Chelsea Manning Again Takes Fall for Defending Public’s Right to Know view post on FAIR.org Image from the “Collateral Murder” video Chelsea Manning disclosed to WikiLeaks. Chelsea Manning was a US Army soldier who released to WikiLeaks Iraq and Afghan war logs, with information on torture and civilian killings, including an airstrike that killed two Reuters correspondents; and diplomatic cables revealing, among other things, a secret deal between the US and Yemen in which the US would bomb the country, and the Yemeni government would claim the attacks. For Manning, these were acts that shocked the conscience, and that US citizens, in whose names they were claimed, should know about. She hoped the release to the media and the public via WikiLeaks would spark “worldwide discussion, debates and reforms.” The military sought a court martial and a life sentence, claiming her disclosure “aided the enemy”; she was eventually sentenced by a military judge to 35 years, but her sentence was commuted by Barack Obama after she had served seven years—still the longest time anyone has served for disclosing classified information to the media. It’s generally understood that Obama recognized that it wasn’t possible to charge WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange, via Manning, without exposing journalists at the New York Times or the Washington Post to prosecution for sharing the same information—not to mention collecting prizes for it. Manning has recently been subpoenaed by a grand jury, widely understood to be attempting a case against Assange, though as a grand jury it’s all very secretive, and asked to testify again about her 2010 public disclosures. She refused, citing the very secretiveness of the process, and noting that she had already testified fully about the reasons for her disclosures, that they were her choices alone, and not solicited by Assange or anyone else. A judge then ordered her incarcerated until she agrees to testify or until the jury is done, which might be 18 months. In 2011, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Juan Méndez called for a ban on solitary confinement because it could amount to torture (UN News, 11/18/11). But Manning isn’t just in prison, she’s in solitary confinement—it’s supposedly not punitive because she won’t help the government make its case; no, it’s “administrative segregation,” generally understood to be for prisoners who might be in danger in the general prison population. US media talk about solitary confinement as though it were like a “time out” for the “worst of the worst”; it’s defined by a UN special rapporteur and others as torture . The isolation of being confined to a cell for 22 hours a day, without access to other people or reading materials,  is known to have harmful psychological impacts. Chelsea Resists!, Manning’s support committee, adds : It bears repeating that while solitary confinement should not be used for anyone, it is especially immoral to place Chelsea in solitary when she has not been accused of, charged with, nor convicted of any new crime. Famed Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg says: It’s a travesty that she has been sent back to jail for refusing to testify to a grand jury. An investigation into Wikileaks for publishing is a grave threat to all journalists rights, and Chelsea is doing us all a service in fighting it. Charlie Savage (New York Times, 3/8/19) mentioned that an effort to prosecute Julian Assange would raise “novel and profound First Amendment issues.” So where is the press corps? A New York Times piece (3/8/19) by Charlie Savage noted that the effort to convict Julian Assange—which is clearly what this is about—would raise “novel and profound First Amendment issues.” And outlets from the Times to CNN to Time magazine wrote single stories noting her re-incarceration. But where are the editorials? Where is the outrage, or even recognition, that someone whose goal was to reveal actions—illegal and unconscionable—being carried out in the US people’s name, and whose revelations led in fact to debate and interrogation of those actions, is once again taking the fall for reporters happy to report those revelations and claim awards for doing so? I can’t find any editorials in US corporate media in support of Manning, or of journalists’ right to inform the public, or of the public’s right to know. As with Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, decades from now, mainstream media will likely speak matter-of-factly about Manning’s contributions as whistleblower. But what matters is what they’re not doing now. Democracy dies in darkness, indeed.

