Sweden Conceals Mass Rapes - Illegally Releases Assange Info to Media

ꕤ    SWEDEN Authorities & Press CONCEALED MASS RAPES Sweden Authorities Illegally Released Assange Info to Media LINK | SOURCE [CLICK image for clarity / enlargement] ꕤ COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. POLITICAL PERSECUTION POLITICAL PERSECUTION LINK | SOURCE RIGHT-CLICK IMAGE Select:  'Open Link in New TAB' Use Magnifier tool for FULL ENLARGEMENT ꕤ COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. POLITICAL PERSECUTION RIGHT-CLICK IMAGE Select:  'Open Link in New TAB' Use Magnifier tool for FULL ENLARGEMENT ꕤ COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. POLITICAL PERSECUTION NOTE:  same journalist & Swedish daily newspaper associated with the Sweden press cover-up of MASS SEXUAL ASSAULT / RAPE of SWEDISH young women & girls, a vocal and persistent critic of ASSANGE, WikiLeaks publisher-journalist, DETAINED OVER 5 YEARS, NO CHARGE), as American State Department & law enforcement TARGET NO. 1 -- despite damning evidence against Sweden's extradition-seeking allegations. POLITICAL PERSECUTION Meanwhile, Sweden's REFUSAL to interview ASSANGE (detained Britain over 5 years, NO CHARGE), in line with British Crown Prosecution Service strategic advice NOT to INTERVIEW ASSANGE in UK, and therefore to DENY ASSANGE opportunity to DEFEND & to DEFEND against EXTRADITION to Sweden, SPEAKS VOLUMES re: CONFIRMED US Grand Jury Sealed Indictment (confirmed Jan. 2011 - LINK | HERE) that would undoubtedly see US seek to assert political influence (and exert considerable political pressure, if need be) to have ASSANGE extradited to USA on capital (potentially death penalty) American-devised attempt to redefine journalism 'charges' for 'espionage'  ... POLITICAL PERSECUTION POLITICAL PERSECUTION A S S A N G E Hanne Kjöller Swedish daily  DAGENS NYHETER Sweden Press PERSECUTION & SMEAR By same Cover-Up Press LINK | SOURCE RIGHT-CLICK IMAGE Select:  'Open Link in New TAB' Use Magnifier tool for FULL ENLARGEMENT ꕤ COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. ---------------------- ꕤ ---------------------- SUPPORT Australian Journalist JULIAN ASSANGE @WikiLeaks justice4assange ꕤ

InfoLink - Louis B Susman - US Ambassador to London (Jul 2009 - Apr 2013)

ꕤ Info/Ref Louis B Susman former US Ambassador to Britain (2009-2013) as marked SUMMARY Louis B Susman -- based Chicago -- lawyer 27 years: St. Louis-based Thompson & Mitchell -- mergers & acquisitions -- 20 years making deals as a Chicago-based investment banker -- at Salomon Brothers (later merged Citigroup, 1998) -- key role Dayton Hudson's buy of Marshall Field's -- key role LG Electronics' buy  of Zenith Electronics -- x2 deals that changed the Chicago corporate landscape -- former Citigroup Corporate and Investment Banking -- retired investment banker & lawyer -- major fund-raiser for Obama's first presidential campaign -- 2009 appointed US Ambassador to Britain by Barak Obama -- July 10, 2009 -  April 3, 2013 -- 2013 retired as Ambassador to United Kingdom Non-executive chairman:  DJE Holdings -- family-owned parent company of Edelman and Zeno Group -- joins board at public relations giant Edelman -- Edelman world's largest public relations firm -- f. Chicago 1952 (Daniel Edelman) -- Chicago & NY bases -- 4,600 employed, 66 offices -- annual billings:  $665 million http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-04-03/business/chi-exambassador-sussman-joins-edelman-parent-20130403_1_richard-edelman-investment-banking-investment-banker Fait Accompli Louis B Susman, Chairman [CLICK image for clarity / enlargement] ꕤ COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. source https://archive.is/XRTLc international event-planning company co-owner & managing director Alex Fitzgibbon husband of American-Swedish 'corporacratic' heiress Cristina Stenbeck - particulars here FOI RELEASE Official US government e-mail (27 Nov. 2010) re WIKILEAKS MATERIAL RELEASE Just Prior to 'Coincidental' Handy London Arrest of Julian Assange [CLICK image for clarity / enlargement] ꕤ COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. http://graphics.wsj.com/hillary-clinton-email-documents/pdfs/C05771811.pdf The Guardian 1 DAY PRIOR TO ASSANGE ARREST IN LONDON http://www.theguardian.com/media/2010/dec/05/julian-assange-lawyers-being-watched Julian Assange's lawyers say they are being watched WikiLeaks founder's lawyers also accuse US state department of inappropriate behaviour in not respecting attorney-client protocol Sam Jones and agencies @swajones Monday 6 December 2010 03.16 AEDT Lawyers representing the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, say that they have been surveilled by members of the security services and have accused the US state department of behaving "inappropriately" by failing to respect attorney-client protocol. Jennifer Robinson and Mark Stephens of the law firm Finers Stephens Innocent told the Guardian they had been watched by people parked outside their houses for the past week. "I've