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 "It may be that the law was outdated and didn't include ‘cybercrime," Kiriakou said.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

Totalitarian Evil Empire, USA

TOTALITARIAN EVIL EMPIRE ASSANGE & MANNING SUPPORTER SURVEILLANCE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION / SEC STATE CLINTON - DODGED F.O.I VICE News ran the Hillary Clinton by-passes FOI story.   Here Is the State Department’s First 'Official' Release of a Hillary Clinton Email https://news.vice.com/article/here-is-the-state-departments-first-official-release-of-a-hillary-clinton-email Maybe VICE are going to back the Republicans this election?  Or maybe that evil old bat isn't going to be a popular candidate with anybody, if she's running for office. Check out what a loathsome individual this woman is: Hillary Clinton:   "We came, we saw, he died ... [laughter]" 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. CBS exposes Hillary Clinton's lies:  'sniper fire' Bosnia 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.  NOAM CHOMSKY - NATO Bombing Serbia 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. Nobody deserves to die like Gaddafi did, and the US has no right to bomb sovereign European or African nations. Only a sick and twisted individual would lie and find brutal murder amusing. Of course, a sick and twisted USA also 'excuses' itself and gives itself the right to commit genocide (see Chomsky video above). Anyway, Killary's been using private e-mail for State business, which is a US federal law no-no, because State business needs to be archived on government servers to enable public access. Hillary Clinton has a pattern of lying & denying public scrutiny: I had also informed Hillary that the Douglas impeachment files were available for public inspection in the committee offices. She later removed the Douglas files without my permission and carried them to the offices of the impeachment inquiry staff-where they were no longer accessible to the public. [Jerry Zeifman] VICE 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. Among the private e-mails is a communication concerning a DoJ subpoena issued to Twitter -- yep, Twitter, for f*ck's sake (lol) -- concerning information about Assange and 'certain individuals' who support Assange and Manning. On the basis of Hillary Clinton's history of unethical conduct in relation to matters of State and public interest, as disclosed by Jerry Zeifman, Hillary Clinton's use of private e-mail in relation to the Manning and Assange matters sure smacks of something dirty going on in the US State Department. That aside, that the US State Department is harassing people on social media and encroaching on their lives (wherever they may be), irrespective of their right to privacy, freedom of expression, and a right to political freedom, demonstrates beyond any doubt that the United States really is an Evil Empire. Everything they claim to represent - 'freedom', 'democracy', 'the people' and the rest of propaganda for the gullible - is, of course, an outright lie. United States is an evil, totalitarian, empire run by criminals. 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. 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. FLASHBACK: Hillary Clinton Fired From Watergate Investigation For ‘Lying, Unethical Behavior’ Excerpted from EO-History: The now-retired general counsel and chief of staff of the House Judiciary Committee, who supervised Hillary when she worked on the Watergate investigation, says Hillary’s history of lies and unethical behavior goes back farther – and goes much deeper – than anyone realizes. Jerry Zeifman, a lifelong Democrat, supervised the work of 27-year-old Hillary Rodham on the committee. Hillary got a job working on the investigation at the behest of her former law professor, Burke Marshall, who was also Sen. Ted Kennedy’s chief counsel in the Chappaquiddick affair. When the investigation was over, Zeifman fired Hillary from the committee staff and refused to give her a letter of recommendation – one of only three people who earned that dubious distinction in Zeifman’s 17-year career. Why? “Because she was a liar,” Zeifman said in an interview last week. “She was an unethical, dishonest lawyer. She conspired to violate the Constitution, the rules of the House, the rules of the committee and the rules of confidentiality.” How could a 27-year-old House staff member do all that? She couldn’t do it by herself, but Zeifman said she was one of several individuals – including Marshall, special counsel John Doar and senior associate special counsel (and future Clinton White House Counsel) Bernard Nussbaum – who engaged in a seemingly implausible scheme to deny Richard Nixon the right to counsel during the investigation. Why would they want to do that? Because, according to Zeifman, they feared putting Watergate break-in mastermind E. Howard Hunt on the stand to be cross-examined by counsel to the president. Hunt, Zeifman said, had the goods on nefarious activities in the Kennedy Administration that would have made Watergate look like a day at the beach – including Kennedy’s purported complicity in the attempted assassination of Fidel Castro. [...]  Zeifman says that Hillary, along with Marshall, Nussbaum and Doar, was determined to gain enough votes on the Judiciary Committee to change House rules and deny counsel to Nixon. And in order to pull this off, Zeifman says Hillary wrote a fraudulent legal brief, and confiscated public documents to hide her deception. EXTRACT ONLY - FULL AT SOURCE http://patdollard.com/2013/05/flashback-hillary-clinton-fired-from-watergate-investigation-for-lying-unethical-behavior-conspiracy-to-violate-the-constitution/ No way known can anybody expect to get justice in USA - ever. "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." George Santayana It may help you to remember this bit of history regarding Hillary Rodham Clinton.... Of course, Nixon’s resignation rendered the entire issue moot, ending Hillary’s career on the Judiciary Committee staff in a most undistinguished manner. Zeifman says he was urged by top committee members to keep a diary of everything that was happening. He did so, and still has the diary if anyone wants to check the veracity of his story. Certainly, he could not have known in 1974 that diary entries about a young lawyer named Hillary Rodham would be of interest to anyone 34 years later. But they show that the pattern of lies, deceit, fabrications and unethical behavior was established long ago – long before the Bosnia lie, and indeed, even before cattle futures, Travelgate and Whitewater – for the woman who is still asking us to make her president of the United States. EXTRACT ONLY - FULL AT SOURCE http://www.eohistory.info/2013/hillaryHistory.htm Source:  sodahead.com 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. VIDEO LINKS Hillary Clinton:  "We came, we saw, he died ... [laughter]" https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=FmIRYvJQeHM CBS exposes Hillary Clinton Bosnia 'sniper fire' lies https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=8BfNqhV5hg4 NOAM CHOMSKY - NATO Bombing Serbia https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=oiMD7BghkVo