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FOCUS: Rebecca Gordon | How to Make Yourself an Exception to the Rule of Law: John Bolton and Mike Pompeo Defy the International Criminal Court

27 March 19 Folks, We - Really - Need Some Progress on Donations We are looking at really poor fundraising returns. Some of you are going to be offended, but we have to improve on this situation. We need you to help. The time is now to get it done. With urgency. Marc Ash Founder, Reader Supported News Sure, I'll make a donation! Update My Monthly Donation If you would prefer to send a check: Reader Supported News PO Box 2043 Citrus Hts, CA 95611

27 March 19 It's Live on the HomePage Now: Reader Supported News A DESPERATE ATTEMPT TO END THIS FUNDRAISER - We are at 22 days of fundraising for March and we barely raised $15K. In the past, we have raised nearly that much in a single day. I have to do everything in my power to end this fundraiser. We need to you to help. This is “Reader Supported News.” It’s what we do and it works. We need you to turn your attention to the March funding drive. Please. / Marc Ash, Founder Reader Supported News Sure, I'll make a donation! FOCUS: Rebecca Gordon | How to Make Yourself an Exception to the Rule of Law: John Bolton and Mike Pompeo Defy the International Criminal Court Rebecca Gordon, TomDispatch Gordon writes: "What if criminal investigators identified 28 other members of your military unit as having beaten prisoners, tortured them with electric shocks, and water-boarded them? And what if 15 of them actually admitted to those acts? Is that, I ask you, a war crime?" READ MORE Contribute to RSN Update My Monthly Donation

Andy Borowitz | Trump Comes Out Strongly Against Intelligence

31 January 19

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Andy Borowitz | Trump Comes Out Strongly Against Intelligence 

Andy Borowitz, The New Yorker
Borowitz writes: "Using some of his harshest rhetoric in recent memory, President Donald J. Trump came out strongly against intelligence on Wednesday morning."
READ MORE

A former Yemeni prisoner claims Americans were involved in his torture. (photo: Maad El Zikry/AP)

Spencer Ackerman | Detainees Detail American Involvement in Their Torture in Yemen
Spencer Ackerman, The Daily Beast
Ackerman writes: "This is far from the first account of torture inside the Emiratis' prisons in Yemen."
READ MORE

Members of the U.S. military install multiple tiers of concertina wire along the banks of the Rio Grande. (photo: Eric Gay/AP)

Several Thousand More Troops to Be Sent to the Mexico Border
Associated Press
Excerpt: "The U.S. will be sending 'several thousand' more American troops to the southern border to provide additional support to Homeland Security, Acting Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan said Tuesday, providing for the first time new estimates for the next phase of the military aid."
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Senator Bernie Sanders. (photo: Getty)

Bernie Sanders Proposes Estate Tax of Up to 77% for Billionaires
Arit John and Laura Davison, Bloomberg
Excerpt: "Independent Senator Bernie Sanders is proposing to expand the estate tax on wealthy Americans, including a rate of as much as 77 percent on the value of estates above $1 billion."
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Prototypes of border walls in San Diego in October 2017. (photo: Elliot Spagat/AP)

ALSO SEE: Pelosi: No Wall Money in US Border Deal Talks

The National Emergencies Act Was Never Meant for Something Like Trump's Wall
Gerald S. Dickinson, The Washington Post
Dickinson writes: "Trump's threat to declare an emergency is an arguably 'frivolous' and 'partisan' matter unconnected and unrelated to defending the country from an 'essential' problem."
READ MORE

Demonstrators hold signs calling for protection for trans youth. (photo: GLSEN)

Mississippi Lawmakers Propose 'License to Harass' for Transphobic Teachers
Zack Ford, ThinkProgress
Ford writes: "Mississippi lawmakers have proposed new legislation that would ensure teachers cannot be disciplined if they refuse to respect a transgender student's gender identity. This 'license to harass' is the first bill of its kind in the country."
READ MORE

Erin Brockovich. (photo: Getty)

Erin Brockovich Slams Trump Admin Over Plan to Stop Regulating Toxic Chemicals
Tess Bonn, The Hill
Bonn writes: "Environmental activist and consumer advocate Erin Brockovich is slamming the Trump administration over reports that it has decided not to regulate two toxic chemicals commonly found in the public water supply."
READ MORE

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RSN: McCain to Trump: 'We Will Not Torture'

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FOCUS | McCain to Trump: 'We Will Not Torture' 
 
The Daily Beast 
Excerpt: "Arizona Sen. John McCain affirmed that the U.S. will not employ tactics of torture, no matter what President-elect Donald Trump wants to do." 
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Public Didn't See Last Two World Wars Coming Either

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Human Experimentation: a CIA Habit

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World Beyond War Events List: 

Resources with which to create an event.

