Assange.

 

        An appeal on behalf of Julian Assange and whistle blowers in general. The state will always try to silence those who try to tell the truth about the state's illegal actions in an attempt to lull the public into believing the state is squeaky clean and a benevolent institution. It is very important the we protect those brave individuals who make public the foul actions of the state.

       I’m writing to you on the ignominious anniversary of the day the first detainees arrived at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in January 2002. Twenty-one years later, no one responsible has been held accountable for this legal black hole, where men were held without charge, counsel, or judicial review until the Supreme Court forced a modicum of due process.
       With tragic irony, it is Julian Assange ⁠— who published the documents that exposed the extrajudicial practices and government lies ⁠— who has been in Belmarsh Prison (widely known as “The British Guantanamo”) for nearly four years, after the seven years of detention in the Ecuadorian embassy.
       I write to invite you to join me on January 20th, when I will be testifying before the fourth sitting of the Belmarsh Tribunal.

           Inspired by the Russell-Sartre Tribunals of the Vietnam War, the Belmarsh Tribunal brings together a range of expert witnesses — from constitutional lawyers, to acclaimed journalists and human rights defenders — to present evidence of this attack on publishers and their sources, and to seek justice for the crimes they expose.
         The First Amendment — and the life of Julian Assange — are at stake. Join us in person or online.

In solidarity,

 

Jesselyn Radack
Director
Whistleblower & Source Protection Program (WHISPeR)
ExposeFacts

Twitter: @JesselynRadack

              DONATE NOW

WHISPeR Project at ExposeFacts 1717 K Street, NW Suite 900 Washington, DC 20006 USA Donate by mail 

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info 

Ground Hog Day.

     So Trump wins, so one figure head of a corrupt corporate regime is replaced by another. He will of course carry out the dictate of the all powerful corporate military industrial complex that is the power in America, just as previous presidents before him have done. He may get some sweeties and toys thrown to him, just to keep him happy at the end of his leash. Remember all the yeeha and wooping, the cry "change has come" at the election of Obama, but the wars continued, the bombings went on, and the drone assassinations actually increased, Guantanamo Bay is still there, and the American people still got poorer. America continued to interfere in the internal affairs of sovereign states across the planet, shaping and moulding them to suit its economic plans. What do you expect to change, America has been, and still is, a powerful imperialist bully and will continue to behave like one. Iraq, Libya and Syria were public beatings of three sovereign nations that were not playing ball to the rules of the American economic policy. Others will suffer the same fate if they walk the same path. You can put a field mouse or a wolf in The White House, and America will continue to be the imperialist tyrant that it always has been.

      Our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media always play elections up as something momentous, the possibility that the people are going to create some great change, your vote counts is the cry, and after all the hullabaloo, things go on in the usual capitalist/imperialist manner.  The people get screwed, the rich get richer, wars continue to suit the rationale of the biggest bully in town. One thing we can all be sure of, Mr. Trump will come out of this much richer than he went in, that will be the only real change to our Ground Hog Day. 

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

 

The State's Justice Machine, Guantanamo Bay.

        I doubt if there is anyone in the developed world today who doesn't know of Guantanamo Bay, who doesn't know of the brutal injustice that emanates from its walls. Guantanamo Bay epitomises the brutal authority of the state, it is the states final answer to resistance, justice put in the hands of the military. No civil courts, no due process, no public scrutiny, simply brutal military rule. It is fourteen years since its creation, fourteen years of secret brutality beyond the prying eyes of the public, a state gone mad with authority.

       Obama came to power seven years ago with the promise that he would close this abomination, his reign at the helm of the world's biggest empire has accounted for 7 years of overseeing Guantanamo Bay, 50% of its time in existence. He leaves office in approximately one year, and it looks like he will leave the rod of empire, and the keys of Guantanamo Bay to the next emperor. I have no doubt that this symbol of repression and brutality will continue to stand, belching out its foul stench of state authority and human degradation, for as long as the powers that be think they can get away with this, their weapon of choice.

       This video is distressing, but as far as we know accurate.

This from Code Pink:

       “Despite the rhetoric saying he would close Guantanamo as almost the first act of his Presidency, President Obama has had clay feet from the beginning. He has refused to take actions to actually close the prison. Let's remember: seven of the 14 years that these men have languished in Guantanamo have been under Obama.
        “Don't let President Obama blame others. A reluctant Pentagon is no excuse. Obama is Commander in Chief. The fault is not in the stars, but with him. One day of unlawful detention is an outrage, 14 years is an abomination. If Obama is to close the prison before he leaves office, he must move to do so NOW.”

–  Michael Ratner, attorney who represented Guantanamo detainees before the US Supreme Court

       TODAY is the fourteenth anniversary of the opening of the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Join us in calling on President Obama to use his executive powers to close down the prison (and return the base to the Cuban people!).

CODEPINK National Coordinator Alli McCracken led the last delegation to Guantanamo, and the 60-person group visited Caimanera – a small town of 11,000 people that abuts the US Naval Base on the southeastern coast of Cuba. The US naval base, they were told, is an illegal occupation of Cuban land that violates the territorial sovereignty of the island. The base sits on a critical part of the bay that would vastly improve the local economy if the land were returned. They believe that the closure of the base is a condition for the full normalization of relations between the two nations.