Chelsea Manning - Birthday (17 December)

USA Whistleblower CHELSEA MANNNING HAPPY BIRTHDAY Born: December 17, 1987 (age 27 years) http://manningfamilyfund.org/ http://pardon.privatemanning.org/ https://twitter.com/savemanning http://www.amnesty.org/en/appeals-for-action/chelseamanning

CIA Torture Report

CIA TORTURE REPORT What to do when too scattered to immerse oneself in social media escapism? Well, try to sleep.  Try, try and try again.  And if that fails, go play with the blog ... Hey, the CIA Torture Report is out - here (PDF - 525 pages) - finally published 9 December 2014. I'll forever associate CIA torture and the report with Obama's fairly ho-hum, casual: "We tortured some folks" The report's whittled down & heavily censored.  But what I read of the highlights 'most gruesome moments' (DailyBeast) (see also Guardian)  was enough to make me quite angry and disgusted. The treatment of the man that froze to death on the floor, naked and chained is beyond belief. Torture of people isn't something we usually give much thought to.  It's in the realm of maybe action-thriller movies and something we perhaps ever so vaguely figure 'might' happen in the underbelly of real life or, if we're pressed to stop to think about it, may have cynically shrugged and thought, yeah, bound to happen in some nasty underworld. But even if we could vaguely conceive of people maybe getting tortured in the course of lifestyle choices, such as a life of crime or a path of political dissidence, it would not enter our heads that agents of  democratic governments would subject living, captive, beings to torture -- and subject them to excesses of brutal torture repeatedly -- over the course of weeks of life-threatening and soul-destroying abuse. The 'enhanced interrogation' the US dished up to captives is reminiscent of torture harking back to Nazi Germans or the torture perpetrated by psychopathic sadists getting off on controlling and debasing helpless victims (which is, thankfully, quite rare among the general public, but maybe common among the CIA and cohorts by the look of things). So here we have representatives of the American state -- the symbol of the 'free, democratic world' -- sexually violating captives and subjecting them to insane, prolonged torture and even death, while America's preaching freedom, democracy, peace and moral superiority ... often at the point of a gun. That US allies were complicit in this violation of human rights and of international laws (they apparently only pay lip service to) is just as disgusting, mind-boggling and demoralising. Source:  Open Societies Foundations The above map is from the Open Societies Foundation Report -  'Globalising Torture: CIA Secret Detention & Extraordinary Rendition 2013 - here [PDF - 216 Pages]. Extraordinary Rendition:  abduction & extra-judicial transfer of persons from one country to another Just having a quick look at 'Globalising Torture', I note that Australia rates a mention because an Australian national went through the rendition and torture mill (2001-2005) before being released with no charge and finally getting an undisclosed settlement from the Australian government in 2010. The Australian government put on a bit of a show afterwards with an 'inquiry'.  But this was essentially the government investigating itself and (unsurprisingly) no wrongdoing was found. Nor did they find evidence of involvement of Australian officials: The inquiry seemingly did not investigate the statements of an Egyptian intelligence officer who alleged the involvement of Australian officials in Habib’s detention in Egypt, with Thom claiming that Habib did not provide the inquiry with a copy of the statements. The ECHR ordered Poland to pay restitution to abductees who were taken to a CIA black site in Poland & tortured.  Poland had denied culpability and had been planning to appeal the court's decision: In July 2014 the European Court of Human Rights condemned the government of Poland for participating in CIA extraordinary rendition, ordering Poland to pay restitution to men who had been abducted, taken to a CIA black site in Poland, and tortured.   Poland is appealing the decision. [wikipedia] But the cat's out of the bag now:  RT News reports that Poland had received hush money to host CIA prisons and that former President Aleksander Kwasniewski confirmed hosting CIA black sites (but had denied authorising torture).   Oh, and Poland was pissed that the US can't keep a secret.  Ah, well, you get that.  No honour among thieves (or violators). Anyway, there's 54 countries in the 'Globalising Torture' report and:  Russia's not in it!   Bring out the dancing girls & play the can-can. Moving away from the dancing girls and getting back to the subject of torture, this is some interesting information about US government funding of countries that commit torture: TOP 10 - USA AID COUNTRIES - THAT COMMIT TORTURE: 1. Israel – $3.1b 2. Afghanistan – $2.2b 3. Egypt – $1.6b 4. Pakistan – $1.2b 5. Nigeria – $693m 6. Jordan – $671m 7. Iraq – $573m 8. Kenya – $564m 9. Tanzania – $553m 10. Uganda -$456m Source:   http://leftfootforward.org/2014/01/top-ten-us-aid-recipients-all-practice-torture/ Having had a quick look at the CIA Torture Report (which I haven't read in full), the first thing I noticed was the eye-watering $81 million (plus $1 million legal indemnity) paid by the USG to the 'brains' of the torture program (which I'm pretty sure I could have devised for waaay less that fee).  