noticed people consistently sitting outside my house in the same cars with newspapers," said Robinson. "I probably noticed certain things a week ago, but mostly it's been the last three or four days." Stephens said he, too, had had his home watched. Asked who he thought was monitoring him, he said: "The security services." Robinson said the legal team was also experiencing "other forms of pressure" from Washington. She pointed to a letter from a state department legal adviser – addressed to both Assange and her – which appeared to bracket together client and lawyer as if to suggest that WikiLeaks and its lawyers were one and the same. The letter, which was released to the press, begins: "Dear Ms Robinson and Mr Assange. I am writing in response to your 26 November 2010 letter to US Ambassador Louis B Susman regarding your intention to again publish on your WikiLeaks site what you claim to be classified US government documents." Robinson said: "By eliding client and lawyer, that was a very inappropriate attempt to implicate me. That is really inappropriate to come from the state department of all places; they understand very well the rules on attorney-client protocol." She said that although they had requested a public retraction from the state department, no answer had been received. "It's quite a serious situation," she said, adding that, according to the UN's Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers, governments should ensure that lawyers "are able to perform all of their professional functions without intimidation, hindrance, harassment or improper interference" and that "lawyers shall not be identified with their clients or their clients' causes as a result of discharging their functions". A spokeswoman for the Home Office declined to comment on the lawyers' surveillance claims. Assange, who is staying in Britain, has come under growing pressure from politicians in the US and around the world after his site started publishing excerpts from a cache of 250,000 secret American diplomatic cables last week. It emerged on Saturday that Australian police are investigating whether Assange, an Australian citizen, has broken any of the country's laws and is liable to prosecution there. The foreign minister, Kevin Rudd, said: "The Australian government unequivocally condemns the action by any of those responsible for the unauthorised release of classified and confidential information and diplomatic communications between states." Swedish prosecutors have sent an international arrest warrant to the Metropolitan police, seeking the extradition of Assange for questioning on allegations – which he strongly denies – of rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion.   [Comment:  How convenient, Sweden !!!] Stephens today denounced the extradition warrant as a "political stunt" and said Assange would fight deportation to Sweden on the grounds that it could lead to him being handed over to the US, where senior politicians have called for him to be executed. The former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin has described him as "an anti-American operative with blood on his hands" and called for him to be hunted down like a Taliban leader, while another senior Republican, Mike Huckabee, has said that "anything less than execution is too kind a penalty" for his actions. Stephens said that Sweden's chief prosecutor had told Assange in September that there was no case for him to answer, following complaints against him by two women, but the investigation was revived following the intervention of a Swedish politician.  [comment:  women did NOT make 'complaints' -- they  reportedly sought 'ADVICE', which just happens to be a convenient way to make false statements without being punished for doing so in Sweden - see legal comment below.  Note also:  Sweden police failed to follow protocols and the police database was tampered with, along with other irregularities.] He said that Swedish prosecutors knew where Assange was and urged them to call him to discuss the case. Stephens told BBC1's Andrew Marr Show: "It is quite bizarre, because the chief prosecutor in Sweden dropped the entire case against him, saying there was absolutely nothing for him to find back in September, and then a few weeks later on – after the intervention of a Swedish politician – a new prosecutor, not in Stockholm where Julian and these women had been, but in Gothenburg, began a new case which has resulted in these warrants and the Interpol Red Notice being put out." He added: "It does seem to be a political stunt." http://www.theguardian.com/media/2010/dec/05/julian-assange-lawyers-being-watched [CLICK image for clarity / enlargement] ꕤ COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. The US govt & shrill Palin (& assorted US airhead) claims that were made were subsequently NOT supported by facts: [CLICK image for clarity / enlargement] ---------------------- ꕤ ---------------------- COMMENT Well, that was interesting. ꕤ

'Top Secret' - Game or British Acclimatisation PsyOp?