Calendar of important peace holidays.

June 19-22 in San Francisco: Occupy Action Council Demonstrations at U.S. Conference of Mayors.

June 20 in London, England: End Austerity Now

June 24-28: World Beyond War Panel at U.S. Social Forum in San Jose, Calif., with David Hartsough and Jim Haber

June 25-28: World Beyond War Panel at U.S. Social Forum in Philadelphia, Penn., with Kevin Zeese, Margaret Flowers, and Fran Foulkrod

August 4-22, Black Hills of South Dakota, Satyagraha Institute

August 14-15, New York State, Kateri Peace Conference

August 6 – 9 in Santa Fe, NM: Campaign Nonviolence National Conference(Aug 6 – Mark the 70th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima with the annual sackcloth and ashes peace vigil and call for nuclear disarmament near the National Labs.
Aug 9 – Mark the 70th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Nagasaki with the annual sackcloth and ashes peace vigil and call for nuclear disarmament near the National Labs.)

August 6 in Hiroshima, Japan: “August 6, 2015 will be the 70th anniversary of the bombing [of Hiroshima]. Annually, there are events such as the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony, with guest speakers, and the Lantern Floating Ceremony, in which lanterns float on the river as petitions for peace. Additional special events for the 70th anniversary are to be announced.”

August 9 in Nagasaki, Japan: [August 9, 2015 will be the 70th anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki. Commemoration events are held annually and, as with Hiroshima, it is expected that additional special events for the 70th anniversary are to be announced.]

August 27 Chicago – David Swanson speaking

September 20 – 27: Everywhere: Campaign Nonviolence Week of Actions 2015

October 16-17 in Seoul, Republic of Korea: Stopping the War Business

November – date TBD in Nagasaki, Japan: Annual Pugwash Conference

More nuclear disarmament events here. (Thanks to Joe Scarry!)

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CLG: Donald Trump Campaign Offered Actors $50 to Cheer for Him at Presidential Announcement, Rep. Darrell Issa Escorted Out of Congressional Panel on Benghazi, Nine dead in shooting at black church in Charleston, South Carolina

News Updates from CLG
18 June 2015

http://www.legitgov.org/
All links are here:http://www.legitgov.org/#breaking_news

 

Previous edition: CIA torture appears to have broken spy agency rule on human experimentation

 

Breaking: Nine dead in shooting at black church in Charleston, South Carolina - police | 18 June 2015 | Nine people have died in a shooting at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina, police said early Thursday morning. "I do believe this was a hate crime," Police Chief Gregory Mullen said. Eight people died on the scene at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church and one person was pronounced dead at a hospital, Mullen said. Emanuel is the oldest AME church in the South and is led by South Carolina State Sen. Clementa Pinckney, a Democrat.

 

Bomb threat after mass shooting at historic black church in South Carolina: White gunman shoots at least eight before going on the run --One man has been taken into custody, it is unclear whether he is the gunman; police are still searching for the suspect | 17 June 2015 | A bomb threat was called in Wednesday night to the scene of a mass shooting at an historic African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina. Police responded to the shooting around 9pm at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church in the city's downtown and while there is no information about the victims, eight nine people were reportedly shot. Just hours later, as a heavy police presence remained at the area, a bomb threat was called in at the scene, NBC 12 reports. A huge manhunt ensued with officers wearing bullet-proof vests and carrying guns.

