CA Prosecutor Says People Have a Right to Self Defence in Unlawful Police Brutality

By Freedom Watch

Judge Napolitano interviews Tony Rackauckas, Orange County District Attorney in the brutal slaying of  Kelly Thomas. Two officers have been charged in his murder.

Two Fullerton police officers charged in homeless man’s death

Fullerton cops Manuel Ramos and Jay Cicinelli charged in Kelly Thomas murder. Booking photos from Orange County District Attorney's Office

By Abby Sewell, Richard Winton and Scott Gold
Los Angeles Times

Orange County prosecutors charged two veteran Fullerton police officers in the death of a mentally ill homeless man, accusing them of a callous cascade of violence against Kelly Thomas as he begged for his life.

Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas on Wednesday said what began as routine questioning by police devolved into a “beating at the hands of an angry police officer,” with other officers eventually joining in. He stressed that Thomas did not provoke the attack and that all of his movements were purely defensive.

9 of Quartzsite’s 14 cops suspended after blowing whistle on Chief; Governor Ignores

By Rady Ananda
COTO Report

Governor Jan Brewer continues to ignore the international attention paid to Quartzsite, Arizona over $5 million in corruption charges, while the Chief of Police suspended nine of the city’s 14 police officers with pay, ordering them not to leave their homes between the hours of 8 am and 5 pm.

All of the suspended officers blew the whistle on the chief, calling for an independent investigation into several serious charges, including false arrests and violating federal medical privacy laws.

Freedom Watch reported:

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Media Matters: Iceland a Port of Refuge

By Tesha Miller
Seismologik

Julian Assange’s creation of Wikileaks and its subsequent release of hundreds of thousands of classified US War and Diplomatic documents has become one of the most controversial journalistic undertakings of the day. The release of this sensitive material has spurned a global debate about the role of journalism in contemporary times and what level of information is appropriate for individual consumption. The amount of knowledge that the public has on national and international affairs depends directly upon the legislative outcomes to these new information challenges and ultimately, how we decide to protect journalists, whistleblowers and news media organizations.

Wikileaks, the United States, Sweden, and Devil’s Island

By William Blum
Anti Empire Report

December 16 … I’m standing in the snow in front of the White House … Standing with Veterans for Peace … I’m only a veteran of standing in front of the White House; the first time was February 1965, handing out flyers against the war in Vietnam. I was working for the State Department at the time and my biggest fear was that someone from that noble institution would pass by and recognize me.

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.

UN Statement on WikiLeaks

By United Nations

Joint Statement on WikiLeaks

UN Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression

Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression

In light of ongoing developments related to the release of diplomatic cables by the organization Wikileaks, and the publication of information contained in those cables by mainstream news organizations, the United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression see fit to recall a number of international legal principles. The rapporteurs call upon States and other relevant actors to keep these principles in mind when responding to the aforementioned developments.

Timeline of Assange’s visit to Sweden and events that followed

By Guy Rundle
Crikey

The following is a timeline and summary of the public record of Julian Assange’s visit to Sweden, incidents therein, and accusations arising therefrom. Since what would otherwise be a private legal issue has become a global public cause, and since the level of misinformation has been excessive, we’re presenting this run-down of events in the interests of clarifying debate.

All material, unless otherwise marked, is a matter of public record. Even parts that are marked unconfirmed have multiple separate sources. Nothing that is purely directed towards the character or the history of the two female complainants has been included. Material that has been included is that which goes to questions of reliability of evidence in court proceedings. The timeline has been prepared from public sources in English and Swedish media, and from first-person interviews by Guy Rundle.

Newspaper publishes new U.S. cables showing Lebonese support for Israeli invasion of Iran

Possible Israeli invasion routes into Iran

Nearly 200 previously unreported U.S. diplomatic cables were posted on Thursday to the website of Lebanese newspaper Al Akhbar. The cables, from eight U.S. embassies across the Middle East and North Africa, have not appeared on Wikileaks’ official website or in the Western media outlets working with Wikileaks… A series from Beirut in 2008 shows Lebanese Defense Minister Elias al-Murr telling U.S. diplomats, in a message he implied they should pass on to Israeli officials, that the Lebanese military would not resist an Israeli invasion so long as the Israeli forces abided by certain conditions. Murr, apparently hoping that an Israeli invasion would destroy much of the Hezbollah insurgency and the communities in Lebanon’s south that support it, promised an Israeli invasion would go unchallenged as long as it did not pass certain physical boundaries and did not bomb Christian communities. (Summary by CLG)

By Max Fisher
The Atlantic

Former WikiLeaks Activists to Launch New Whistleblowing Site

This April 2009 photo shows Daniel Domscheit-Berg, who went by the name Daniel Schmitt at the time, back when he was WikiLeaks’ Germany spokesman.

A group of former members of WikiLeaks is planning to launch its own whistleblowing platform in mid-December, according to a German newspaper. The activists criticize WikiLeaks for concentrating too much on the US and want to take a broader approach.

By Der Spiegel

Julian Assange is the public face of the whistleblowing organization WikiLeaks, and Sunday’s publication of the leaked US diplomatic cables will have raised his profile even higher. In fact, the former hacker is now a leading candidate for Time magazine’s “2010 Person of the Year.”

But former members of the organization have criticized his supposedly autocratic leadership style.