ꕤ Article SOURCE http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-01-10-where-in-the-world-is-edward-snowden 'Top Secret' - Game or British Acclimatisation PsyOp?  http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-01-10-where-in-the-world-is-edward-snowden Simon Parkin Simon Parkin is an award-winning writer and journalist from England, a regular contributor to The New Yorker, The Guardian and a variety of other publications. Where in the world is Edward Snowden? The game that puts you in search of history's most notorious whistleblower. SUMMARY: James Long British graduate in theoretical physics product, game:  Top Secret casts player as NSA employee tasked with following intel to source deciding who knows what & whether to help whistleblower blurs reality & fantasy (Snowden group + fiction) 1,000 scattered fragments / disjointed, non-linear journey played out entirely in your actual email programme to begin: send an email to member of your 'NSA team' surveillance reports return, with 'metadata' James Long "Every email you send and receive while playing the game can be intercepted by the real government," he says. "So we have a game about surveillance in which your play itself is subject to surveillance." Top Secret supports Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) encryption method used by Edward Snowden James Long "I'm nakedly partisan and a huge fan of Snowden. I believe the government has gone too far with mass surveillance." James Long "One of the reasons you play as an NSA analyst is that it allows the game to present the viewpoints of those in the security services. You are free to make up their own mind and decide how far you'll go when invading the lives of others. For change to happen you have to start a debate. It doesn't matter if people disagree with you as long as they are talking about the issue." http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-01-10-where-in-the-world-is-edward-snowden Guardian Article http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jan/10/video-game-makers-james-long-top-secret BY THE SAME WRITER / BRIEF VERSION ---------------------- ꕤ ---------------------- COMMENT So, is this really a game or is it a GCHQ acclimatisation to mass surveillance and a take-the-NSA-POV PsyOp? ꕤ

Israel Nukes Whistleblower Mordecai Vanunu - Shopped to Mossad by Sydney Morning Herald, ASIO & ASIS

ꕤ Article SOURCE EXTRACT ONLY - CONTINUE AT SOURCE http://mailstar.net/vanunu.html Peter Myers / MailStar Ari Ben-Menashe on the Capture of Mordecai Vanunu Selections by Peter Myers, September 15, 2001; update November 21, 2015. My comments are shown {thus}. Write to me at contact.html. You are at http://mailstar.net/vanunu.html. Ben-Menashe was a former Israeli intelligence officer. The Sydney Morning Herald, & The (Melbourne) Age, as well as Australia's spy agency ASIO, played a part in the capture of Vanunu. The Sydney Morning Herald alerted ASIO, which alerted ASIS, which alerted Mossad. The BBC produced a TV documentary about Vanunu's capture, and Israel's secret nuclear weapons program, titled "Israel's Secret Weapon". Transcript, BBC World Service, 29 June 2003, Part 1: http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article1665.shtml. Part 2 of the transcript is at http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article1667.shtml. (1) Mordecai Vanunu - caught by a Honey Trap (2) Mossad posing as "Palestinian Terrorists"; and a special flight to Tehran of Israeli air-force pilots disguised as civilians. (3) Gordon Thomas, writer of political thrillers - a disinformation agent? (4) Israeli Recruiter of Convicted Spy Pollard Reemerged on American Soil (5) Robert Fisk on Vanunu's importance (6) Gordon Thomas discloses Mossad's role in the "Monica Lewinsky" scandal (7) Daniel Halper: Israelis tried to blackmail Bill Clinton with Lewinsky tapes to force spy release (1) Mordecai Vanunu - caught by a Honey Trap Mordecai Vanunu was lured by a "honey trap", after which he was jailed (in Israel) for 18 years (11 solitary); and he never even got the honey. Ari Ben-Menashe, Profits of War: The Sensational Story of the World-Wide Arms Conspiracy, Allen & Unwin, Sydney 1992. {p. 200} ... My only experience with it was the so-called "Vanunu affair" in 1986. EXTRACT ONLY - CONTINUE AT SOURCE http://mailstar.net/vanunu.html ---------------------- ꕤ ---------------------- COMMENT Thought this article was cool. Only had a quick skim of it. Article demonstrates why independent whistleblower publishers such as WikiLeaks are important. After Vanunu's experience, potential whistleblowers would be crazy to attempt leak vital