 

Jeb Bush cancels events in Charleston due to church shooting | 18 June 2015 | Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush has canceled campaign events scheduled for Thursday in Charleston, S.C., due to a deadly church shooting there. Aides said after midnight that the former Florida governor would postpone events scheduled for Thursday morning "due to the tragic events unfolding in South Carolina tonight." Bush was scheduled to detail some of his ideas about revamping the U.S. military and American foreign policy during a veterans town hall meeting at the Charleston Maritime Center.

 

NATO says implementing 'biggest' defence boost since Cold War --Big NATO drill is designed to test NATO's Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF), established in the wake of the alliance's September 2014 summit in Wales | 18 June 2015 | NATO head Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday the alliance was implementing its biggest defence [sic] reinforcement since the Cold War, as the region grapples with terrorism and an 'increasingly assertive' Russia. He spoke in Zagan in western Poland while attending the first full exercise of NATO's new rapid reaction force, created to deter Russia from any action against nervous east European allies that were once ruled from governed by Moscow. Around 2,100 soldiers from Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland and the United States have been taking part in the NATO exercise since last week.

 

EU to extend Russia sanctions by six months | 18 June 2015 | EU member states have agreed to extend damaging economic sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine crisis by another six months to the end of January 2016. The agreement by ambassadors from the 28 European Union nations meeting in Brussels will be formalised by foreign ministers from the bloc when they meet next week, officials said on Wednesday. 'EU foreign ministers will finalise the decision in Luxembourg on Monday,' Poland's permanent representative to the EU said on Twitter, while several sources also confirmed the agreement.

 

Moscow will respond to NATO approaching Russian borders 'accordingly' - Putin | 16 June 2015 | If NATO threatens Russia's territories Moscow will respond to the threat accordingly, said President Vladimir Putin. This comes after he announced Russia's strategic forces will be getting over 40 new intercontinental ballistic missiles in 2015. "If someone threatens our territories, it means that we will have to aim our armed forces accordingly at the territories from where the threat is coming. How else could it be? It is NATO that approaching our borders, it's not like we are moving anywhere," Putin said speaking at a joint media conference with Finland's President Sauli Niinisto in Moscow on Tuesday. 

 

Senate passes torture ban despite Republican opposition | 16 June 2015 | Twenty-one Republican senators rejected a ban on the use of cruel and degrading treatment of prisoners on Tuesday, voting against an ultimately successful measure to permanently prevent a repeat of the CIA's once secret and now widely-discredited torture program. The bipartisan amendment reaffirms President Barack Obama's prohibition of interrogation techniques such as waterboarding and sleep deprivation, which were developed by the CIA under the administration of his predecessor, George W Bush. The measure passed in the Senate, 78-21.

 

Justices say it's enough to cite terrorism in declining visa applicant | 15 June 2015 | The Supreme Court [5-4 vote] ruled Monday that the federal government does not owe a naturalized citizen a detailed explanation when it refuses to give her foreign husband an immigration visa. A majority of the court [the usual dirt-bags] said it is enough for the government to declare the immigrant has been denied entry because of terrorism concerns and not list specific allegations that the spouse or applicant can then contest. The five most-consistent conservatives said Fauzia Din cannot prevail in her suit, although they disagreed on the reason. The four liberals said Din's fundamental right to marry required the government to give her more of an explanation for why her Afghan husband cannot join her in the United States.

 

Man allegedly helped plan Texas cartoon contest shooting, wanted to attack Super Bowl | 17 June 2015 | Authorities said Tuesday that a Phoenix man who helped orchestrate a shootout at last month's "Draw Muhammad" event in Texas also had aspirations to join ISIS [I-CIA-SIS] and attack the Super Bowl. Abdul Malik Abdul Kareem, 43, was arrested last week on charges related to the May 3 attack in Garland, Texas that led to the deaths of two roommates from Phoenix. An indictment filed in federal court in Phoenix says Kareem hosted the gunmen in his home beginning in January and provided the guns they used when they attacked security guards outside the event.

