Showing posts with label Justice Department. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Justice Department. Show all posts

ASSANGE: The US Gov't is Taking on a Generation & Can Only Lose

"Today we have seen a range of extreme, bellicose statements from the US administration, attempting to bully Russia and other nation's from facilitating Mr. Snowden's asylum. Every person has the right to seek and receive political asylum. Those rights are enshrined in the United Nations agreement - of which the United States is a party.

"It is counterproductive and unacceptable for the Obama administration to try and interfere with those rights. It reflects poorly on the US administration and no self-respecting country would submit to such interference, or such bullying by the US."

[Click PLAY for full press teleconference]

"This morning the US Secretary of State called Edward Snowden a "traitor". Edward Snowden is not a traitor. He is not a spy. He is a whistleblower who has told the public and important truth. The US Secretary of State is wrong in law. In US law a 'traitor' must adhere to US enemies and there is also a requirement that the conduct is in congressionally approved war time. Neither of these, feature here.

"The Obama administration was not given a mandate by the people of the United States to attack and spy upon the entire world, to breach the US Constitution, and the laws of other nations in the manner that it has. To now attempt to violate international asylum law by calling for the rendition of Edward Snowden further demonstrates the break down of the rule of law, by the Obama administration ... 

  •  STOP SPYING ON THE WORLD 
  •  ERADICATE 'SECRET-LAW' 
  •  CEASE INDEFINATE DETENTION WITHOUT TRIAL
  •  STOP THE OBAMA ADMINSTRATION'S ASSASINATION PROGRAM 
  •  STOP INVADING OTHER COUNTRIES & STOP SENDING YOUNG AMERICANS OFF TO KILL & BE KILLED 

"It is these problems which are stimulating national security whistleblowers to come forward. If the Obama administration doesn't want government sources to speak to the press, it should stop engaging in conduct which is so outrageous to cause  them to come forward. The charging of Edward Snowden is not a matter of justice. It is an attempt to intimidate any country that might be considering standing up for his right - to tell us all the truth. Such behavior must not be tolerated and will not be tolerated by any self-respecting nation, or by the press at large. Everyone should tell their governments to step forward and to assist Mr. Snowden in his asylum, and the press also has an obligation to do so."

Rolling Stone Takes on Tyranny

 26-year-old Internet activist's tragic suicide 

raises questions about prosecutorial overreach

 By STEVEN HSIEH

January 23, 2013 3:49 PM ET
Aaron Swartz
Aaron Swartz
AP Photo/ThoughtWorks, Pernille Ironside


Hundreds of mourners filled the Great Hall at New York's Cooper Union on January 19th to honor the life of Aaron Swartz, the Internet activist who took his own life earlier this month at age 26.
Swartz was well-known in technology circles for helping develop the RSS web feed format and the popular site Reddit, among other accomplishments. At the time of his death, he was facing 13 felony charges and up to 50 years in prison: Prosecutors had accused him of using MIT's network to download too many scholarly articles from an academic database called JSTOR.
Swartz's friends and family have said they believe he was driven to his death by a justice system that hounded him needlessly over an alleged crime with no real victims. "[He was] forced by the government to spend every fiber of his being on this damnable, senseless trial," his partner Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman said at the memorial, "with no guarantee that he could exonerate himself at the end of it."
Swartz's tragic death has already begun forcing lawmakers to start rethinking our draconian computer laws. And House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-California) even promised an investigation of the Justice Department prosecutors who did their best to send a young Internet pioneer to prison.
Two zealous federal prosecutors handled Swartz's case: U.S. district attorney Carmen Ortiz and assistant attorney Stephen Heymann. In the days after his death, writers, tech experts, and many of Swartz's friends have called out Heymann and Ortiz for prosecutorial overreach. A White House petition demanding the removal of Ortiz garnered well over 25,000 signatures, reaching the level which guarantees an eventual response from the Obama administration.
Some of Swartz's advocates believe the prosecution sought excessive punishment to set an example in the age of Wikileaks and Anonymous.
"This was, in my opinion, part of a coordinated campaign to scare young Internet activists," says Roy Singham, ThoughtWorks chairman and a friend of Swartz.



   8,000 Protesters Arrested 
 Not A Single Banker Indicted [link]


  

BECAUSE GOVERNMENT
is a FAILURE at best

WE ARE HERE