data to untrustworthy (and treacherous) corporate media, or to untested publishers. Is anybody else appalled that the Australian daily newspapers and intelligence authorities basically condemned a whistleblower to Mossad kidnapping, 18 years prison and 11 years of solitary confinement (ie torture)? Note also, Australian authorities handed over those young Australians who were busted for drugs in some country they got executed in, eventually. Bali Nine in Indonesia. Bali Nine: Australian Federal Police unapologetic for tip-off that led to Chan and Sukumaran executions By political reporters Jane Norman and Anna Henderson Updated 4 May 2015, 8:32pm Australian Federal Police Commissioner Andrew Colvin says it is possible future investigations could result in an Australian facing the death penalty overseas, even though the AFP's guidelines have been strengthened since the arrest of the Bali Nine drug smugglers. [ ... ] Commissioner Colvin defended the AFP's decision to inform Indonesian authorities about the drug syndicate, saying the AFP did not have enough evidence to arrest the Australians before they left for Indonesia. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-04/afp-says-more-australians-could-face-death-penalty-over-drugs/6442084 Australian law enforcement authorities have as good as killed those kids themselves, in their haste to notify the Indonesians. The distinctly unAustralian attitude of Australian law enforcement, intelligence services, and politicians -- all public servants -- probably also explains, to some extent, why the Australian authorities have not challenged (let alone publicly and vigorously challenged) the political persecution of award-winning Austrlian journalist, whistleblower publisher, Julian Assange. It is the inaction (and, really, negligence) of  these Australian authorities that has enabled the 5-year British political persecution and detention of Julian Assange, who is obviously targeted for extradition and 'live burial' (ie. decades long incarceration, at a minimum) in the exposed criminal state, otherwise known as:  United States of America. Australians should be outraged that the politicians and sundry other public servants, that are appointed by Australians to serve Australian interests, do not serve the interests of all Australians, of democracy and of justice, first and foremost. Julian Assange Editor, WikiLeaks Justice4Assange WikiLeaks Site WikiLeaks Twitter BOOK:  The WikiLeaks Files (2015) Link | here PS ...  just reading re the 2003 Vanunu BBC documentary.  I'm not the only one describing incarceration as entombment: "He was buried alive ..." [re Vanunu] ꕤ

Pentagon Moves to Cover Up War Crimes

ꕤ Article SOURCE as marked WikiLeaks source | @WikiLeaks Sputnik Article http://sputniknews.com/analysis/20151230/1032476128/pentagon-whistleblowers-crackdown.html Pentagon Plans Legal Change to Crack Down on Military Whistleblowers 02:36 30.12.2015(updated 03:21 30.12.2015) After a year marked by repeated cyberattacks into US government databanks, the Department of Defense is tightening up its Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) to prevent future breaches and leaks, legal and cyber [attacks], analysts told Sputnik. WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Former CIA counterterrorism officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou told Sputnik on Tuesday that the change in the Code seemed focused on bringing military legal procedures up to date to deal with the burgeoning field of cybercrime and cyberespionage. "It may be that the law was outdated and didn't include ‘cybercrime," Kiriakou said.   The Defense Department has proposed a reform in the US Code of Military Justice to introduce punishment for specific computer offenses for the first time. Retired US Army Major Todd Pierce, an author and expert on military law and civil liberties, told Sputnik the reform seemed to be focused on serving military personnel who became whistleblowers such as Chelsea Manning, rather than on civilian contractors such as Edward Snowden. "I think it is more related to Manning as Snowden wouldn’t have come under the UCMJ as a civilian," Pierce pointed out.   