 

After-School Supervisor Fired for Explaining Sandy Hook Shooting to Kids During Lockdown Drill | 15 June 2015 | A beloved supervisor of a Long Island after-school program is out of a job after explaining the Sandy Hook school shooting to children during a lockdown drill. Kearns, a former NYPD officer, ran an after-school program for SCOPE Education Services of Suffolk County, CBS2 reported. A new lockdown safety drill was ordered by SCOPE. Kearns, a supervisor for them for 15 years at Dickinson Elementary in East Northport, was asked to run it for 30 children grades 2 to 5. "In the midst of the drill, some of the kids starting laughing.And then one of the children shouted out, 'We are doing this drill because of Sandy Hook'," Kearns told McLogan. [Yes, Sandy Hook was the *original* drill - to give rise to all the others.]

 

South Korea reports 20th MERS death | 17 June 2015 | South Korea Wednesday announced its 20th death from the MERS virus as criticism grew of efforts to contain the outbreak, with alarming reports of new cases slipping through a quarantine that already affects thousands. The health ministry also reported eight new patients including four who had been infected at Samsung Medical Centre in Seoul, considered the epicentre of the outbreak. This took the total number of infections including those who have died to 162, the largest outbreak outside Saudi Arabia.

 

Rep. Darrell Issa Escorted Out of Congressional Panel on Benghazi | 16 June 2015 |Outspoken Republican Congressman Darrell Issa tried to crash a deposition Tuesday on Benghazi, but was promptly escorted out from the closed-door panel on Capitol Hill. Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., the chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, had no qualms about personally kicking out Issa, the former House Oversight Committee chairman. "I'm a prosecutor, we always follow the rules," Gowdy later told NBC News. [To follow news updates on Darrell Issa, etc., follow CLG spin-off account, DarrellIssaSociopath @DIssaSociopath on Twitter. CLG's Twitter account is CLG News @legitgov.]

 

Early-state polls hint at Bernie Sanders surge | 15 June 2015 | In a trio of new polls in early primary states, Hillary Clinton leads Democratic rivals in Iowa, South Carolina and New Hampshire. It's in the Granite State, however, that the former secretary of state's standing is the least rock-solid, according to new polls conducted by Morning Consult. Among Democratic voters who say they will participate in the state's primary next year, 44 percent back Clinton. Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, the self-described democratic socialist from neighboring Vermont, grabs 32 percent.

 

Donald Trump is running for president in 2016 | 16 June 2015 | Billionaire businessman and reality television star Donald Trump officially announced his 2016 presidential candidacy on Tuesday with a promise to do for America what he's always done for himself: nurture the brand. Trump suggested the country is in deep trouble, and that politicians in both parties simply aren't equipped to come to the rescue..."I hear my fellow Republicans, they're wonderful people," he said. "I hear their speeches. And they don't talk jobs. They don't talk China."

 

Donald Trump Campaign Offered Actors $50 to Cheer for Him at Presidential Announcement | 17 June 2015 | Donald Trump's big presidential announcement Tuesday was made a little bigger with help from paid actors -- at 50 a pop. New York-based Extra Mile Casting sent an email last Friday to its client list of background actors, seeking extras to beef up attendance at Trump's event. "We are looking to cast people for the event to wear t-shirts and carry signs and help cheer him in support of his announcement," reads the June 12 email, obtained by The Hollywood Reporter.

 

New $10 bill will feature a woman, Treasury Department announces | 17 June 2015 | Last year in a Kansas City speech, President Obama said he received a letter from a young girl asking why there were no women on American currency...Now, the Obama administration is following through on that idea. The Treasury Department has announced that it's redesigning the 10 bill to feature a woman. "Our democracy is a work in progress. We've always been committed to a more perfect union," Treasury Secretary Jack Lew told reporters Wednesday. "This decision to put a woman on the 10 reflects our aspirations for the future, as much as it is a reflection of the past."

 

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