Forbes: Wikileaks wants to spill your corporate secrets

By Andy Greenberg
Forbes Magazine

An Interview With WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange
Nov. 29 2010 – 5:02 pm

Admire him or revile him, WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange is the prophet of a coming age of involuntary transparency, the leader of an organization devoted to divulging the world’s secrets using technology unimagined a generation ago. Over the last year his information insurgency has dumped 76,000 secret Afghan war documents and another trove of 392,000 files from the Iraq war into the public domain–the largest classified military security breaches in history. Sunday, WikiLeaks made the first of 250,000 classified U.S. State Department cables public, offering an unprecedented view of how America’s top diplomats view enemies and friends alike.

Who dares to speak: Riding the tiger

By Alex Roslin
Montreal Gazette

In a growing shroud of secrecy, governments fail whistleblowers who often lose their careers, their marriages and their health after exposing corruption. Alex Roslin explores Canada and the US, focusing on Dr Shiv Chopra who tried to protect Canadians from dangerous drugs, agricultural practices, and carcinogenic pesticides from entering the food supply.

Accounting Fraud Continues to Plague U.S. Economy

By Zach Carter, Media Consortium blogger              Care2

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-CT) unveiled his latest financial reform proposal on Monday, and the stakes for the new legislation couldn’t be higher. After consumer groups raised a major ruckus, Dodd has dropped one of his most egregious concessions to the bank lobby—cutting enforcement authority from the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA). That’s good news: Without a major regulatory overhaul, the U.S. economy’s destructive boom and bust cycle will start all over again.

We’ve been down this road before. The Enron fiasco should have served as a wake-up call for policymakers, but instead, the weak federal response to Enron’s major fraud helped pave the way for the current economic slump.

Sibel Edmonds: The Traitors Among Us

Sibel Edmonds Has Named Names. Why Isn’t the Media Reporting the Story?

By Brad Friedman
Hustler Magazine 

SIBEL EDMONDS, a former FBI translator, claims that the following government officials have committed what amount to acts of treason. They are lawmakers Dennis Hastert, Bob Livingston, Dan Burton, Roy Blunt, Stephen Solarz and Tom Lantos, as well as at least three members of George W. Bush’s inner circle: Douglas Feith, Paul Wolfowitz and Marc Grossman. But is Sibel Edmonds credible?

March 01, 2010 – “

“Absolutely, she’s credible,” Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) told CBS’s 60 Minutes when he was asked about her in 2002. “The reason I feel she’s very credible is because people within the FBI have corroborated a lot of her story.” Edmonds’s remarkable allegations of bribery, blackmail, infiltration of the U.S. government and the theft of nuclear secrets by foreign allies and enemies alike rocked the Bush Administration. In fact, Bush and company actually prevented Edmonds from telling the American people what she knew—up until now.

Everything You HAVE TO KNOW about Dangerous Genetically Modified Foods

Expert Jeffrey M. Smith, author of the #1 GMO bestseller Seeds of Deception, and Genetic Roulette, entertains a wildly appreciative audience with shocking facts about how genetically modified organisms (GMOs) entered our lives. Smith links GMO to toxins, allergies, infertility, infant mortality, immune dysfunction, stunted growth, and death. Whistleblowers were fired, threatened, and gagged, and warnings by FDA scientists were ignored. Start today to protect yourself by joining the Campaign for Healthier Eating in America— a plan that gives the consumer the power to end the genetic engineering of our food supply.

More info

Merck Goes after Whistleblowers, Chills H1N1 Vaccine Objections?

Merck had ‘hit list’ of doctors they sought to ‘neutralize,’ court documents reveal

By Mike Adams

Previously secret documents that surfaced at a Vioxx court case in April of this year reveal pharmaceutical giant Merck maintained a “hit list” of doctors to be “neutralized” for speaking out against Vioxx. Although this story was reported on NaturalNews and other sites in April, Merck’s involvement in the recent round of swine flu vaccines raises new questions regarding Merck’s behavior towards its critics (see below).

Gmail may hand over IP addresses of journalists

By Julian Assange

Subpoenas for records are rubber-stamped by US courts, meaning that anyone in a position to start law suits in California can obtain private information about Gmail users who are not in a position to respond in kind, including cash-strapped corruption busting journalists from the Caribbean.

Bank whistleblower gets 40 months prison time

By MARTHA BRANNIGAN, Miami Herald

In a surprisingly heavy judgment, Bradley Birkenfeld, the former UBS AG private banker who blew the whistle on a wide-ranging scheme in which the Swiss bank helped wealthy Americans dodge income taxes through secret accounts, was sentenced to 40 months in prison Friday morning.

John Pilger: Empire, Obama and America’s Last Taboo

Speech given July 5, 2009
At Socialism 2009, San Francisco
Haymarket Books, International Socialist Review, Socialist Worker
“Building a New Left for a New Era”
Sponsored by Center for Economic Research and Social Change.

Transcribed by Rady Ananda (with subtitles, links and graphics added)

Testimony Subpoenaed in Turkish Lobby & Congressional Campaign Case

By Sibel Edmonds

“Sibel’s just been subpoenaed for a deposition in an election court case involving Jean Schmidt (R-OH). This will be a major test of Obama’s justice department to see if they will throw the State Secrets privilege to gag her again, or if they will let this case proceed and let her be on record in a court case for the first time since she’s been gagged. This could be huge, folks!” ~ Cascadiance

Breaking News:

Last week I received a request to provide my sworn deposition and affidavit testimony in a case pending before the Ohio Elections Commission, Schmidt v. Krikorian.