Chelsea Manning, originally Bradley Manning, was a US Army soldier who was convicted in July 2013 of violations of the Espionage Act after disclosing to WikiLeaks nearly 750,000 classified or unclassified, but sensitive military and diplomatic documents. In August 2013, Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison, and will only be eligible for possible parole from August 2020. Pierce said the proposed changes in the UCMJ would make it easier for the US military to prosecute and convict future whistleblowers like Manning, who felt compelled to leak classified or sensitive material for the public good. "I presume the offenses and the elements which will need to be shown for conviction will be made easier to prove than relying on General Articles and the incorporation of federal statutes," Pierce stated. Independent Institute Director of the Center on Peace and Liberty Ivan Eland agreed that the Defense Department was belatedly reacting to the embarrassments it suffered from the successful data leaks and exposures by Snowden and Manning. "The [proposed] Code revisions seem to be a reaction to the Snowden leaks. However, Snowden was a civilian and they are likely plugging leaks in the Code to deal with similar actions by military personnel," Eland noted.   Edward Snowden is a former CIA employee and former contractor for the US government who leaked classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA) and the British Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) for public disclosure. The information revealed many global surveillance programs run by the NSA and by the "Five Eyes" alliance of US, British, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand electronic intelligence and surveillance agencies. http://sputniknews.com/analysis/20151230/1032476128/pentagon-whistleblowers-crackdown.html Best Comment to WikiLeaks Stanely Cohen, Lawyer US Political Activist Source | Stanley Cohen Law ---------------------- ꕤ ---------------------- COMMENT The Americans weren't merely 'embarrassed' by the leaks attributed to Chelsea Manning:  US and allied war crimes were exposed. Therefore the Americans would be adjusting their military legislation to ensure that currently undisclosed (and future) US military war crimes remain hidden from public knowledge and that wrongful deeds remain immune from consequences such as the threat of prosecution, following potential whistleblower exposure. Summary notes re US military law: US Military Law Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) (1950) Link | Post COLLATERAL MURDER WikiLeaks VIDEO | IRAQ (2010) | here WikiLeaks A U S T R A L I A N JOURNALIST JULIAN ASSANGE POLITICAL PRISONER BRITAIN https://govwaste.co.uk/ SUPPORT Justice4Assange WikiLeaks Site WikiLeaks Twitter BOOK:  The WikiLeaks Files (2015) Link | here Uh-oh ... once I get onto the large fonts, they keep getting bigger and bigger.      lol ꕤ

State Crimes, Secrecy, Lies & Whistleblowers

ꕤ Article SOURCE https://consortiumnews.com/2015/12/02/global-angst-over-us-secrecy-fetish/ Global Angst over US Secrecy Fetish December 2, 2015 With the reach of U.S. surveillance now global – and with the U.S. military deployed all over the world – anger at President Obama’s unprecedented crackdown on whistleblowers who disclose the U.S. government’s abuses and crimes has gone international, as this Norwegian opinion piece by Victor Wallis shows. By Victor Wallis The more extreme the crimes of state, the more the state seeks to shroud them in secrecy. The greater the secrecy and the accompanying lies, the more vital becomes the role of whistleblowers – and the more vindictive becomes the state in its pursuit of them. Whistleblowers are people who start out as loyal servants of the state. Their illusions about the state’s supposed moral agenda – and the wholeheartedness of their own patriotic commitment – make them all the more shocked when they discover evidence of the state’s wrongdoing. Given the extreme concentration of weaponry (as well as surveillance capabilities) in the hands of the state, and given the disposition of the state to apply such resources even against nonviolent mass movements, the type of defection practiced by whistleblowers – an option available to military and intelligence operatives at all levels – is crucial to any eventual triumph of popular forces over the ruling class. Whistleblowers thus not only embarrass the government, disrupt its policies, and (assuming adequate diffusion) educate the citizenry; they also are harbingers of a broader crumbling of the capitalist state and the order it defends. Acting largely in isolation and at great risk to themselves, they embody the conviction – or at least the hope – that basic decency has a more universal grounding than does any possible scheme of oppression. Whistleblowing’s principal near-term function is educational. It demonstrates the undemocratic character of the regime whose secrets it lets out; it is thus an essential redient of investigative journalism. The documents it brings to light reach the public through those who practice such