What an obscene amount of taxpayer money to disburse on torturing, sexually violating and freezing people.  Oh, and I left out 'rectal feeding' or 'rectal rehydration'.  It is basically an enema -- an infusion of liquid poured into the rectum.  Liquid or ... liquefied food in the case of CIA-style 'rectal rehydration': One CIA cable released in the report reveals that detainee Majid Khan was administered by enema his “‘lunch tray’ consisting of hummus, pasta with sauce, nuts and raisins was ‘pureed and rectally infused’”. One CIA officer’s email was in the report quoted as saying “we used the largest Ewal [sic] tube we had”.  [Guardian] Daily Caller running a headline 'Former CIA Director Michael Hayden Says Rectal Feeding Not Torture, It's a Medical Procedure'.  Guess they need to have a look at the Guardian article above.  Far from 'medical' the way CIA goons applied it.  Shame on Daily Caller 'Crapper'  (hey, that's kinda apt given the subject).   Would you believe Hayden tried to deny it was a rectal procedure: Blitzer: Is that rectal though? Hayden: No, it’s not. And I’m not prepared to tell you why one method was chosen ... Wonder if the paper's having a quiet lend of us in that article ... or are Americans really, really, dumb and likely to fall for the comedic denials? Well, that's the long awaited CIA Torture Report.   I've not read either of reports in full yet or paid very close attention to the articles, but I may go back and check things out more thoroughly.  Notice the US media is big on repeating "Torture Is Not An American Value" ('TINAAV').  That's a distancing thing (that's not America, that's those bad, bad torture progam tailors).  It's also a positive spin thing in the headlines.  TINAAV repeated thousands of times in the media provides a counterbalance to 'CIA Torture Report Sparks World Outrage' [Sky Australia] type reporting.  That's my take on it, but I'm no media expert, so you might think otherwise. There's probably thousands of things that could be said.  OK, I'm exaggerating.  There are things that ought to be said in this post.  But I'm not sure I could be bothered (I'm just a blogger for fun).  And I'm running out of steam having done yet another all-nighter without sleep. Should probably point out that the report from Open Societies Foundations looks pretty good and is rather a surprising contribution to have come across, because I've been very suspicious of anything NGO related and anything associated with George Soros, as I see NGOs as instruments of influence and 'take-over'. Oh, now I remember what I wanted to say:  the CIA Torture Report will not change a thing.   Nobody is calling for military, political & economic leadership of Nazi Germany America to be held to account and tried before an international court of law. So, it will be business as usual for the US and for countries within the US sphere of influence (and we're taking over 50 countries involved in these CIA torture activities at last count in 2013). It's also worth mentioning that this is why we should make every effort to protect and support whistle-blowers (Bradley/Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden) and journalists and publishers (Julian Assange & WikiLeaks) who have taken enormous personal risk, and taken on world powers (yep, USA and friends, the same guys that were involved in kidnap, unlawful deportation and torture),  to disclose the truth of government wrongdoing and cover-up. That over 50 governments have joined the US in criminal activity in violation of international laws should ring alarm bells like crazy.  That, and the fact that anybody can be grabbed off the street in a democracy, and shipped off for USA torture anywhere in the world. It should also concern those who have watched their government clamp down on the free press and watched in dismay as governments rushed through laws that infringe on civil liberties, justified in the name of 'national security' and 'war on terror' (or merely European Union cohesion, in the case of the European Arrest Warrant) by governments that clearly cannot be trusted to adhere to principles of justice and democracy. The CIA Torture Report ought to be an impetus for voters to demand transparent and accountable government. -----------------    Freedom & democracy eroded by infringements on: * right to freedom from mass surveillance;  * right to privacy;  * right to freedom of information; * right to freedom from government censorship * right to open, public trials;  * right to presumption of innocence; * right to freedom from extradition without evidence; * right to transparent government;  * right to accountable government.  [Excuse any typos.  No sleep.  Very tired.]