediately follow his orders.

Incredibly, few politicians or pundits raised objections to McChrystal’s behavior. Worse, rather than firing McChrystal, Obama meekly agreed to his demands, letting Americans know that when it comes to foreign policy, the rogue general—not the popularly elected president—is in control in the White House.

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U.S. Military in Colombia- drastic increase in militarization

School of the Americas Watch

In the fall 2009, U.S. and Colombian officials signed an agreement granting the U.S. military access to seven Colombian bases for ten years. (Watch the 21min. video about the agreement)

SOA Watch is extremely concerned about the drastic increase of U.S. militarization in Latin America. The bases agreement operates from the same failed military mindset that has given rise to the School of the Americas (SOA/ WHINSEC). The purpose of the bases and the purpose of the SOA/ WHINSEC are the same: to ensure U.S. control over the region through military means.

Dred Scott Redux: Obama and the Supremes Stand Up for Slavery

By Chris Floyd

While we were all out doing our Christmas shopping, the highest court in the land quietly put the kibosh on a few more of the remaining shards of human liberty.

It happened earlier this week, in a discreet ruling that attracted almost no notice and took little time. In fact, our most august defenders of the Constitution did not have to exert themselves in the slightest to eviscerate not merely 220 years of Constitutional jurisprudence, but also centuries of agonizing effort to lift civilization a few inches out of the blood-soaked mire that is our common human legacy. They just had to write a single sentence.

Rape and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Jamie Leigh Jones, left, a former employee for the military contractor KBR, told Congress that she had been gang-raped by co-workers in Iraq in 2005. Mary Beth Kineston, also a former KBR worker, said she was sexually assaulted by one driver, groped by another worker and fired after complaining. Left, Andrew Cutraro; right, David Ahntholz; both for The New York Times

By MoveOn

In 2005, Jamie Leigh Jones was working for a private contractor in Iraq when she was brutally gang-raped by coworkers.1 Four years later, Jamie is still being denied justice. Jamie can’t file U.S. criminal charges because the rape took place overseas, and a fine-print clause in her contract takes away her right to file a lawsuit in the U.S.2

Why? Because big corporations, led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, have worked for years to prevent workers from suing their employers in almost any circumstance, even sexual assault.3

U.S.-China Policy ‘Still Lousy After All These Years’

By John Kusumi

#ObamaFAIL: U.S.-China Policy ‘Still Lousy After All These Years’

During Obama’s visit, China quietly sets a trial for Tiananmen Square student leader Zhou Yongjun
– Trial to occur Thursday, one day after Obama leaves China –

This is a newsbreak, coming to you from the China Support Network.

November Vigil with Indigo Girls, Rebel Diaz to Close SOA

November 20-22, 2009 – Converge on Fort Benning, Georgia

Mass Mobilization to Shut Down the School of the Americas (SOA/ WHINSEC)!

The military coup by SOA graduates in Honduras has once again exposed the destabilizing and deadly effects that the School of the Americas has on Latin America. The actions of the school’s graduates are unmasking the Pentagon rhetoric and reveal the anti-democratic results of U.S. policies. It is time for a change towards justice.

From November 20-22, 2009, thousands will vigil at the gates of Fort Benning, Georgia, to stand up for justice, to shut down the School of the Americas and to end the oppressive U.S. foreign policy that the school represents.

Public must ‘tolerate the inequality’ of bonuses, says Goldman Sachs

Bankers’ soaring pay is an investment in the economy, Lord Griffiths tells public meeting on City morality

By Kathryn Hopkins

The ACORN Standard

By Jeremy Scahill

The nonpartisan Project on Government Oversight and Reform recently revealed that the top 100 government contractors made nearly $300 billion from federal contracts in 2007 alone. Since 1995 these same contractors have been involved with 676 cases of “misconduct” and paid $26 billion in fines to settle cases stemming from fraud, waste or abuse. Fines and other penalties, it seems, are simply the stunningly small price of doing government business.

CIA Torturers Running Scared

By Ray McGovern

For the CIA supervisors and operatives responsible for torture, the chickens are coming home to roost; that is, if President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder mean it when they say no one is above the law – and if they don’t fall victim to brazen intimidation.

Unable to prevent Holder from starting an investigation of torture and other war crimes that implicate CIA officials past and present, those same CIA officials, together with what those in the intelligence trade call “agents of influence” in the media, are pulling out all the stops to quash the Justice Department’s preliminary investigation.