journalism, whom the government then threatens with prosecution unless they disclose their sources. The novelty of Wikileaks is that it provided a new form of protection for the anonymity of sources. This, together with the facility of electronic transmission, has made the potential for disclosure greater than ever before. It accounts for the extraordinary fact that the U.S. government has been pursuing draconian charges against someone who not merely is only the recipient rather than the “leaker” of sensitive information, but someone who is not even a citizen or resident of the United States – Julian Assange. Disclosure is particularly embarrassing when it documents the fact that government officials have lied. The Director of Central Intelligence lied under oath to the U.S. Congress – a felony for which he was never prosecuted – when he denied that the National Security Agency monitors the communications of the entire U.S. population. This lie was the culminating event in Edward Snowden’s decision to blow the whistle. As we all know, of course, it is Snowden who was then criminalized by the government. This parallels the experience of John Kiriakou, who publicly confirmed, on the basis of his first-hand knowledge, that the CIA practiced torture by waterboarding. Kiriakou then became the only government official to be prosecuted and imprisoned in connection with CIA and military practices of torture. The debate over whistleblowers reached tens of millions of viewers when the presidential candidates of the Democratic Party were asked (on Oct. 13) their views about Snowden. Hillary Clinton falsely asserted that he could have used established channels to transmit his disclosures of excessive surveillance, presumably at no risk to himself. This claim is refuted by the experience of previous whistleblowers who had taken just that approach. One of them, Thomas Drake, retold his story two days later, at a news conference ignored by most of the corporate media (video), which was organized on behalf of yet another whistleblower, Jeffrey Sterling, who recently began a 42-month prison term on a conviction of “espionage.” What Sterling had done was report to the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence about a counterproductive CIA attempt (in 2000) to feed misleading technological data to Iranian scientists. What he was prosecuted for was his subsequent conversations with New York Times journalist James Risen, although no evidence was available as to the content of those conversations, since Risen refused to testify. Sterling’s story is recounted in a letter from his wife, seeking presidential clemency from Obama. Sterling had been fired from the CIA in 2002 after filing a complaint against the agency for racial discrimination (an episode on which Risen wrote a news story). After Risen’s book State of War (2006) came out, the FBI raided Sterling’s home, but it was not until more than four years later – under President Obama – that he was arrested (2011). The latest whistleblower, who documents the “normalization of assassination” via drone warfare, is wisely seeking to remain anonymous. The U.S. government will surely take all possible steps to track him down. The work of whistleblowers, as well as their personal safety, is obviously an issue that cuts across national borders. Support for U.S. whistleblowers will need to be as global as the reach of the policies and the weapons that they expose. Victor Wallis is managing editor of the journal Socialism and Democracy. [This is the original text of a column (written on Oct. 20) posted on the Norwegian website radikalportal.no.] https://consortiumnews.com/2015/12/02/global-angst-over-us-secrecy-fetish/ ---------------------- ꕤ ---------------------- COMMENT A Canadian archive: http://www.cjfe.org/snowden contains published Snowden documents. Archive also contains US government published documents, as an aid to understanding the leaked documents. It's an archive of approximately 400 documents, which figure presumably also includes the accompanying USG documents, intended as explanatory information. That would be 400 released documents or less, out of an estimated 50,000 documents that were reportedly turned over by whistleblower Snowden. Sitting on almost 50,000 'freed' documents that ought to be in the public domain, seems more like minding an archive of protected (and closed to the public) information  than whistleblower publishing. The 'leaked' information middleman dole-out approach doesn't appeal to me at all. RT News Despite calls from Congress to fire Director of National Intelligence James Clapper for lying under oath, United