       It is unconscionable that the prison in Guantanamo remains open 7 years into the Obama presidency. Call on President Obama to make good on his campaign promise to to close the prison TODAY!

        President Obama can’t make up for the last seven years of failed leadership, but he can live up to his campaign promises and finally end this shameful chapter of American history. Please join us to ensure that he does.

Toward a more peaceful world,
Alli, Andrea, Ariel, Chelsea, Janet, Janna, Jodie, Lisa, Medea, Michaela, Michelle, Nancy, Sam and Tighe
P.S. Make sure to sign the petition to see our video of then President-elect Obama promising to close Guantanamo seven years ago today!

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

THE VOICE OF DEMOCRACY!!!

        America is probably the state that shouts loudest about freedom and democracy, it is also the most militarily aggressive state in the world. As far as the latter part of the 20^th and 21^s century goes, it heads the leader-board for shear destructive bombardment, the list of countries bombed by America since the end of the second world war, can only be seen as a charge sheet of some sort of psychopath.

Here is a the list

Afghanistan 1998, 2001- Bosnia 1994, 1995 Cambodia 1969-70 China 1945-46, 1950-53 Congo 1964 Cuba 1959-1961 El Salvador 1980s Korea 1950-53 Guatemala 1954, 1960, 1967-69

Indonesia 1958 Laos 1964-73 Grenada 1983 Iraq 1991-2000s Iran 1987 Kuwait 1991 Lebanon 1983, 1984 Libya 1986, 2011 Nicaragua 1980s

Pakistan 2003, 2006- Palestine 2010 Panama 1989 Peru 1965 Somalia 1993, 2007-08, 2010- Sudan 1998 Vietnam 1961-73 Yemen 2002, 2009- Yugoslavia 1999

    Note that these countries represent roughly one-third of the people on earth. This list does not included the recent drone attacks on Pakistan and other areas.

       On top of the dubious accolade of having bombed approximately one third of the earth's population, beyond its own borders, it wears what can only be seen as the badge of a tyrant and a brutal dictatorship, Guantanamo Bay Camp. No matter how you dress the language, no matter how you shape the description, no matter the legal terminology you dress it in, Guantanamo Bay breaks every moral, ethical and legal code, it breaks all laws of decency and justice, it stands as a citadel to tyranny. Despite the Pope of Hope, the Prince of Peace, Obama's promise in 2008, to close this symbol of lawlessness, today it still stands and functions in the name tyranny. 

Photo from Wikipedia.

A poem written by one of the many unfortunate human beings to be destroyed at Guantanamo Bay.

Death Poem

by Jumah al Dossari (mp3)
Take my blood.
Take my death shroud and
The remnants of my body.
Take photographs of my corpse at the grave, lonely.
Send them to the world,
To the judges and
To the people of conscience,
Send them to the principled men and the fair-minded.
And let them bear the guilty burden before the world,
Of this innocent soul.
Let them bear the burden before their children and before history,
Of this wasted, sinless soul,
Of this soul which has suffered at the hands of the “protectors of peace.”
Jumah al Dossari is a thirty-three-year-old Bahraini who has been in solitary confinement at Guantanamo Bay since the end of 2003 and, according to the U.S. military, has tried to kill himself twelve times while in custody.

ann arky's home.

USA, - MILITARY DICTATORSHIP!!

       Some time today the America Congress will vote on a bill that will increase military control in that country. The legislation would allow the military to arrest and detain indefinitely, without charge, any American citizen it deemed to be a danger to the country. This dictatorship type legislation would circumvent the FBI and other civil law enforcement agencies. If this passes, it will be the final proof that there is no such thing in America, as even a sham of democracy. The state usually justifies such legislation in time of national emergency and war, of course, America is permanently at war, as are all Western capitalist "democracies" so perhaps that is their thinking. What we should be aware of is that if America introduces such legislation you can rest assured the rest of the Western countries will be looking at it with interest. We live under what at best can only be called the illusion of democracy. The brutal slashing of the living standards of most of the people in the developed world, against their wishes, is proof enough of that.

FROM HUMAN RIGHTS FIRST.

         As early as today Congress will vote on the final version of this dangerous defense bill. It then goes to President Obama. This bill threatens both U.S. national security and fundamental American ideals. It would:

• greatly expand the military's role in domestic counterterrorism, sidelining the FBI and local law enforcement;
• authorize the indefinite detention without trial of terrorism suspects, including American citizens; and
• effectively make Guantanamo a permanent prison.

President Obama promised to veto the bill if the final version contained these provisions. Tell President Obama on Twitter to protect our national security and our rights with a veto of the NDAA.

The Secretary of Defense, the Director of National Intelligence, the Director of the FBI, and Obama's Counterterrorism Advisor have publicly expressed opposition to the bill, as have 16 former interrogators and counterterrorism professionals and 26 of the nation's most respected retired military leaders.

Retired four-star Marine Generals Charles C. Krulak and Joseph P. Hoar wrote in a New York Times op-ed that "this budget bill—which can be vetoed without cutting financing for our troops—is both misguided and unnecessary: the president already has the power and flexibility to effectively fight terrorism."

Please act quickly. Tell President @BarackObama @WhiteHouse: Protect #US National Security and #VetoNDAA!

ann arky's home.