States President Barack Obama says that the spy chief should have just been a little more careful with his words. Clapper, the 72-year-old retired Air Force lieutenant general in charge of the nation's intelligence departments, caused a commotion last year when he was caught lying during sworn testimony delivered to the Senate. ... Clapper claimed that the National Security Agency does “not wittingly” collect and store data on American people. When former contractor Edward Snowden proved him wrong through leaked NSA documents weeks later, though, Clapper was forced to take back his words. CONTINUED https://www.rt.com/usa/obama-dni-clapper-lie-485/ While on the subject of surveillance etc, I thought this commenter had a point: The Age Paradoxically, if governments weren't illegally monitoring law-abiding citizens then there'd probably be no serious market for encryption - why bother hiding when nobody's looking (at your personal data?) Other than those committing cyber crimes perhaps, who would therefore stand out like the proverbial canine testicles. 'mutt' December 02, 2015, 6:25AM TheAge - here ꕤ

'Is Obama the Worst President Ever?'

SOURCE http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/09/03/is-obama-the-worst-president-ever/ September 3, 2015 Is Obama the Worst President Ever? by Dave Lindorff Obama is on track to go down in history as one of the, or perhaps as the worst and most criminal presidents in US history. He started out, campaigning in 2008, as someone would would restore the rule of law in US international affairs and here at home after eight years of criminality during the Bush and Cheney administration, as saying he would end America’s wars and bring back an era of international cooperation and negotiation, and as saying that he would confront the dire threat of global climate change. On the basis of that promise, he won a dramatic election victory, raising hopes across the country and across many voting blocks. On that basis, he was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize — the first time the award was given before anything had been done by the laureate being honored. And on the basis of that promise, people expected action on climate change. Instead, the president began backpedaling almost instantly. Instead of restoring the rule of law, he almost immediately announced that he would not permit his Justice Department to engage in any prosecutions of CIA, FBI, military of Bush/Cheney administration personnel for violations of international law or of US law. He introduced new secrecy rules, launched a record number of prosecutions of government whistleblowers, including an international manhunt to arrest or kill NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden which included the forcing down of a presidential aircraft carrying the president of Bolivia, wrongly suspected of flying Snowden from Russia to that Latin American country, and a secret espionage indictment against Wikileaks founder Julien Assange, who has thus been trapped for years in the little UK embassy of Ecuador which has granted him asylum. And most egregiously, Barack Obama, sabotaged the first international meeting on climate change held in Denmark, and has ducked every opportunity to have the US lead on reaching an international agreement to seriously reduce global carbon emissions. During the three Congressional electoral cycles and his re-election campaign in 2012, Obama studiously avoided pressing on any of these key issues, and especially on climate change. His position: “all of the above”, for energy development, has seen the US move, not towards carbon emission reductions, but towards expanded production of gas, oil and even coal extraction, making the US the largest oil producer in the world, and a major provider of dirty coal to both US electric companies and large coal using countries abroad, including China. Now we have this flimflam artist up in Alaska, talking about the crisis he has helped worsen, calling it an existential issue. And yet even as he speaks, the Shell Oil Company is towing a giant oil drilling rig up to the Arctic Ocean, thanks to an Obama administration permit, to begin drilling for oil in the shallow waters north of Alaska — drilling for yet more oil, that is, even as the world is facing a glut of the stuff, in a delicate region that would be devastated by a well blow-out, because ice would make containment an impossibility. Future generations of Americans will surely look back at President Obama as not just a con-man, but as someone who blew several trillion dollars on continued wars around the globe, as someone who terminally destroyed the Bill of Rights and the Constitution, instead of rescuing these documents as promised, and as the president who, when given the last real opportunity to reverse climate change, ducked the challenge and pandered to the corporations that selfishly wanted short-term gain over long-term survival for humanity and the biosphere. There are plenty of other criminal acts by this president to consider. On his watch, this first African-American president allowed an increased national police to become a fully-armed occupying army across the country. No American today is safe from abusive police who make up crimes and ignore the law at will, but paying a uniquely terrible price are African-Americans and other people of color, who once gave this president 90% of their votes or more, but who now are being gunned down with a grim regularity by mostly white cops who fire at the slightest provocation, even at unarmed kids. On his watch too, young children, fleeing US-caused gang violence in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and elsewhere in Latin America, have been sent back to their home countries illegally, or held in prisons in this country in violation of direct court orders. He also ordered his Justice Department not to prosecute the criminal bankers who willfully destroyed the US and the global economy to profit themselves and their institutions. This president, let’s be clear, has not just been incompetent and gutless. He has been a slick political fraud and both a common and a Constitutional criminal. In a just nation of engaged citizens, Obama would already have been impeached for any number of serious crimes, beginning with the failure to prosecute known war criminals of the Bush/Cheney administration, including the president and vice-president themselves. That’s not going to happen, because this is not a just nation of engaged citizens. But there will be a reckoning. History will judge this president harshly, as it has judged criminal leaders of the past, from Rome’s Nero to Italy’s Mussolini or Uganda’s Idi Amin. It may strike some as hyperbole to put President Obama in league with such universally acknowledged monsters as these, but when human beings begin dying by the millions because of climate-change caused famines, floods, droughts and international armed conflicts we will surely look back at the actions and inactions of this particular president, who had the opportunity to make a huge difference and chose not just to do nothing, but to make things worse, and will say his crimes perhaps exceeded theirs. Dave Lindorff is a founding member of ThisCantBeHappening!, an online newspaper collective, and is a contributor to Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion (AK Press). SOURCE http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/09/03/is-obama-the-worst-president-ever/ ---------------------- ꕤ ---------------------- What stood out for me: USA refuses to prosecute CIA, FBI, military [or] Bush/Cheney administration personnel for violating US or international law. Obama admin: = violated & continues to violate the Bill of Rights and the Constitution Obama admin: allowed militarised police to become a fully-armed occupying army across USA "No American today is safe from abusive police who make up crimes and ignore the law at will" Obama admin: introduced new secrecy rules Obama admin: launched a record number of prosecutions of whistleblowers Obama admin: engaged in international manhunt for whistleblower Edward Snowden Obama admin: forced down of a presidential aircraft carrying the president of Bolivia (wrongly suspected of flying Snowden from Russia to Bolivia} Obama admin: initiated a secret espionage indictment against WikiLeaks founder, journalist-publisher, Julian Assange (trapped for 5 years in the confines of UK embassy of Ecuador, which has granted him political asylum) Obama admin: =  ordered his Justice Department not to prosecute criminal bankers who destroyed the US & global economy for own profits Obama admin: = blew several trillion dollars on continued wars around the globe Obama admin: = pandered to corporations out for short-term gain over long-term effects on environment Obama admin: = expanded production of gas, oil and even coal extraction making the US the world's largest oil producer Thanks to Obama admin: USA = a major provider of dirty coal to both US electric companies + large coal using countries abroad, incl. China. Thanks to Obama admin: Shell Oil Company = towing a giant oil drilling rig up to the Arctic Ocean (Obama administration permit, to begin drilling for oil in the shallow waters north of Alaska) ꕤ ꕤ